Will Brooks be named in the 7 today?

[jadtiger]

Yeah hopefully thats not the case but if it is, take that verbal and go, sorry buddy were walking away. The weird thing is, no doubt if Moses signs , brooks signs on and stays.

So we dodged 2 bullets not one,how good is that

 

[twentyforty]

Yeah hopefully thats not the case but if it is, take that verbal and go, sorry buddy were walking away. The weird thing is, no doubt if Moses signs , brooks signs on and stays.

Lol, if you were our CEO is that what you would do? I imagine a verbal agreement would have been made following consultation, can’t imagine it’s an off the cuff remark by one of the ballboys?

 

[BrissieTiger67]

Lol, if you were our CEO is that what you would do? I imagine a verbal agreement would have been made following consultation, can’t imagine it’s an off the cuff remark by one of the ballboys?

I want the club to be strong enough to say no on a verbal agreement of it's in the best interest of the team. If brooks proves he can't play behind a dominant pack then just draw a line in the sand.

 

[twentyforty]

I want the club to be strong enough to say no on a verbal agreement of it's in the best interest of the team. If brooks proves he can't play behind a dominant pack then just draw a line in the sand.

I would much prefer the club to be strong enough to say what they’re going to do, then do what they said they would do. Who knows, it could become part of a cultural shift? 🤣

 

[Tiger-ferret]

I would much prefer the club to be strong enough to say what they’re going to do, then do what they said they would do. Who knows, it could become part of a cultural shift? 🤣

When was this verbal agreement made? In the off season? Things change.

 

[BrissieTiger67]

I would much prefer the club to be strong enough to say what they’re going to do, then do what they said they would do. Who knows, it could become part of a cultural shift? 🤣

Thats a level of follow through im not sure the club is capable of

Im pretty sure their business plan and strategy still has the Replace with real content lorem ipsum language that came with the Microsoft docs template....

Wests Tigers Football Strategy 2023 - 2028

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

 

[The Fresh Oil]

I cant believe the conversation on extending Brooks has been discussed at any levels. I just cant. I wont. I refuse to. You can't make me.

Brooks will end his career in ESL from 2024 and that's it.

 

[Bob]

If what Hoops said is true..the club has a verbal agreement in favour of Brooks having a contract extension for 24. Then breaking that agreement wouldn’t sit too well, and do nothing to propel the club to the top of the ladder?

Possibly- but aren’t these the same blokes that got caught out literally making up the Moses to roosters rumour?

Rugby league journos have lost all credibility until someone gets named shamed and fired over that! Don’t believe any of them anymore

 

[Bob]

You could as easily drop him, he may have benefit from that in the past by being allowed to work on his game in the lower grade and get his confidence back. He's completely shot now.

That ship has sailed though, the pigheadedness of the club to not hold him to account is a large part of the frustrations. Deserved or not, Nofoaluma has been dropped at least twice now by two coaches for not performing and he has friends in high places. Brooks has clearly struggled for a long while now, why has he not been dropped? You can't say that he on his worst day is better than anything else we have, Wakeham has looked better than him this year. Is it simply that they don't want to drop a player they are paying seven figures to?

The club are moreso to blame with the handling of Brooks. They've refused to address his shortcomings, they've continued to re-sign him and they've continued to persist with him. Doueihi is the other big question mark in this squad. He's paid well, he is grossly inconsistent to the point where we're accommodating him in other positions where I believe there's better options and he isn't being held to account either.

Drop him sure. I get it’s also annoying he is our highest paid problem. But after you drop him you need to replace him. Who with? Who is saying I’m playing well and I want his spot? You said yourself AD is the other big question mark and our only depth.

Yep big questions over the club. I would also argue the problem isn’t specifically re-signing brooks - it was the inability to get someone better. We see publicly big names turn us down even when we offer monster contracts. How many do we chase that reject us without it even making it to the media or going beyond the first call?

 

[jirskyr]

I think the point is more so that we pick backing the wrong horse and doubling down on it. Sheens a football director was a decision we could live with but then sacking Madge 18 months in, keeping Brooks in the team, appointing Sheens as coach etc were all wrong decisions.

The point isn't what to do next, it's the inability of the club to understand what they have done is wrong. Even if the odds were 100:1 of us making the Top 8 in the next 3 years I wouldn't put $100 on it. No one would.

This club has just made one stupid decision after another. Decisions due to desperation and ineptness. Some supporters support the club no matter what and they will try to reason each decision- they have every right to but it all just feels in vain because we know this Club isn't going to succeed for a while.... Some accept it, some don't. Even if we do succeed with this coaching experiment, it would be off the back of a wrong decision made over coffee out of desperation rather than a well thought out one.

I am totally not arguing for or against the decision that has been made, I am just saying they are going to stick with either Sheens or Benji for the next 4 years 2023-2026. It's a decision they already committed to last year.

 

[TillLindemann]

I am totally not arguing for or against the decision that has been made, I am just saying they are going to stick with either Sheens or Benji for the next 4 years 2023-2026. It's a decision they already committed to last year.

They also committed to the last 5 coaches they sacked.

 

[jirskyr]

If Pascoe and/or Lee are gone sometime this year, there is a fairly good chance new management would have a different view on this plan.

After just firing a coach mid contract, there would have to be a get out clause.

Pascoe and Lee seem to avoid any accountability so maybe it’s unlikely, but so far this 5 year plan is going horribly wrong.

Do you think Wests Tigers have negotiated a termination clause with Sheens or Benji that strongly favours the Tigers? That would be very unlike incompetent management!

