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http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/sheens-rewarded-as-tigers-cubs-learn-how-to-roar-20100313-q55v.html
**Sheens rewarded as Tigers' cubs learn how to roar**
March 14, 2010
After four years of mediocrity, the rebuilding is over for Wests Tigers, writes Josh Rakic.
Like a well-loved HQ Kingswood with 300,000 kilometres on the clock, Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens is a hard one to get started. At first he simply refuses, then teases you for a few seconds before going quiet. But you pull the ''choke'' and slowly but surely he starts to warm up.
It helps when he has two of his closest friends, coaching partners Royce Simmons and Peter Gentle, in the room, too.
''It's not something I'm too happy to admit but our relationship actually goes back almost 30 years now,'' says Simmons, his trademark wry grin in full span as he eyes off the man simply referred to by staff and players alike as ''Coach''.
The nickname is an obvious indication of Sheens's old-school values, his longevity and status in the game, and the respect he commands from everyone from his staff to those lucky enough to steal a handshake from him - let alone a lone scribe sandwiched in between two of the game's modern greats.
In a cramped office wedged under the dated Concord Oval grandstand where you could picture Jack Gibson conjuring up one of his trademark one-liners, ''Coach'' could almost be accused of channelling the game's greatest mentor.
''If I disagree with something and Royce or Pete change my mind, that's fine,'' says the four-time premiership winner. ''If they don't, they'll deliver it they way I want them to deliver it. That's why they're still employed [laughs].''
"But seriously, we have a relationship, the three of us, and I think it works well. We're loyal to each other as staff. It's like players, you don't move someone on if they're doing a good job. You've got to find someone who's doing it a helluva lot better - and I haven't been able to get rid of a couple of blokes here … [laughs].''
At the Wests Tigers, however, it's been more of an issue trying to retain their existing people than headhunt others.
Sheens revealed to The Sun-Herald that for most of his eight-year tenure as Wests Tigers coach he has been restricted to spending just 80 per cent of the salary cap - and a fifth of the players in the top-25 squad are untried juniors.
"The real story will never be known by people - the fan and the media expert,'' Sheens said. ''They just judge what they see on the weekend and they don't see the issues and what the real issues are in the day-to-day running of a football club.
''It goes back to 2005, when he had a number of kids in our system that we'd paid out of our top budget. And we weren't allowed to spend to the limit of our top budget anyway - we didn't have the money.
"The salary cap was $3.6 million and we spent $3 million. And some of that three was spent on kids who weren't playing grade.
"And that's because the really bright ones we had to maintain in the system and we had to pay them money out of our top budget in our salary cap to keep them because we didn't have a budget outside of that.
''Again, because we didn't have the money, we lost young Ryan Hoffman to Melbourne for $70,000 or something relatively small because we didn't have the budget. We didn't have a second-tier budget.''
And while Sheens, Simmons and Gentle refuse to use it as an excuse, there's a strong correlation between the Tigers' lack of experience and premiership finishing positions since their 2005 grand-final upset.
''A lot of our money is spent on our kids, so whenever we've had injury to a key player we haven't had the experienced depth there as a result,'' Sheens says.
''We have never had a veteran to come in and fill in. Some clubs spend $1 million on second-tier alone. We've gone to the 19-year-old who's had one or two good games up in first-grade, but when you lose someone long term, for 10 or 12 weeks, you need a veteran and someone who can handle it. And we have never had that to draw on.
''This year is probably a little bit of an exception to it with Jason Cayless, Liam Fulton, Daniel Fitzhenry and Lote Tuqiri joining last year's squad. And with Farah, Marshall, Gibbs, Heighington and Fulton all approaching 25 years of age and around the 100-game mark, there's an expectation this year that this year has to be a fruition of the past four or five years. That's why we were so disappointed about the Roosters trial [loss] the other week. But I've been around too long to know that the shape of the ball, referees and injuries are the things that change a season.
''But technically, on paper, as a squad, we look OK and we certainly have more depth.
''With what happened last year and the way we finished, I think there's an expectation there.''
The Tigers' top-25 squad is made up of 15 junior products they've fostered in their Cubs or Toyota Cup program - the likes of Tim Moltzen, Chris Lawrence and Blake Ayshford now seasoned first-graders.
IN HIS OWN WORDS . . .
ON THE TIGERS
"We've always had in our top 25 probably five kids, as in apprentices or whatever. To hold them in full-time and keep them from going to other clubs, we've had to keep four or five in our top squad - which has impacted us a bit during the year because when we have injuries they've never been quite ready for first grade and we've not had a strong second tier - until this year. And that's been one of our Achilles heels.''
ON ROBBIE DEANS
"When I left the Cowboys I was looking at getting a job with New Zealand rugby and that's how I met Robbie. It wasn't a high-performance thing, just to coach coaches and dig the eyes out of rugby league and some of the things we did that they wanted to use. Robbie and I stayed in touch … when he got the job here, of course we struck the relationship up strongly again. But before that we would talk with him about coaching things when we were over there and he'd talk to us when he was over here. We talk and have a coffee occasionally.''
ON LOTE TUQIRI
"I did have a chat with Robbie about Lote. He's a pretty athletic guy, Lote, and he keeps himself in shape - he hasn't got [Wendell Sailor's] bucket arse [laughs]. And he's still been playing competitive football. It depends what shape he is in mentally - he hasn't played league for eight years. As a winger, if you give him the ball and there's a half a chance - it doesn't matter which code you're in - I think he's going to be good enough to score. I think it just comes down to defence and some of the language we have in our team that he won't understand. As a finisher, I don't think he'll have a problem.''
