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The Roar

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Let's celebrate Robbie's legacy and invoke the 'no excuses' clause for 2017

Robbie Farah says goodbye to the Wests Tigers while being surrounded by his loyal teammates. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Expert
6th September, 2016
24

If like me you are a Wests Tigers fan you would know we are a very divided bunch.

We were thrown together in 2000 as two sets of supporters from clubs that hadn’t looked success in the eye for some time. To be honest both sides were on death row.

Balmain and Western Suburbs boasted loyal and staunch supporters that were not happy with the merger but were too “rusted on” to walk away. The new joint venture brand offered a truckload of cash courtesy of the NRL and the promise of a successful future in the modern rugby league world,

So what has happened? In 2005 we celebrated an unexpected premiership that hadn’t been delivered by Balmain since 1969 and the Magpies 1952.

However what we have done since 2000 is bicker, snipe and argue with each other on topics that generally fall along foundation club lines.

We quarrel about colours, home grounds, junior favouritism, management bias, lack of financial input from Balmain, training headquarters and the list goes on.

In the last couple of years the bickering on social media and at games has gone to a new level both in terms of battle lines and personal abuse.

Merged club loyalties were forgotten and fans stood staunchly on the side of coach Jason Taylor or player Robbie Farah.

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Personally I don’t think it is that black and white or orange. I have met Robbie and Jason briefly in a work capacity and found them to have similar traits. Both fairly quiet and polite but you could also detect a smouldering intensity below the surface.

Perhaps these are good attributes for athletes and coaches. It may also explain why they had difficulty working together.

I have seen the accusations by those “in the know” on social media. Talk of undermining team culture, being disliked by other players and using the media to destroy the club.

I am not close enough to the club to know what is truth in all these rumours but here is what I know.

It was telling from a management point of view that the Wests Tigers chair acknowledged the departure of Halatau on social media but didn’t afford the same recognition to Farah.

Both sides played PR games during the fallout even up until last week with payment negotiations being “leaked” and a puff piece on the improved culture at Wests Tigers appearing in Fairfax media. Robbie may have had the last PR laugh with that photo opportunity last Sunday sitting on the Leichhardt Oval scoreboard.

Farah is a life member, grand final winner and former captain of the Wests Tigers. He is arguably the best player we have had. He is also in the twilight of his career. Robbie has played 247 club games as well as 16 State of Origin games and eight matches for Australia. He deserves respect for that reason alone.

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Taylor as a coach with his job on the line is entitled to pick the team that he wants and if he can’t work with a player then it is must be his call to cut him loose.

Whether the call from the coach was right is still up for debate. The eventual explanation for dropping Farah was that the team and particularly the halves functioned better without his imposing and strong willed approach to his dummy half work.

Mitch Moses certainly improved in the latter part of the season taking a lead role in attack and improving his defence. The team had some success, being one win off the finals, but struggled for consistency and succumbed to a couple of embarrassing losses in the last few games. Still the end of season outcome was an improvement.

Luke Brooks on the other hand has not kicked on in line with his junior potential and his career is at a crossroads. A couple of seasons seasons back Phil Gould said the problem for the Tigers is that Luke Brooks and Moses are both halfbacks.

I tend to agree. Both players look better without each other and given a free hand to run the show.

So to 2017. Robbie Farah will be at Souths and Jason Taylor will be in his third year of coaching at Wests Tigers with the team he wants under the salary cap rules.

I say no excuses! No excuses about a young team, players undermining the club or financial woes. Next season should be our year and the administrators, coaches, players and fans should all be on board and accountable.

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Let’s honour what players such as Robbie Farah and Dene Halatau have done for the club in the past and unite as fans for a future where the only slanging matches we have are those with opposition supporters.

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