In the pre-season, Wests Tigers Benji Marshall emphatically told his players that standards, professionalism and the club standing for something was going to be everything in 2026.
“At the Wests Tigers now, we f***ing stand for something, and if you're not prepared to follow what we stand for, guess what, there's the f***ing door.” Marshall told his playing group in a docuseries produced by the club.
Fast forward to July, and we can only assume the door Marshall was referring to must have been a revolving one.
The Tigers had an unbelievably good start to the season, and it appeared Marshall's words, his actions, and the policies he had set for his playing group were working.
It seems like a lifetime ago, but the joint-venture won five of their first seven.
They beat some good teams too. The North Queensland Cowboys look top-eight bound and they put 44 on them, they were competitive against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and then beat now top-four side the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland.
They took care of business at home against the Newcastle Knights in a thrashing win, won the always close Easter Monday game, and beat the Canberra Raiders in a now infamous game, given it was the beginning of the end.
Their only other loss came to the Brisbane Broncos at home.
Since then, it has been an unmitigated disaster for the Tigers, both on and off the field.
The on-field results have seen the Concord-based outfit lose 10 of their last 12 with a staggering for and against of minus 290.
They have copped more than 40 points against the Sharks, the Storm, the Sea Eagles, the Panthers and the Raiders, and more than 30 to the Dolphins, Warriors and Bulldogs.
Benji Marshall has made regular unforced changes to his team during that period, so his words have stood for something when it comes to on-field performance, but there are clearly bigger issues at the Tigers.
It hasn't mattered what Marshall has done, or who he has picked, the defensive efforts of the Tigers have been excruciatingly bad.
To put it simply, it has felt a little bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and yet the Tigers have a list of recent re-signings longer than your arm, while their only addition for next year is Jake Averillo.
That says there are deeper problems at Concord.
And you only need to look at what's happening off the field to understand that.
Jarome Luai, once set to be a Tiger forever, signed with the PNG Chiefs, and then was released to the Eels at the end of this year.
His form since signing for PNG has been, let's be nice and call it poor, yet there seems to be no pressure on his spot.
The start of the Tigers' great run of losses came just a week after he confirmed he was leaving at the end of 2027. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out it has had an impact on the club.
On one foot, letting Luai leave at the end of this year is a move that backs up what Benji says, but continuing to pick him when he is struggling ahead of the Tigers' young talent time shows a conflicted coach and a conflicted club.
That came to an even larger head last week when Marshall and Adam Doueihi had a falling out.
The same Doueihi who was re-signed to 2029, was in pretty solid form, and suddenly was being asked to play lock while trying to ride out an injury.
It's a position he has played just twice during his career.
But if the coach says you do something, you do it. Doueihi should have known better than to carry on like he did, pulling out of the game on Saturday which saw Canberra rack up 50 points.
But to carry on like he did, and then to be recalled for this weekend's game with the Parramatta Eels is an even bigger problem.
It shows the Tigers playing group that whinging, complaining and not fulfilling your duties as an NRL player will get you exactly what you want.
Because Doueihi is playing halfback this weekend. Not lock. Not coming off the bench. Not being forced to work his way back through reserve grade.
No, he is straight back into the starting team as if nothing had ever happened.
He labelled it a “miscommunication” when quizzed about it joining Marshall at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
But seriously?
Who is buying that?
An elite rugby league club, a star halfback, a coach who played the game for more than a decade, and apparently they can't have a chat about what position to play without it turning into a miscommunication, or more.
No, let's call it what it was. Doueihi threw his toys out of the cot and had to wait less than a week to get what he wanted.
At board level, Shane Richardson's departure clearly hasn't helped the forward movement of the outfit, while fans still have issues with the ownership group of the club.
But it's Doueihi's situation that has really brought things to a head. His teammates tried to turn it into a joke yesterday when quizzed, but that doesn't help the narrative either.
A team who has lost 10 of its last 12 having a laugh about the guy who has been re-signed to 2029 walking out?
If you're going to walk out on your teammates, you should be told to keep walking.
Not welcomed back with open arms.
Especially when your coach told you exactly where the door was in the pre-season.
