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UNDER siege Tim Sheens climbed out of bed on Saturday morning to prepare himself for another weekend of rumour and innuendo about his crumbling premiership campaign at the Wests Tigers.
Three losses on end, an apparent falling out with Benji Marshall, a blue with a journalist after the Parramatta loss and alleged player turmoil over the departure of several stars to other clubs.
Even for a man who has been around as a head coach for more than 600 NRL games and enjoyed all the high and lows, tears and triumphs, you get the feeling this time he's just about had enough.
So on Saturday morning the veteran coach breaks his silence, revealing why so many stars have been released from their contracts, declaring the Tigers would still make the top eight and that his struggling stars were still having a dig.
He says rather than blaming the upcoming signing of Storm powerhouse [Adam Blair](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/player-profile?playerid=108541&teamid=3490) for the release of Bryce Gibbs, Andrew Fifita and Tim Moltzen, it was more the Tigers' needs to keep the nucleus of the sensational talent from their Toyota Cup squad that put pressure on the salary cap."Ask any of the player managers how good our crop of kids are," Sheens said.
"That's part of the issue … we have a very, very good group of kids and we've got every club in the game chasing them.
"We've had to upgrade players within the squad like Lawrence, Ayshford, Simon Dwyer and the Toyota Cup kids.
"Young Aaron Woods had to be re-signed. The Australian schoolboy prop (Matt Groat) who's in our 20s. He's an outstanding kid.
"Some of these people can go from five grand to 150 grand straight away or we'd lose them to other clubs who have made massive offers knowing how good they are.
"These things are inevitable. It happens at every club but they're talking about us because we haven't been winning."
The biggest talking point in rugby league has been Sheens' rumoured falling out with superstar five-eighth Marshall over his housemate and best friend Moltzen being given permission to negotiate with other clubs. Marshall has been told by chief executive Stephen Humphreys the club can't just build a football team around his best mates.
But Sheens denied they have even spoken about it.
"Who's spreading the rumour? What facts are they basing it on?," Sheens asked.
"Have you spoken to Marshall about that. I don't believe it's good journalism to run rumours unless you're getting it direct from the kid.
"Not once have I spoken to Benji about Timmy Moltzen going.
"He hasn't been to see me about it. I'd tell you if he had.
"And if Benji's got an issue, he generally fronts me about it."
Sheens says no one at the [Wests Tigers](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/team-profile?teamid=3400) wanted to release good players but he's pleased those departing have all been looked after with better contracts than they were previously on.
"When you're losing games everyone says, Sheens this, Sheens that, the clubs in crisis, player morale's no good," he said.
"At the end of the day the players are leaving because of the salary cap and the fact we have to offer career path for our kids.
"No one is leaving for less money. In fact they've all got more. They're all in better shape."
Despite his team stuck being stuck on 18 competition points for more than a month, Sheens has no doubts they will make the play-offs.
"We'll make the semi-finals and I'm very confident about that," Sheens said. "As Robbie Farah said the other night, we should be judged at the end of the season. In 2005 we were running 11th at this stage and our defence was a lot worse.
"In recent weeks the defensive workload has taken its toll. We've made nearly 900 tackles in the last two games but in neither game were we disgraced.
"Better [Wests Tigers](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/team-profile?teamid=3400) sides have had 50 points put on them with those sort of tackle counts. Sure we've made poor decisions and put that pressure on ourselves.
"But we'll get it right and we'll be there when it counts."
Cheer up, your team is not out of it
PREDICTING a top eight even at this stage of the season is like trying to find the trifecta for the Melbourne Cup.
Five teams are certainties - the Storm, Dragons, Sea Eagles, Broncos and Cowboys - but finding the last three is more difficult.
Mathematically, even the bottom placed Titans could still scrape into the eight if they won every game and finished on 28 competition points.
More realistically, the battle for the last three positions in the finals rest between the eight clubs on 15 points or more over the last eight rounds of the competition.
While Tim Sheens remains super confident about the Tigers' chances, they have a tough draw: Cowboys (a) Roosters (h) Sea Eagles (a) Dragons (h) Panthers (a) Eels (h) Titans (h) and Sharks (a).
The Cronulla Sharks kept their hopes alive with their fourth win on the trot against the Canberra Raiders on Saturday night but they also have a hard run home with three games against top five teams the Broncos, the Dragons and the Cowboys.
"All we can do is turn up every week and give it a shot," said coach Shane Flanagan. "This competition has always been about consistency and not looking too far ahead."
