The clubs cooked

Seems Stephano wants out now Galvin wants out !
The fact is Any footballer at the Wests Tigers who is considered good enough to get in to a top 8 club probably wants out .Who doesn't is those who either by age or form would not attract much interest elsewhere .Papalii gone !
Only exceptions are Api and Bula for the moment .
That leaves a pool of mediocre footballers .
Doesn't really matter who the coach is you can't win much with this Roster .
Seems our much vaunted "Pathways " is a a myth .
Only solution is recruit almost an entire footy team just like the Dogs have done.
To be able to afford this we will obviously need to have a major clean out of the top 30
 
And from what other teams see a totally different prospect . And not long term. Short term. That NSW player the other night did not waste any time. Took him all of 30 secs
 
tig_prmz said:
Don't you think it was a mistake appointing Benji in the first place? I'm sure most people here do and most likely so does Richo despite what he says in public.

Your point is that we shouldn't sack him because he was appointed 6 months ago but he shouldn't have been appointed in the first place..and sack is a strong word. If Benji is actually serious a bout coaching, he'll do it the proper way and go coach reserve grade, assist for a few more years and actually be a head coach for smaller teams before coming into the NRL.

And in terms of setting standards, it is also something a basket case club would.do which is hiring a guy who hasn't coached in his life.
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I dont think I can say it was a mistake or not until he's had his fair chance. He's being judged as much on what he inherited as what he has actually done.

I also think it's totally irrelevant whether anyone thinks it was a mistake at the time; now it's done he needs to be given a fair chance.
 
As a long term Wests Tigers supporter I’m unable to disagree with many of the comments here except the sacking of Benji as coach. There’s definitely merit in approaching Arthur as assistant coach. However, the NRL is not doing the weaker clubs with the current salary cap rules. It may never had been envisaged that players would sign for unders at more successful clubs. Furthermore clubs have to spend 97.5% of the salary cap. Combine the salary cap with the ongoing media onslaught it results in the Tigers having to pay significant overs for average first grade players and far more than the more successful clubs. I’ve never heard of players (employees of clubs) dictating a budget to their employer admittedly via RLPA negotiations.
 
Pdiddy805 said:
As a long term Wests Tigers supporter I’m unable to disagree with many of the comments here except the sacking of Benji as coach. There’s definitely merit in approaching Arthur as assistant coach. However, the NRL is not doing the weaker clubs with the current salary cap rules. It may never had been envisaged that players would sign for unders at more successful clubs. Furthermore clubs have to spend 97.5% of the salary cap. Combine the salary cap with the ongoing media onslaught it results in the Tigers having to pay significant overs for average first grade players and far more than the more successful clubs. I’ve never heard of players (employees of clubs) dictating a budget to their employer admittedly via RLPA negotiations.
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Welcome to the WTF
 
Spidercam said:
I’ve got two ideas

1) bring back sheens
Or
2) bring in a draft for fans so I can support a winning side and see how it feels

Baring that I’m going to book a trip to Fiji, I hear it’s a great place to get away from all your troubles
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And I read the other day Fiji are making a big push to replace PNG as the next expansion team. Maybe Benji was over there submitting an application for the coaching job !
 
rihannafan1 said:
Richo was never going to sack Marshall and certainly won't this year. Benji is the brightest star in the club's history and sacking him is the easiest way to get the most influential people offside. Midway through next year he'll be replaced by Morris in an interim role if it isn't going well, and after that there will be some big name coach ready to take over. But, I actually think it won't be so bad next year, recruitment moves pending.

Deadset, the roster has terrible depth. That was not Marshall's decision. There are multiple ways to invest in your juniors but it was a desperate move by a very desperate board to agree to putting so many in the 30 at such a young age, and a desperate move to create this coaching team of Marshall and Farah to lead them.

Although people want Stef and Ice and Bateman and Klemmer all gone, you need NRL standard players to replace them. I'd rather keep them if there are no NRL replacements coming. Otherwise, that is how basketcases are woven. Last night shows what happens when you don't have NRL players in your 30 or a team of boys playing against men.
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Please clarify for me who are the “most influential people “ who would be offside with removing Benji, Farah , Heighno and anyone else without coaching credentials ?
 
hybrid_tiger said:
Benji is not going to get us there. Time to face facts. Clean the roster out another five times, nothing is going to change.

I have no idea what the answer is but fundamentally the club is doomed. Every team goes through ups and downs but not us. 13 years without semis is absolutely laughable and if anyone thinks it will change next year they are off with the fairies.
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G'day h_t Imo for what it's worth, bringing an immortal like Benji in as Our Head Coach [along with Morris, Farah and Heighno being all WT's players] when he's had ZERO experience as a coach of any NRL team at any level... [completely f.....g stupid with hindsight Imo]... was a desperate attempt at identifying and then establishing a Tigers DNA into our club and imposing that on the then contracted players and any future players that are prepared to pledge loyalty to Wests Tigers, not just come here for the extra $$$ we are forced to pay, and then play up to 💩 because they don't Love our club, and aren't prepared to work their guts out to achieve success.

Bringing our juniors thru I guess should be a way of getting at least a little bit of that DNA into the NRL team.

