Wests Tigers update on staff
As a result of the suspension of the 2020 Telstra Premiership season, Wests Tigers have today made the difficult decision to stand down the majority of its football and administrative staff. This decision was not made lightly and will take place effective immediately for an indefinite period of time while the club operates with a skeleton staff in place to ensure the critical areas of the business remain functional and productive.
Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe said the decision was an extremely difficult one to make but one that was done to ensure the sustained future of Wests Tigers.
“These past few weeks have been some of the most challenging we have experienced as a club, and indeed as individuals too,” Pascoe said. “There are countless people around the world who have been directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19, and we know that there are many who are dealing with consequences far worse than our situation as a football club. First and foremost, we would like to send our best wishes to those affected by COVID-19 and let them know that we are thinking of them in this challenging time.
“As a club, we have today made the tough decision to stand down the majority of our staff — good people who have worked tirelessly to ensure Wests Tigers is what it is today — and that is not an easy decision to make. I have nothing but praise for the professionalism and excellence shown by the football and administrative staff alike throughout this process and it is our utmost desire to return people to their roles as soon as it is possible.
“As tough as these decisions are, they are done to ensure that Wests Tigers remains intact and can come out the other side of this crisis stronger for it.
“We know that our stakeholders, corporate partners, Members and fans remain the absolute lifeblood of Wests Tigers and we are again thankful for the continued support and commitment shown to the club at this time. We know our community, our nation and our world are hurting right now on a scale much bigger than football, but we are firmly committed to ensuring this club will be back and you back alongside us again.”
Wests Tigers will continue to await direction from the NRL and Government in regard to the return of the 2020 season and will continue to update all involved with the club when more comes to hand. Wests Tigers phone communications will remain open to voicemail messages, while official email communications will also remain in place.
The club again thanks for your patience and understanding throughout this time.
@Tiger_Steve said in Maguire Players should be ready at a week's notice:
Want to see it. Sick of listening to the talk.
Knights game gave no indication of ‘a club moving forward quickly’
Really like Maguire but been hearing this message for too long now.
I think that Knights’ game showed that older players like Benji will have trouble keeping up in 2021.
He acknowledges the sport science professionals may disagree but Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire believes players should be able to get back onto the field with just a week’s notice. Call it a tough stance or a reminisce of the good old days, Maguire was eager to see who - at his own club and in the NRL - would say no to a return by September with less than a month’s notice, if it meant salvaging the season. “If we only had a week, you’d play in a week,” Maguire told NRL.com.
"Is that the right thing for their bodies at that time … it’s not ideal. Yes, in our game it would be handy to have a lead-in and all those things to get our players back. "From a sports science view they’d want to have a month but if we got to September and it was getting tight and we were ready to go, I can’t see players not wanting to play. “It’s their job to look after themselves during this period. That’s the expectation in professional sport, the players that do it better than others will go on and kick on when the season starts and create opportunities for themselves.”
Maguire likened the situation of handing out individualised programs to players as to that of his playing days in the early 1990s. “If you went away and did it you’d succeed and if you didn’t you found you weren’t playing at the top level,” Maguire said. "It’s a learning experience for the young guys to see what it used to be like. We didn’t have all the coaches or the facilities that we have, we had to rely on ourselves. Some did it well and others didn’t. "They’re men and this is their trade so I think if they take responsibility and look after themselves they’ll be in good shape by the time it comes back.
"I think every coach would’ve been talking to their players about that. "There’s a lot of chatter around gym equipment being moved into player’s garages and everyone’s training but that’s the expectation of a professional sportsman now.“If you’re not then you’re not going to have the career you thought you would.”
Maguire spent a year out of coaching when he finished at the Rabbitohs in 2017 and said the time away gave him a different perspective when he took on the role at the Wests Tigers.The 2014 premiership-winning coach will juggle the prospect of planning for the 2021 season while keeping the current squad on track in preparation for a return. “I’ll look for things to do during this period, I want to improve as a coach and there’s plenty of books out there to study,” Maguire said.
