I’m going to come right out and say it. Tim Sheens is not to blame for the current disarray at the Wests Tigers. The facts are there in black and white (and orange).
The Tigers missed the finals in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Any other coach would have been gone. Daniel Anderson can only dream of Parramatta being similarly gun shy. The form was on the board.
Fans, and more importantly club executives, still drunk on the coattails of the 2005 premiership win, have blindly stuck with the man who brought them an elusive yet unexpected title.
After bombing in 2012, and with a ridiculously favourable termination clause in his favour, the board struggled to pull the trigger on Sheens without placing their club under financial pressure.
Surely Sheens can’t be criticised for negotiating such a great deal in a job of such notorious insecurity.
Point the finger at the front office. CEO Steve Humphreys has been at the helm since 2008, and framed Sheens’ most recent contract extension to 2014 despite those four post-premiership years in the abyss.
Now the Tigers are confronted with a ridiculous situation, in which they are trying to keep Sheens on the books to avoid paying him out, in some sort of vague role overseeing a discontented, overrated and power-hungry roster.
Humphreys and Sheens should both get cardboard boxes. Only then can the Tigers start afresh from 2013.
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