On Saturday night we were all got an eye-opener into the devastating underlying issues the West Tigers are experiencing, as put by club captain James Tamou.
The Tigers don’t have the personnel to not only win games, but to make the top eight. If it goes how we all think it will, this season marks the 10 years since the Tigers made the finals, and fans all across the NRL are sick of the organisation's poor retention and recruitment over the last 10 years.
Tough Decisions
The Tigers are lucky that they will recover from the signings of Josh Reynolds, Russell Packer and Joey Leilua next year. But the club needs to tell big-money players that they aren’t needed anymore.
These players include Luke Brooks and Moses Mbye. The two halves have been underperforming pretty much since they came to the club.
Don’t get me wrong, Luke Brooks has had a few good seasons but has never lived up to the expectations and the price tag. The other night he was considered a senior player but no word was said by him when the club needed it the most.
Even the club captain hinted that young guys were talking, not the leadership group who at the moment only consists of James Tamou and Luke Brooks. So for him not to be talking to the group suggests the club is lacking that position.
As for Mbye, he has improved this season, however, paying him 950K-a-year just isn’t right. Mbye is a great player in the right system and maybe a player trade with him isn’t the worst thing you can do to offload his massive contract.
Paying 40% of these two salaries, if we let them go, will free up around $1.2 million of salary cap space.
I have to disagree with a lot of this. Getting rid of Brooks would be a big mistake. He has without a doubt been one of Wests top 3 players this season. He had a bad season last year – so what? Everyone has a dip in form. Remember just 2 years ago he was named Dally M halfback of the year. Back when Tedesco and Moses were in the team he was playing out of his skin. All he needs is decent players around him and he’ll fire. You don’t improve a team by getting rid of quality players in a shit team.
As with the paying overs on Mbye, Packer and Leilua, 3 people don’t make a team. Yes, we all know they’re crap and don’t deserve 1/10 of what they’re getting paid, but it’s not like the whole salary cap has gone into those 3 players.
Signing Pearce and Johnson would be a bigger mistake than shafting Brooks. The Tigers are renowned for buying old players past their use-buy date on massive deals. They don’t need 2 old halves who only have another 1 or 2 years in them. That would hugely screw up their roster for years to come.
Jackson Hastings was signed to be a half. To replace Mbye. Not to be a lock. Wests don’t need any more forwards, for the time being, other than possibly Finucane.
Also, I’m not quite sure what you mean when you say the Tigers lack strength when going forward. You have named Luciano Leilua, Alex Twal and Alex Seyfarth. What happened to Blore, Mikaele, Utoikamanu and Ofahengaue
Yes, there are massive problems at Wests. Too many to even write about. But most of this wrong regarding the issues at the club.