"Off with the fairies". The only thing that can stop us from being a joke again next year is if we can 'somehow' win a fair share of the games we have left this year, and I just can't see that happening.
 
Halbrowne61 said:
Please clarify for me who are the “most influential people “ who would be offside with removing Benji, Farah , Heighno and anyone else without coaching credentials ?
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The board and the fans. Benji is the prodigal son and at the beginning of the season had no dirt on his name as a coach. Getting rid of him would have put a lot of influential people off Richo straight away.
 
jirskyr said:
I don't know if a meltdown is fair; I just see passionate and disheartened fans trying to find a solution. I think sacking the coach now is the wrong solution and I think it comes from a well of desperation.

Wells of desperation typically are not great resources for effective solutions.
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I reckon signing Benji as our FG coach was a "well of desperation" from our Board.

I admire Benji for what he did as a player and as a family man, he's got his priorities right.

I admire him for his willingness to take on the duty of 1st grade coach.

But I reckon someone should have had the guts to stand up and say his appt. was not the correct road to follow.
Was Shane Flanagan interviewed for the coaching roll? If he was and was turned down by the board, what a pity. Benji could have served an apprenticeship in some way under Flanagan for however long he was signed for, then Benji takes over as 1st grade coach if he goes well.
I feel Benji may well go from an admired immortal to a failure if things don't start to improve greatly in the near future, and that would be such a pity.
 
There is no way they’ll sack benji before luai gets here bc benji got him here.

Our only option this year is to bring in an assistant and try and keep the club from sinking before luai gets here next year and hope that he can change the direction of the club.

That means not letting any players we want to keep from leaving and getting rid of dead wood (like they are)

If we don’t improve next year I reckon it’s almost fold time.
 
GNR4LIFE said:
15 years without finals. Patience is a virtue that wore off a long time ago. Some of us are over winning only 4 or 5 games a year. Is it too much to ask to have a season like the Dragons, where we just win half our games, and sit on the edge of the 8? Why do we need to cop winning only 4 games a year?
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I'd be over the moon if we came 9th like we used to.
 
jirskyr said:
No; he gets two years minimum. I'll give it up if Richo cans Benji inside 2024.

I don't think 2024 is especially worse than the last couple of seasons. I don't think Benji is doing worse than Sheens or Madge; in fact I think he has a generally worse roster and some of his higher paid players are already mentally checked out.

What did they say tonight - Tigers have had 7 debutants already in 2024? Used 29 players already. Of those 29 only Api, Klemmer, Olam, IP, Twal and Sezer (6) have played more than 70 NRL matches and 3 of those guys were not available tonight. In the backs we've fielded 7 blokes who have played less than 10 career matches up to this week.

I don't think that's a Benji thing. I don't think Benji has a lot of time to get some results, but I think people turning on the coach is just a natural but highly subjective response to ongoing losing.

In other words, we've changed almost everything possible about the club - rosters being handily cleaned out over several seasons, brand new coach, new Board, new CEO, new Chairperson, new CoE. New focus, new plans, new strategy from the CEO. But club is still losing far too regularly. Though 2024 it isn't trending in a positive direction, I don't think the new coach has had enough time or control over the roster to be adequately judged. CEO also has not had adequate time to make much of an impact on the club, including the roster (where he apparently wants to shed a significant number of players). Furthermore we have very clearly put many of our eggs into the 2025 basket well in advance, which may say a lot about our salary cap position for 2024 and the lack of recruitment specifically for this year.

So whilst I am also very depressed about the club and at a loss to find optimism and shining lights, I don't think sacking the coach is the right go. And replace him with who, Brad Arthur who just got the arse himself for a bad season? John Morris who is already the assistant coach?
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You're strongly defending Benji so therefore the Club.
"I don't think 2024 is especially worse than the last couple of seasons".
Now you're starting to sound like a politician, as you've thrown up some pretty weak arguments in defending what's happening, and the suffering of a lot of our supporters....... and members.
If the 💩 we are coping atm, doesn't get a lot less 💩'er, I feel Wests Tigers will find they have a 'massive' reduction in memberships next year.
Every year we all start with a positive attitude, but year after year our hopes of our team winning even 50% of games are destroyed in a very short time.
 
TYGA said:
The club was forecasting this to come Richo wrote a letter to members asking for patience and is now trying to offload most of the squad. It’s the necessary pain we have to go through. Either hang on a play valiantly and keep team unity or rip the band aid off and re create the roster.
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They need to change the roster but I havnt seen anything by the coaches that resembles a gameplan.
 
jirskyr said:
I dont think I can say it was a mistake or not until he's had his fair chance. He's being judged as much on what he inherited as what he has actually done.

I also think it's totally irrelevant whether anyone thinks it was a mistake at the time; now it's done he needs to be given a fair chance.
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But why do we need to wait another 2 years or whatever people are saying? It's not going to work, chances of it working are less than 5%. We can all see it and predict it.

Throwing Benji in the deep end like this isn't giving him a fair chance. Getting him to come up through the ranks under the mentorship of a solid coach when all the pathways are set up for coaches is giving him a fair chance. The way we are setting out to do things is only leading to him being terminated next year and Richo and all saying "We need another build up".. we've all seen this before.
 
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