MightyMaggy
New member
I have been a Wests Magpies now Wests Tigers supporter for over sixty years. Age and family constraints have dramatically reduced my attendance at matches in the last few years, but all the family are still mad Wests Tigers supporters.
I am constantly looking for Wests Tigers stories in this forum, newspaper articles, television and radio. I realise I do not have any "inside information", but from my view-point the main current club problems are:-
1\. Questionable decisions at Board level.
2\. Possible shortage of funds in general.
3\. Close to exceeding the salary cap.
4\. Poor game attendance.
5\. Poor on-field performance.
1\. There have been a few boo-boos apparently by the Board like the rushed re-signing of Tim Sheens and then the decision to demote him 12 months later. The Sheens contract must have had no performance clause, because they are still paying him even though he had poor performances in the latter days of his coaching. The "sacking" of Scott Longmire (Is this the name right?) because he wanted people, especially Tim Sheens, to be judged on performance. Those closer to the club would be able to add other examples.
2\. I thought Wests Tigers were in good financial shape, because I thought I had often read they had less reliance on money from their Leagues Clubs than other clubs. Form what I had heard, I thought Wests Tigers merchandise sales were well in excess of many, if not ALL, other clubs. While there has been little publicity of late, there were stories the Club could operate without hand-outs from the licensed clubs in the future in the past. Is this still true?
3\. I cannot believe there are any salary cap problems, when you compare the quality of our playing group to those of many other teams. Other clubs seem to have many more good players, who would be on high salaries, but they do not appear to have salary cap problems like the Tigers. Why is this so? Are we paying big overs for players compared with what other clubs pay for similar quality players? Are the Tigers behind other clubs, when it comes to third party payment of players? Who is responsible for obtaining third party sponsors?
4\. Wests Tigers were reported to have good game attendances in the past. The average home game attendances over the past few years have been:-
2005: 18,789
2006: 18,883
2010: 18,086
2011: 17,852
2012: 16,227
2013: 14,258
At an average home crowd of 16,053 Wests Tigers are behind Brisbane(27,375), Newcastle(18,682), Titans(18,032) and Cowboys(16,707). The drop in average crowds from 2010 to 2012 should cause concerns, because the injury problems were nothing like they are this year! Is this being investigated?
5\. On this forum, the current poor performances have been blamed on poor coaching, poor player attitude, injuries to key players, poor player recruitment, poor "medical support" leading to longer-term recuperation, poor player fitness, poor finances and poor contract conditions (from Club view) in the main. Have any of these supposed problems been addressed? Has anyone been instructed to investigate and report possible actions on any of these supposed problems?
The players can only really be responsible for their individual attitude and effort, because all the other matters are outside their authority and responsibility.
In my business experience, for any attempt to "fix" the remaining problems to be successful, it must be driven by the top, that is the Chairman of the Board. With the backing of the Board, he must delegate the investigations of the problems to those, who have the authority and responsibility to fix them. He must monitor the progress of all of this work to ensure the matters are being addressed and the procedures have Board approval. If the progress does not meet Board requirements, heads may have to roll.
I am constantly looking for Wests Tigers stories in this forum, newspaper articles, television and radio. I realise I do not have any "inside information", but from my view-point the main current club problems are:-
1\. Questionable decisions at Board level.
2\. Possible shortage of funds in general.
3\. Close to exceeding the salary cap.
4\. Poor game attendance.
5\. Poor on-field performance.
1\. There have been a few boo-boos apparently by the Board like the rushed re-signing of Tim Sheens and then the decision to demote him 12 months later. The Sheens contract must have had no performance clause, because they are still paying him even though he had poor performances in the latter days of his coaching. The "sacking" of Scott Longmire (Is this the name right?) because he wanted people, especially Tim Sheens, to be judged on performance. Those closer to the club would be able to add other examples.
2\. I thought Wests Tigers were in good financial shape, because I thought I had often read they had less reliance on money from their Leagues Clubs than other clubs. Form what I had heard, I thought Wests Tigers merchandise sales were well in excess of many, if not ALL, other clubs. While there has been little publicity of late, there were stories the Club could operate without hand-outs from the licensed clubs in the future in the past. Is this still true?
3\. I cannot believe there are any salary cap problems, when you compare the quality of our playing group to those of many other teams. Other clubs seem to have many more good players, who would be on high salaries, but they do not appear to have salary cap problems like the Tigers. Why is this so? Are we paying big overs for players compared with what other clubs pay for similar quality players? Are the Tigers behind other clubs, when it comes to third party payment of players? Who is responsible for obtaining third party sponsors?
4\. Wests Tigers were reported to have good game attendances in the past. The average home game attendances over the past few years have been:-
2005: 18,789
2006: 18,883
2010: 18,086
2011: 17,852
2012: 16,227
2013: 14,258
At an average home crowd of 16,053 Wests Tigers are behind Brisbane(27,375), Newcastle(18,682), Titans(18,032) and Cowboys(16,707). The drop in average crowds from 2010 to 2012 should cause concerns, because the injury problems were nothing like they are this year! Is this being investigated?
5\. On this forum, the current poor performances have been blamed on poor coaching, poor player attitude, injuries to key players, poor player recruitment, poor "medical support" leading to longer-term recuperation, poor player fitness, poor finances and poor contract conditions (from Club view) in the main. Have any of these supposed problems been addressed? Has anyone been instructed to investigate and report possible actions on any of these supposed problems?
The players can only really be responsible for their individual attitude and effort, because all the other matters are outside their authority and responsibility.
In my business experience, for any attempt to "fix" the remaining problems to be successful, it must be driven by the top, that is the Chairman of the Board. With the backing of the Board, he must delegate the investigations of the problems to those, who have the authority and responsibility to fix them. He must monitor the progress of all of this work to ensure the matters are being addressed and the procedures have Board approval. If the progress does not meet Board requirements, heads may have to roll.
