Before Benji Marshall, the Wests Tigers was a team of journeymen, thugs and stars well past their prime. Nobody could have predicted what was going to happen once the mesmerising talent of Marshall began to emerge.
Without Marshall only god knows where the joint-venture club would be today.
There were players like Scott Prince, Brett Hodgson and Robbie Farah, but none of them had the star power of the hot-stepping young touch footy player from Whakatane.
No one person can lay claim to that remarkable 2005 premiership alone, but Benji would be closest. The free spirit and sheer enjoyment of bamboozling opponents and entertaining the masses made Benji more than just another five-eighth. He became the face of a new generation of not just Tigers fans but rugby league fans.
As the on-field accolades rolled in, his fame shot through the roof and made the Tigers hot property. His club’s rise came at his expense though, and as the injuries piled up the pressure mounted too.
Salary cap pressure (or homesickness) squeezed Prince out of the club and into the gleeful hands of the Gold Coast Titans, Hodgson headed to England well before his time and the core of the squad – guys like Anthony Laffranchi, Pat Richards and Bronson Harrison – couldn’t turn down lucrative offers to play elsewhere.
The more players left, the more pressure was heaped on Marshall. Something eventually had to give, and last year and the unthinkable happened. Benji left the Tigers for a new adventure in rugby union with the Auckland Blues.
We all know how that worked out, but you can’t knock him for trying something different. It was a gutsy move considering his place in rugby league and his age, to try an entirely different sport and put his name on the line. It takes a certain kind of sportsman to do that. Just look at Michael Jordan’s ill-fated switch from the Chicago Bulls basketball team to baseball’s White Sox.
But now Marshall is back and for the very first time this Sunday he comes up against his old club.
This weekend he’ll don the Red V and face Wests at ANZ Stadium, the very place where his team celebrated the 2005 grand final victory over the North Queensland Cowboys.
It will be an odd experience for the veteran pivot. He goes up against the new breed of Tiger that’s set to push Wests into its next boom period. When Marshall first heard the names Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses, Benji was King Tiger and Brooks and Moses were a passing comment, these “gun kids in the juniors”. No need for a second thought, that was years away.
Yet here we are, days away from Wests Tigers versus Benji Marshall.
While many of the faces across from him on Sunday have changed, the throng of people in the stands have stayed the same. If you are a Wests fan you can still recall where you were the moment Marshall flicked that ball to Richards in the 2005 decider and you can probably rattle off 20 other unforgettable Marshall plays.
Rugby league fans pay their money to get through the gates and they should be able to support or boo whomever they please. But this Sunday has to be different, and it will be interesting to see how Wests fans respond to the bloke who put their club on the map.
If you want to boo then boo, but it won’t be the same as booing your most despised players.
We will see the very best of Marshall and the very worst of Marshall this weekend, that’s just how he plays. The best we can do is cheer for the good plays and cheer for the bad, whether you’re a Tiger or a Dragon.
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