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.
The Tigers as a franchise have only held the players accountable for not making the finals over the last 10 years, however there have been no major changes to the board for the last five years or so.
At the end of the day, they are the people responsible for putting together the roster. This is the same group of people that lost local juniors like James Tedesco, Mitchell Moses, Aaron Woods, Ryan Papenhyzen, Josh Addo-Carr and many more who dreamt of winning grand finals with the club.
As a result, the club tried to replace them with Josh Reynolds, Russell Packer, Ben Matalino and Moses Mbye (all on big-money deals). And following that, in the last two seasons, signed Joey Leilua on 700k and extended Luke Brooks for five years on almost $1 million-a-year.
Since 2017, the club has gone after and missed out on big-name players like Aj Brimson, Jai Arrow, Josh Addo-Carr and Latrell Mitchell. This yet again proves that the club doesn’t appeal to many big-name players, mainly because of how poorly the club's run.
However, I do believe the additions of Tim Sheens (Head of Football) and Brett Kirmoley (Head of Junior Development) will help the recruitment and retention drive more changes need to follow.
Honestly, for real change to happen they have to change the governing body of the Joint Venture club, starting with CEO Justin Pascoe. Pascoe and Cleary are responsible for screwing the club over, particularly in the last six years.
If the club didn’t rush James Tedesco and Aaron Woods to re-sign, they probably could’ve kept the pair. Along with paying more attention to the needs of Josh Addo-Carr, Mitchell Moses and Ryan Papenhyzen, the club could be a real powerhouse challenging those of the Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers.
Cleary jumping off the bus in late 2018 was a good thing, but Pascoe needs to be shown the door as well.
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.
Going into next season, the club should have around $1.4 million left in the cap if they re-sign both Zac Cini and Alex Seyfarth, plus the money from Brooks and Mbye.
Both Reece Hoffman and Kelma Tuilagi will have their deals upgraded, leaving three roster spots.
For this to work, Wests need to commit to their local junior system and invest time into young talents like Cini, Hoffman, Jock Madden, Jake Simpkin, Tukimihia Simpkins and Kelma Tuilagi.
If we look at past Tigers juniors, these guys have a big shot at becoming elite players and faces of the club. However, that is at least two years away, and they will still need to fix the problems now to play finals football next year.
The Tigers mainly lack leadership and creativity out of the halves. In recent weeks the club has been linked to Mitchell Pearce. Pearce would be great for the club providing both the leadership and dynamic halves play the team needs.
It would also be a nice reunion for the Tigers and the Pearce family, of course, Mitchell’s dad Wayne Pearce was a Balmain Tigers legend.
For his halves partner, I would go after Shaun Johnson to play five-eighth. Johnson in recent weeks has been a man on a mission to earn himself a new deal.
The New Zealand international would buy into what Micheal Maguire is trying to build at the club. Despite these guys being 32 and 30 respectively, signing them on 2-year, $600,000Â deals would provide the club with a fix-it now plan and would furthermore help the juniors develop, particularly young half Jock Madden.
Besides big bodies like Luciano Leilua, Alex Twal and Alex Seyfarth, the Tigers lack stregnth when going forward in the centre third.
I don’t believe the signing of Tevita Panjai Jr is the answer. However, we should look at Dale Finucane. The man brings leadership and skill moving forward, he is also a guy that players want to play with and for and would have a similar effect as Boyd Cordner has had on the Roosters.
These three players will provide the one thing that the playing group lacks the most, leadership. That hole will be filled with the addition of Johnson, Pearce and Finucane.
English Import Oliver Gildart moves into the starting team and Adam Doueihi stays in the centres. I keep him there because I believe that’s his best position, a big body like him can run it up if needed and has silky hands that can move the ball to the right position.
Recruits Shaun Johnson and Mitchell Pearce move straight into the halves, which will provide an exciting difference in attack. Jake Simpkin cements that starting spot, I think it was unfair for Madge to drop him earlier in the year and blame our attacking problems on a kid who played five games.
Dale Finucane makes a move into the front-row to accommodate Jackson Hastings. This man is built for the NRL after a great stint in the Super League winning the Man of Steel Award as a five-eighth. However, moving into lock will better serve the team in attack.
All the premier teams now have a ball playing lock. The Storm has Brandon Smith, the Roosters have Victor Radley, the panthers have Isaah Yeo and Souths and Parra have Cameron Murray and Nathan Brown respectively. So adding Jackson Hastings will complete what the modern team should look like in the NRL today as the game gets faster.
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