**Sheens rewarded as Tigers' cubs learn how to roar**
March 14, 2010
After four years of mediocrity, the rebuilding is over for Wests Tigers, writes Josh Rakic.
Like a well-loved HQ Kingswood with 300,000 kilometres on the clock, Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens is a hard one to get started. At first he simply refuses, then teases you for a few seconds before going quiet. But you pull the ''choke'' and slowly but surely he starts to warm up.
It helps when he has two of his closest friends, coaching partners Royce Simmons and Peter Gentle, in the room, too.
''It's not something I'm too happy to admit but our relationship actually goes back almost 30 years now,'' says Simmons, his trademark wry grin in full span as he eyes off the man simply referred to by staff and players alike as ''Coach''.
The nickname is an obvious indication of Sheens's old-school values, his longevity and status in the game, and the respect he commands from everyone from his staff to those lucky enough to steal a handshake from him - let alone a lone scribe sandwiched in between two of the game's modern greats.
In a cramped office wedged under the dated Concord Oval grandstand where you could picture Jack Gibson conjuring up one of his trademark one-liners, ''Coach'' could almost be accused of channelling the game's greatest mentor.
''If I disagree with something and Royce or Pete change my mind, that's fine,'' says the four-time premiership winner. ''If they don't, they'll deliver it they way I want them to deliver it. That's why they're still employed [laughs].''
"But seriously, we have a relationship, the three of us, and I think it works well. We're loyal to each other as staff. It's like players, you don't move someone on if they're doing a good job. You've got to find someone who's doing it a helluva lot better - and I haven't been able to get rid of a couple of blokes here … [laughs].''
At the Wests Tigers, however, it's been more of an issue trying to retain their existing people than headhunt others.
Sheens revealed to The Sun-Herald that for most of his eight-year tenure as Wests Tigers coach he has been restricted to spending just 80 per cent of the salary cap - and a fifth of the players in the top-25 squad are untried juniors.
"The real story will never be known by people - the fan and the media expert,'' Sheens said. ''They just judge what they see on the weekend and they don't see the issues and what the real issues are in the day-to-day running of a football club.
''It goes back to 2005, when he had a number of kids in our system that we'd paid out of our top budget. And we weren't allowed to spend to the limit of our top budget anyway - we didn't have the money.
"The salary cap was $3.6 million and we spent $3 million. And some of that three was spent on kids who weren't playing grade.
"And that's because the really bright ones we had to maintain in the system and we had to pay them money out of our top budget in our salary cap to keep them because we didn't have a budget outside of that.
''Again, because we didn't have the money, we lost young Ryan Hoffman to Melbourne for $70,000 or something relatively small because we didn't have the budget. We didn't have a second-tier budget.''
And while Sheens, Simmons and Gentle refuse to use it as an excuse, there's a strong correlation between the Tigers' lack of experience and premiership finishing positions since their 2005 grand-final upset.
''A lot of our money is spent on our kids, so whenever we've had injury to a key player we haven't had the experienced depth there as a result,'' Sheens says.
''We have never had a veteran to come in and fill in. Some clubs spend $1 million on second-tier alone. We've gone to the 19-year-old who's had one or two good games up in first-grade, but when you lose someone long term, for 10 or 12 weeks, you need a veteran and someone who can handle it. And we have never had that to draw on.
''This year is probably a little bit of an exception to it with Jason Cayless, Liam Fulton, Daniel Fitzhenry and Lote Tuqiri joining last year's squad. And with Farah, Marshall, Gibbs, Heighington and Fulton all approaching 25 years of age and around the 100-game mark, there's an expectation this year that this year has to be a fruition of the past four or five years. That's why we were so disappointed about the Roosters trial [loss] the other week. But I've been around too long to know that the shape of the ball, referees and injuries are the things that change a season.
''But technically, on paper, as a squad, we look OK and we certainly have more depth.
''With what happened last year and the way we finished, I think there's an expectation there.''
The Tigers' top-25 squad is made up of 15 junior products they've fostered in their Cubs or Toyota Cup program - the likes of Tim Moltzen, Chris Lawrence and Blake Ayshford now seasoned first-graders.
IN HIS OWN WORDS . . .
ON THE TIGERS
"We've always had in our top 25 probably five kids, as in apprentices or whatever. To hold them in full-time and keep them from going to other clubs, we've had to keep four or five in our top squad - which has impacted us a bit during the year because when we have injuries they've never been quite ready for first grade and we've not had a strong second tier - until this year. And that's been one of our Achilles heels.''
ON ROBBIE DEANS
"When I left the Cowboys I was looking at getting a job with New Zealand rugby and that's how I met Robbie. It wasn't a high-performance thing, just to coach coaches and dig the eyes out of rugby league and some of the things we did that they wanted to use. Robbie and I stayed in touch … when he got the job here, of course we struck the relationship up strongly again. But before that we would talk with him about coaching things when we were over there and he'd talk to us when he was over here. We talk and have a coffee occasionally.''
ON LOTE TUQIRI
"I did have a chat with Robbie about Lote. He's a pretty athletic guy, Lote, and he keeps himself in shape - he hasn't got [Wendell Sailor's] bucket arse [laughs]. And he's still been playing competitive football. It depends what shape he is in mentally - he hasn't played league for eight years. As a winger, if you give him the ball and there's a half a chance - it doesn't matter which code you're in - I think he's going to be good enough to score. I think it just comes down to defence and some of the language we have in our team that he won't understand. As a finisher, I don't think he'll have a problem.''
