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Sheen has worn off the Tigers
By Phil Rothfield From: The Daily Telegraph May 18, 2010 12:00AM
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SIX weeks ago the Wests Tigers signed coach Tim Sheens to a new contract. Chief executive Stephen Humphreys was worried about rumours linking him to South Sydney, which is surprising considering Rabbitohs coach John Lang has beaten Sheens an amazing 17 games in a row.
The Tigers are now stuck with a veteran coach who has made the finals only once in his last 13 years in the NRL.
So the question has to be asked. Why did Humphreys go to his board and rush through the Sheens renewal so early in the season?
Sure, the Tigers got off to a blazing start amid all the excitement about Lote Tuqiri and many were even predicting they were capable of winning the premiership.
The fact is they've now lost four straight since Sheens signed the new contract, including the capitulation to South Sydney at the SCG on Sunday.
Some longtime supporters - and I'm including those from Balmain and Western Suburbs - are rating it the most pathetic and pitiful surrender of two competition points in a long and proud history.
Superstar five-eighth Benji Marshall is very close to Sheens - some say too close - and was pushing heavily behind the scenes for the coach to get his new contract.
So too was one of Sheens' longtime mates - a veteran journalist - who was the first to start and write about the rumours of the Test coach having interest from other clubs including the Rabbitohs.
Benji carries huge influence at the Tigers. He used to have an option in his deal that his contract was null and void if Sheens ever left the club. That clause is no longer there but Humphreys is always mindful of not upsetting his biggest name and the man who sells more merchandising than any other player.
Sure, the Tigers have now fined Benji for being late to a recent training session but it was hardly a first offence. Last year he was photographed in a fight at a Kings Cross nightclub in the early hours of a Sunday morning at a time when the rest of the team was abiding by a club booze ban.
And the punishment? Nothing.
No one wanted to upset the superstar player, particularly as they were about to sit down for negotiations to extend his contract.
You see, Benji has always run his own race at the Tigers. The club and its sponsors and fans have been robbed of thousands and thousands of dollars worth of publicity because he refuses to do set-up photographs with this newspaper - even on the eve of big games - since the picture was published of him in Kings Cross when he was supposed to be off the grog.
But back to Sheens and let's look at his record. Sure, he won the 2005 premiership with a team that was about $400,000 under the salary cap. It was without doubt his greatest career triumph.
But take 2005 out of the equation and his record is by far the worst of any coach in the NRL over the past 13 years in making the finals only once in that period.
It's certainly a recent record that didn't warrant Humphreys' rushed extension six weeks ago.
And there can be no excuses about the Tigers being under-resourced in the coaching ranks because no other club that I can recall has ever had three first-grade coaches at the one time in Sheens, Steve Folkes and Royce Simmons.
Coinciding with the Tigers' winless month is the poor form of Benji at five-eighth. In the past four rounds he's made only one linebreak and is averaging only 43 metres per game compared to almost 100 metres a game in the opening five rounds.
It will be interesting to see what Sheens does to get Benji back to his best.
It's hard to be hard on someone who carries so much influence.
By Phil Rothfield From: The Daily Telegraph May 18, 2010 12:00AM
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\
SIX weeks ago the Wests Tigers signed coach Tim Sheens to a new contract. Chief executive Stephen Humphreys was worried about rumours linking him to South Sydney, which is surprising considering Rabbitohs coach John Lang has beaten Sheens an amazing 17 games in a row.
The Tigers are now stuck with a veteran coach who has made the finals only once in his last 13 years in the NRL.
So the question has to be asked. Why did Humphreys go to his board and rush through the Sheens renewal so early in the season?
Sure, the Tigers got off to a blazing start amid all the excitement about Lote Tuqiri and many were even predicting they were capable of winning the premiership.
The fact is they've now lost four straight since Sheens signed the new contract, including the capitulation to South Sydney at the SCG on Sunday.
Some longtime supporters - and I'm including those from Balmain and Western Suburbs - are rating it the most pathetic and pitiful surrender of two competition points in a long and proud history.
Superstar five-eighth Benji Marshall is very close to Sheens - some say too close - and was pushing heavily behind the scenes for the coach to get his new contract.
So too was one of Sheens' longtime mates - a veteran journalist - who was the first to start and write about the rumours of the Test coach having interest from other clubs including the Rabbitohs.
Benji carries huge influence at the Tigers. He used to have an option in his deal that his contract was null and void if Sheens ever left the club. That clause is no longer there but Humphreys is always mindful of not upsetting his biggest name and the man who sells more merchandising than any other player.
Sure, the Tigers have now fined Benji for being late to a recent training session but it was hardly a first offence. Last year he was photographed in a fight at a Kings Cross nightclub in the early hours of a Sunday morning at a time when the rest of the team was abiding by a club booze ban.
And the punishment? Nothing.
No one wanted to upset the superstar player, particularly as they were about to sit down for negotiations to extend his contract.
You see, Benji has always run his own race at the Tigers. The club and its sponsors and fans have been robbed of thousands and thousands of dollars worth of publicity because he refuses to do set-up photographs with this newspaper - even on the eve of big games - since the picture was published of him in Kings Cross when he was supposed to be off the grog.
But back to Sheens and let's look at his record. Sure, he won the 2005 premiership with a team that was about $400,000 under the salary cap. It was without doubt his greatest career triumph.
But take 2005 out of the equation and his record is by far the worst of any coach in the NRL over the past 13 years in making the finals only once in that period.
It's certainly a recent record that didn't warrant Humphreys' rushed extension six weeks ago.
And there can be no excuses about the Tigers being under-resourced in the coaching ranks because no other club that I can recall has ever had three first-grade coaches at the one time in Sheens, Steve Folkes and Royce Simmons.
Coinciding with the Tigers' winless month is the poor form of Benji at five-eighth. In the past four rounds he's made only one linebreak and is averaging only 43 metres per game compared to almost 100 metres a game in the opening five rounds.
It will be interesting to see what Sheens does to get Benji back to his best.
It's hard to be hard on someone who carries so much influence.
