- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When you’re a sports reporter, there are occasional times you actually get to talk and write about… well… sport.
You know, the stuff that happens on a field or a court or a track: the displays of spectacular skill and superior athleticism that have been honed by years of dedication and training.
I like those times. They’re probably the main reason I took this route, along with the fact that my lack of singing ability was a serious impediment to a successful career in musical theatre.
In the past month or so I’ve been rostered on to do match highlights for many of the Wests Tigers’ matches, and they’ve been a joy to work on. Even when they’ve been on the losing end, the emergence of genuinely exciting young players like Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks, along with Blake Austin and Curtis Sironen, hints at a very bright future for the joint-venture club.
Talking about the Tigers on the field is to discuss the enthusiasm and fearlessness of young men who appear to have all the time and options in the world when they take on the line. Will he shape for the long ball and go short instead? Set up for the short ball and somehow drop it on his boot for the winger? An outrageous show-and-go, perhaps?
They also have a forward who has as much talent as hair, with the hirsute and likeable Aaron Woods bolstering their pack.
They have a coach who has done a fair job of getting a post-Benji Marshall side to punch above its weight for much of the season.
And, of course, they have a captain who also happens to be one of the best hookers in the game.
Robbie Farah appears to be the heart and the soul of a club that still has a young history. While most big names from the dazzling band of brothers who won the 2005 premiership have faded or moved elsewhere (Scott Prince, Marshall), and others have left and returned (Pat Richards), Farah has been the steadying base around which subsequent teams have been built.
He’s also been one of the NRL’s most vocal players in the media, happier than most to make his views public on wider-ranging issues and certain in-house matters: James Tedesco’s recent contract dramas with Canberra stirred memories of Tim Moltzen and some rather unhappy Dragons.
Farah is perceived as having a huge amount of influence at the Tigers, and there are, no doubt, many who take the view that, as someone who has been loyal to the club and played with such passion in the jersey, he deserves that influence.
The other side of the argument is that no player should hold too much sway, and no individual is more important than their club.
For that matter, neither is a coach nor a chief executive. Just ask John Cartwright and Michael Searle, who have fallen on their swords in the wake of the Titans’ internal review.
As the muddle on the Gold Coast shows – with absent fans, financial woes, salary cap questions and on-field mediocrity – good governance is the single most important issue at every NRL club in the modern, professional era.
But good governance requires strong leadership and willingness by all the major parties to pull in the same direction. A series of bouts, as they’ve been presented in the media, threaten to tear the Tigers apart.
Wests v Balmain. Potter v Farah. Gorden Tallis v Farah. Farah v Grant Mayer.
And now it’s Farah v the media.
The Tigers skipper wasn’t at the post-match press conference following Monday night’s loss to the Melbourne Storm. Instead, Potter and Keith Galloway fronted the media, who only wanted to talk to Farah, after he took a break from training last week in the wake of the infamous stoush with Tallis.
It’s important to remember these are human beings sorting through challenging working relationships in a very public way. It clearly is taking its toll, and each person involved probably shares some of the responsibility. Black and white ended with the Magpies.
As I’ve been writing, Farah has tweeted about a text he received: “FYI.. Msg from @Wests_Tigers media manager yesterday afternoon re after match presser”
The text reads, “Hey mate, just thinking about the post match press conference tonight. We might just throw Keith Galloway in there because it’s his 150th game for the Club and make it easier for you? Let me know what you think mate. Cheers”
FYI.. Msg from @Wests_Tigers media manager yesterday afternoon re after match presser pic.twitter.com/jlfs7NBqCs
— robbie farah (@robbiefarah) August 5, 2014
The implication in the text is that Farah was being given a choice, at least partly to “make it easier”. If he’d wanted to speak, but still give Galloway recognition, then there’s nothing to say a presser couldn’t have featured the coach and two players. Farah is clearly sick of talking publicly and is feeling the pressure.
But while speaking to the press can sometimes be avoided for a while, the Tigers desperately need conversations that lead to reconciliation or resolution at every level of the club.
Of course, it remains to be seen if everyone will survive the current mess, but as the season slips away, the Tigers can’t afford to wait for the NRL-appointed independent directors to arrive and wave a magic peace wand. Or ensure good governance.
My mother always says that no one notices if a house is clean but everyone sees when it’s dirty.
So, for the sake of all of us who love watching the generation-next Tiger cubs remind us why we love the game, let’s hope the major parties can roll up their sleeves, put this unedifying episode aside, and give Concord a good scrubbing.
Maybe then we can talk about… well… the sport.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.