The 2014 premiership-winning coach will juggle the prospect of planning for the 2021 season while keeping the current squad on track in preparation for a return. “I’ll look for things to do during this period, I want to improve as a coach and there’s plenty of books out there to study,” Maguire said.
"I had a bit of practice when I finished at my last organisation [South Sydney] and purposely didn’t want to dive straight back in.
"There are many things I looked at to understand where kids are at this day and age. I see it as a great opportunity when we do come back. Teams are going to be in a different state. "You’re planning every day … whether that’s recruiting, staff, different styles of training and overall just looking for an edge.
“I’m at a club moving forward very quickly. We can be doing a lot while we’re away in this holding pattern, we haven’t been successful recently as a club so should use this time to have it back in a better place.”
@mike said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@Tiger_Steve said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@mike said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@Russell said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@mike said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@Russell said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@hobbo1 said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
@Russell said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
Or…“Eighth Wonder of the World”
Either would be appropriate. Where can I get one?
Best & less by the look of them
Put crap on it all you like - as Voss said “Best sporting ground in the world”
For what? Model sail boat racing along the cesspool? Please take off the blinkers and open your eyes. It was great 30 years ago in the last century, it is pretty ordinary now. Visually it looks great with a full crowd on TV, but looks aren’t everything. In its current state it is sub-standard. It needs millions spent on it to bring it into the 21st century. Stop living in the past on memories of what it once was.
Stay at home Mike, I go every game and I enjoy it, even when they get beat. Spend millions on it and destroy what it is. Update the toilets if you will, (not that I have ever used them, think I might have once when I was seven) that’s about it for me.
I’m not living in the past, mine are permanent that are added to every time I go -
That makes it current.Enjoy ANZ and Bankwest Mike - feel sorry for you!
Mate I go to every game. But to claim It is anything but a relic is ridiculous. Just because a couple of TV commentators love it because they have a vested interest in TV doesn’t make it a good ground. It’s a myth and fake just like every other TV set is. We would have to be the dumbest supporter base ever. Cowboys have a modern Stadium, So do Broncos and now Parramatta. Even the Roosters, who have basically no fan base, will get a new stadium. We are just dumb clinging to a myth.
If we are all do dumb, as you suggest, why do you lower yourself by conversing with us? Maybe you’d be more intellectually stimulated by discussing coffee brands and stock trends with the Bondi crowd you seem to look up to?
The Bondi crowd would be the last group I look up to but they are getting a brand new multi-million dollar stadium and we have an underfunded Leichhardt.
The Bondi crowd have a lot more push then Darcy Byrne
@OzLuke said in Leichhardt Tshirt!:
love the shirt and love the ground…
it might not be the best, or the shiniest, but it’s ours…and those of us that love it all have our own reasons…
If you don’t like going there, then don’t go. Go and sit at Bankwest…
With all the lovely Parra supporters.
Sydney Morning Herald
28th March 2020
NRL clubs are agitating for a major overhaul of the way rugby league in Australia is structured when the game emerges from the coronavirus crisis, using the English Premier League as a template for a new landscape in which they would have much more power.
The clubs will be briefed on Monday morning by the NRL following a meeting of the ARL Commission, with pay cuts for players and executives expected to be rubber-stamped as the code attempts to survive the COVID-19 lockdown in the absence of broadcast income from Nine Entertainment and Foxtel, whose next instalments are due on Wednesday.
While they are eager to see the NRL’s financial modelling, there are club chiefs who believe the entire structure of the game’s administration needs to be turned on its head, giving the clubs far greater power and resources as well as a closer relationship with broadcasters.
An increased role for the clubs in a revised structure has support from Nine, the publisher of this masthead, who as The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday has a desire to renegotiate its deal with the NRL.
The English Premier League is seen as an ideal model by clubs and a document that lays out its operating structure has been circulating for months among them.
While the Premier League, as arguably the most successful sporting competition on the planet outside the US, is light years away from the NRL in terms of size and scope, clubs believe it provides a world’s best-practice guide for how the game in Australia should be run in a post-coronavirus landscape.