Remembering also that even if Lee and Pascoe did leave the club, it's still The Board that rubber-stamps all these decisions, and you would also have to overthrow The Board to be sure that an entirely new strategy would be considered. Lee and Pascoe are just the figureheads for the implementation of this plan.

I am sure new management would have the opportunity to cut Sheens or Benji loose, but we'd better have hundreds of thousands of dollars available to cover the payouts. I think it's also very damaging to the club, despite everything that has happened, if we don't stick to our guns and stick with the current plan.

Imagine how hard it already is to negotiate with potential coaches or players to join Wests Tigers, if you keep sacking the coach and reneging on deals. Every incoming coach will expect to be given a decent amount of time to turn the ship around, but we already have fans calling to sack Sheens after 4 weeks.

I just want to be clear I'm not saying any of this is wrong or right, and I'm not saying they made the right call signing up Sheens as an interim head before Benji starts. I'm just saying - that is the decision they've made, and even if Sheens were to leave early, it would be for Benji. I can't see anyone else in rugby league land getting involved as some kind of seat warmer for Benji Marshall.

I don't even think they'd terminate Sheens to be frank, it's only a 2-year deal, and to kill of Sheens would put even more pressure on an incoming inexperienced Benji Marshall.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

They also committed to the last 5 coaches they sacked.

But they weren’t club legends

 

[bathursttiger1]

Brooks will be our 7 but he shouldn’t be anywhere near the team.

 

[jirskyr]

They also committed to the last 5 coaches they sacked.

I don't know how many time I have to repeat myself, but I'll do it one more time.

Every other coach was hired alone with no succession plan. This is totally different, they've hired Sheens for a maximum 2 years, with Benji to take over in 2025. Even if Sheens was to win every match from now until the end of 2024, the club is contractually obliged to have Benji as head coach in 2025.

That changes the entire calculus. So even if you sack Sheens, you still have Benji contracted to start in 2025. Why would Tigers sack Sheens to bring in another interim coach? Who would agree to that deal? You can't sack Benji because Sheens isn't getting the job done in 2023.

So what Tigers did with previous coaches is irrelevant when it comes to the Sheens/Benji deal, until Benji Marshall gets at least 2-3 seasons into his own deal, and then you can go back to sacking coaches like normal.

 

[TillLindemann]

I don't know how many time I have to repeat myself, but I'll do it one more time.

Every other coach was hired alone with no succession plan. This is totally different, they've hired Sheens for a maximum 2 years, with Benji to take over in 2025. Even if Sheens was to win every match from now until the end of 2024, the club is contractually obliged to have Benji as head coach in 2025.

That changes the entire calculus. So even if you sack Sheens, you still have Benji contracted to start in 2025. Why would Tigers sack Sheens to bring in another interim coach? Who would agree to that deal? You can't sack Benji because Sheens isn't getting the job done in 2023.

So what Tigers did with previous coaches is irrelevant when it comes to the Sheens/Benji deal, until Benji Marshall gets at least 2-3 seasons into his own deal, and then you can go back to sacking coaches like normal.

Sack Sheens, bring forward Benji, then sack him when he's no good either, then sign Bellamy.

 

[innsaneink]

Sheens knows how to deal with flak.... "I don't want to talk about it, I only want to talk about the game"
Twice in 4 weeks now

 

[innsaneink]

Just say that this is true. If we resign Brooks on 150k for 1 year to me there isn't any issue.

Waste of time and money... We're past the point of no return
Him staying is harmful to both parties

 

[cktiger]

Lol, if you were our CEO is that what you would do? I imagine a verbal agreement would have been made following consultation, can’t imagine it’s an off the cuff remark by one of the ballboys?

A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on.

 

[Celtic_Tiger]

Do you think Wests Tigers have negotiated a termination clause with Sheens or Benji that strongly favours the Tigers? That would be very unlike incompetent management!

Remembering also that even if Lee and Pascoe did leave the club, it's still The Board that rubber-stamps all these decisions, and you would also have to overthrow The Board to be sure that an entirely new strategy would be considered. Lee and Pascoe are just the figureheads for the implementation of this plan.

I am sure new management would have the opportunity to cut Sheens or Benji loose, but we'd better have hundreds of thousands of dollars available to cover the payouts. I think it's also very damaging to the club, despite everything that has happened, if we don't stick to our guns and stick with the current plan.

Imagine how hard it already is to negotiate with potential coaches or players to join Wests Tigers, if you keep sacking the coach and reneging on deals. Every incoming coach will expect to be given a decent amount of time to turn the ship around, but we already have fans calling to sack Sheens after 4 weeks.

I just want to be clear I'm not saying any of this is wrong or right, and I'm not saying they made the right call signing up Sheens as an interim head before Benji starts. I'm just saying - that is the decision they've made, and even if Sheens were to leave early, it would be for Benji. I can't see anyone else in rugby league land getting involved as some kind of seat warmer for Benji Marshall.

I don't even think they'd terminate Sheens to be frank, it's only a 2-year deal, and to kill of Sheens would put even more pressure on an incoming inexperienced Benji Marshall.

Every contract can be renegotiated or paid out so it's just not true to say that the club has no choice but to stick with Sheens or Benji. It would cost them a lot of money to do so which reflects the absolute madness of what they actually did but we just can't afford to double down on a mistake if it's clearly not working. For the avoidance of doubt that time is not now but at some point that call may have to be made if it's quite clear that things are not improving.