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Tigers face Storm, as 'medium-sized four' take on 'big three'

21st March, 2017
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The Tigers have a 'medium-sized four' at best, particularly when compared to the Storm. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan)
Expert
21st March, 2017
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The most embarrassing thing about the blood-letting at Wests Tigers has been the description by some people of James Tedesco, Aaron Woods, Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks as the ‘big four’.

The term has, of course, been borrowed from how Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Greg Inglis, the original big four at Melbourne, were described.

In reality, the Tigers quartet is really no better than a ‘medium-sized four’ by comparison.

Fullback Tedesco is the only one with the potential, at least, to one day be considered on the same level as those three still-Storm champions and Inglis, who is, of course, now at South Sydney.

Woods is a regular NSW and Australian prop, but he has never been the best front-rower in the game. Five-eighth Moses and half Brooks have obviously each still got a lot to learn.

It should be pointed out that the players don’t refer to themselves as being a part of a big four and Woods made it clear he was embarrassed by the description when he appeared on NRL 360 on Fox Sports on Tuesday night.

Aaron Woods celebrates a try with teammates

But Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe referred to them as the big four on Monday. Perhaps it was just evidence of him hoping they turn out to be as big a four as the Tigers would like. Anyway, that puts him alongside much of the media, which has picked up on the ‘big four’ as an easy tag.

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However good they may or may not turn out to be as a group in the future, Tedesco, Woods, Moses and Brooks clearly wield a lot of influence now.

Even if they’re not trying.

Woods also claimed on NRL 360 that when he recently said he wanted to know who would be coaching the Tigers next year before he made a decision on whether to re-sign, it wasn’t a comment designed to be negative about Jason Taylor.

He had just wanted to know who was going to be coach, whether it was Taylor or someone else.

But Woods, Tedesco, Moses and Brooks, who each come off contract this year, are, of course, all managed by the same agent, Isaac Moses, and that is a nightmare scenario for a football club.

So the board of the Tigers were feeling pressure, whether real or imagined, to do something in the wake of back-to-back horror results against Penrith and Canberra and on Monday they sacked Taylor as coach.

The Tigers said it was a performance-based decision and that it looked like the players were no longer playing for Taylor.

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But what now for the Tigers?

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Andrew Webster has been appointed as interim coach, which makes him the fourth coach in just over five years for the Tigers including Tim Sheens, who was gone at the end of 2012, Mick Potter (2013-14) and Taylor (2015 until this week).

The word has been pretty strong that Webster will only be in the hot-seat for days rather than weeks and that Ivan Cleary will soon be taking over, but there has been no announcement along those lines from the club.

Tedesco never stopped trying, even when the Raiders were in the process of belting the Tigers by 40 points last Sunday. You always know what you’re going to get from him.

Woods, the team captain, has got to start driving his mostly-young teammates like they have never been driven before.

Moses and Brooks have got to produce on a consistent basis, if they are actually good enough to do that.

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The 6 and 7 each have defensive deficiencies which opposition teams cruelly bid to expose and after those recent lop-sided results rival teams will keep aiming to do that.

The pair are under a harsh spotlight, but, hey, that’s football.

On Sunday afternoon, the team that includes the medium-sized four will play against the team that contains the big three when the Tigers meet the Storm at Leichhardt Oval.

The timing is exquisite and it is going to be fascinating to see what happens.

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