The document, obtained by the Herald, spells out how much greater weight clubs have in the game there than over affairs in the NRL here, with the Premier League “reporting to 20 member clubs”, who are each equal shareholders, and 14 out of the 20 required to vote on a particular issue to affect change.
It describes the role of the Premier League management as “to manage and govern the league, monetise the rights globally for clubs, distribute the money equitably amongst clubs to reinvest in talent, stadium and local communities, provide responsible support to lower league clubs and wider football and community development.”
According to the document that has been passed around by NRL clubs, 83 percent of all revenue that flows into the Premier League is passed on to its clubs.
The NRL’s 2019 annual report says 43 percent of all revenue was distributed to the 16 clubs - a pool of $228.1 million from total revenue of $528.5m.
The NRL has wider responsibilities than simply the country’s elite competition, pumping $48m into the states and $40m to development and employs about 400 staff.
However, there is a belief among some clubs that the NRL should be a significantly leaner operation.
According to the Premier League document they are using as a model, only a penny out of every pound that flows into the game there is spent on operating costs and the Premier League head office has only 140 staff.
While uncertainty has gripped the NRL and its clubs over the past fortnight, particularly since the competition was shut down on Monday, there was some good news on Friday when Telstra confirmed it would not pull back from its major sponsorship and from its role as the code’s digital broadcast partner while there were no games.
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“Telstra is a very strong supporter of Australian sport and we remain committed to all of our partnerships across NRL, AFL, netball and FFA, and will continue with our support regardless of season interruptions,” a Telstra spokesman said.
Ben Glover 3 hrs ago
Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has been railing against the NRL’s obsession with expansion for some time.
Last year, when expansion was gathering momentum to give the game the best chance to increase its value for the next broadcast deal, Johns was one of the loudest dissenting voices.
He said it would be bad for a competition in which a divide was growing between the haves and the have-nots and advocated instead for the NRL to have the courage to shed some dead weight and forge a future with just 12 clubs.Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has been railing against the NRL’s obsession with expansion for some time.
Last year, when expansion was gathering momentum to give the game the best chance to increase its value for the next broadcast deal, Johns was one of the loudest dissenting voices. He said it would be bad for a competition in which a divide was growing between the haves and the have-nots and advocated instead for the NRL to have the courage to shed some dead weight and forge a future with just 12 clubs.
Johns is no oracle and didn’t have the first clue that the NRL was soon to be changed forever by a global pandemic.
However, speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Freddy & The Eighth this week, he said COVID-19 might force that future on the game, which Johns believes will ultimately enhance the product.
“The worrying thing for me, I was thinking last night in bed, was this year I could see a bigger difference between the elite and the poor club, the clubs that were struggling,” Johns said.
"And when we come back (from the COVID-19 forced suspension) the gap is only going to be bigger and bigger and bigger between the wealthy clubs, the strong clubs, the clubs with the best players, and the teams that are down here.
"The stronger will get stronger and the weak will get weaker. I’ve been saying for a while that I think the best number is 12 teams for the competition, I think if you look this year especially, I think the stronger teams, the teams up the top, look far superior to the teams down the bottom.
"How we do that? I’ve been saying for a while, only the strong survive, maybe this forces the hand.
"If you have a look at the juniors, there’s less kids playing, for whatever reason, whatever you want to toss up. Not only rugby league but sport in general.
“So we’ll always have the elite kids coming through but there’s less numbers. So I think 12 is the best number, how it happens I don’t know.”
NSW coach Brad Fittler agreed that the NRL needed to seize the opportunity to reshape the game and solve some problems that had been exposed by the game’s enforced suspension.“Maybe some teams are going to be pushed into different areas, so a new Brisbane team. You look at the Titans and the way they’ve been going at the moment and you’ve got to think that’s got to move up there.”
The NRL is desperate, not for saving lives, but for making money.
2020 NRL season suspended
By George Vlotis17:08
The 2020 NRL season has been suspended amid the growing impact of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.
If there is an 8 team comp then our team will go one up the ladder.