He says the Sharks are not concerned about a tough draw, having already beaten the Dragons this year and lost to Manly on the bell at home.
Three losses on end, an apparent falling out with Benji Marshall, a blue with a journalist after the Parramatta loss and alleged player turmoil over the departure of several stars to other clubs.
Even for a man who has been around as a head coach for more than 600 NRL games and enjoyed all the high and lows, tears and triumphs, you get the feeling this time he's just about had enough.
So on Saturday morning the veteran coach breaks his silence, revealing why so many stars have been released from their contracts, declaring the Tigers would still make the top eight and that his struggling stars were still having a dig.
He says rather than blaming the upcoming signing of Storm powerhouse [Adam Blair](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/player-profile?playerid=108541&teamid=3490) for the release of Bryce Gibbs, Andrew Fifita and Tim Moltzen, it was more the Tigers' needs to keep the nucleus of the sensational talent from their Toyota Cup squad that put pressure on the salary cap."Ask any of the player managers how good our crop of kids are," Sheens said.
"That's part of the issue … we have a very, very good group of kids and we've got every club in the game chasing them.
"We've had to upgrade players within the squad like Lawrence, Ayshford, Simon Dwyer and the Toyota Cup kids.
"Young Aaron Woods had to be re-signed. The Australian schoolboy prop (Matt Groat) who's in our 20s. He's an outstanding kid.
"Some of these people can go from five grand to 150 grand straight away or we'd lose them to other clubs who have made massive offers knowing how good they are.
"These things are inevitable. It happens at every club but they're talking about us because we haven't been winning."
The biggest talking point in rugby league has been Sheens' rumoured falling out with superstar five-eighth Marshall over his housemate and best friend Moltzen being given permission to negotiate with other clubs. Marshall has been told by chief executive Stephen Humphreys the club can't just build a football team around his best mates.
But Sheens denied they have even spoken about it.
"Who's spreading the rumour? What facts are they basing it on?," Sheens asked.
"Have you spoken to Marshall about that. I don't believe it's good journalism to run rumours unless you're getting it direct from the kid.
"Not once have I spoken to Benji about Timmy Moltzen going.
"He hasn't been to see me about it. I'd tell you if he had.
"And if Benji's got an issue, he generally fronts me about it."
Sheens says no one at the [Wests Tigers](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/team-profile?teamid=3400) wanted to release good players but he's pleased those departing have all been looked after with better contracts than they were previously on.
"When you're losing games everyone says, Sheens this, Sheens that, the clubs in crisis, player morale's no good," he said.
"At the end of the day the players are leaving because of the salary cap and the fact we have to offer career path for our kids.
"No one is leaving for less money. In fact they've all got more. They're all in better shape."
Despite his team stuck being stuck on 18 competition points for more than a month, Sheens has no doubts they will make the play-offs.
"We'll make the semi-finals and I'm very confident about that," Sheens said. "As Robbie Farah said the other night, we should be judged at the end of the season. In 2005 we were running 11th at this stage and our defence was a lot worse.
"In recent weeks the defensive workload has taken its toll. We've made nearly 900 tackles in the last two games but in neither game were we disgraced.
"Better [Wests Tigers](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/team-profile?teamid=3400) sides have had 50 points put on them with those sort of tackle counts. Sure we've made poor decisions and put that pressure on ourselves.
"But we'll get it right and we'll be there when it counts."
Cheer up, your team is not out of it
PREDICTING a top eight even at this stage of the season is like trying to find the trifecta for the Melbourne Cup.
Five teams are certainties - the Storm, Dragons, Sea Eagles, Broncos and Cowboys - but finding the last three is more difficult.
Mathematically, even the bottom placed Titans could still scrape into the eight if they won every game and finished on 28 competition points.
More realistically, the battle for the last three positions in the finals rest between the eight clubs on 15 points or more over the last eight rounds of the competition.
While Tim Sheens remains super confident about the Tigers' chances, they have a tough draw: Cowboys (a) Roosters (h) Sea Eagles (a) Dragons (h) Panthers (a) Eels (h) Titans (h) and Sharks (a).
The Cronulla Sharks kept their hopes alive with their fourth win on the trot against the Canberra Raiders on Saturday night but they also have a hard run home with three games against top five teams the Broncos, the Dragons and the Cowboys.
"All we can do is turn up every week and give it a shot," said coach Shane Flanagan. "This competition has always been about consistency and not looking too far ahead."
He says the Sharks are not concerned about a tough draw, having already beaten the Dragons this year and lost to Manly on the bell at home.
