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With their loss to the Parramatta Eels some pundits are questioning whether the current Wests Tigers team is the worst of all time. Which, for anyone who has ever laughed at a John Hopoate joke, is utterly freaking mind boggling.
Or is it?
The Wests Tigers are a young football club, and in their short tenure in the top flight they have reached both the dizzying heights and the crusher-tackling-lows.
Right now they’re going through the latter, as their football side flounders at the bottom of the ladder and their boardroom meetings sound like something the Decepticons would serve up on ‘Transformers’.
Frankly they’re stinking up the joint, and the only good thing we can expect to see out of the place is some really well thought out Mad Monday costumes.
For many fans this mayseem a bit of an affront, as for a long time now the Tigers have been the hip, cool, successful team.
But those with a longer memory may be able to recall similarly dark times.
There are some teams that live on in rugby league infamy. The 99 Magpies. The 66 Roosters. South Sydney in the 1990s.
The 2001 Tigers side deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the above teams, such was their willingness to disappoint.
But, has the current incarnation really sunk to their level as has been suggested?
Let’s find out!
The coaches
The 2001 Tigers side was coached by Terry Lamb, who had no first grade experience prior to the role… and none after it.
Balmain fans of the joint venture hated Lamb for knocking out Ellery Hanley in the 88 grand final, star Tigers player Terry Hill though Lamb was a “Fwamin warsehole” and frankly, Lamb looked like an overweight Merino sheep in a polo shirt at press conferences.
The 2013 Tigers side is coached by Michael Potter, another former Canterbury great but one who had significant success coaching in Super League.
This included a stint at Bradford, where he managed to keep his side competitive, despite not being paid for most of the season, a situation he still claims to have enjoyed more than coaching Wests.
Worse: 2001
Lamb may have more wins than Potter, but is also more likely to get in a fist fight with his players in the Leichardt Oval car park.
The players
The 2001 Tigers side included such immortals as Owen Craigie, Tyran Smith, Trent Runciman and Hassan Saleh.
Their biggest star was Terry Hill who, as mentioned, spent most of the year giving the coach a spray (literally and figuratively).
The 2013 Tigers roster is poor, has a stunning lack of depth in some positions and contains some outrageously underperforming players.
However, they still have a superstar in Robbie Farah as well as some quality in Aaron Woods and (potentially) Benji Marshall.
Worse: 2001
Makasini Richter aka Jackson Kaufusi aka Lipina Kaufusi played 14 games for the 2001 side. Let that sink in.
The controversy
Oh yeah.
While the 2001 Tigers actually bagged a few wins (the Tigers actually won less in 2002), they more than made up for their good deeds with some top shelf indiscretions.
Two of the Tigers’ most important players, Craig Field and Ken McGuinness, were suspended for 22 matches at the beginning of the season after their drinks were spiked with cocaine tablets (a drug so underground that it’s never been heard of since) and then, well, Hopoate.
Now I can’t really put my finger on it, but Hopoate’s actions certainly pushed a few buttons, and it doesn’t take a crack investigator to point out what he did was by far the game’s worst atrocity to date, which put rugby league in a dark hole.
For the 2013 side, much of the controversy has revolved around things out of their control, although Benji seemingly living in New Zealand six days a week isn’t really endearing himself to many fans.
Worse: 2001
John well and truly went and wrecked ’em.
The stats
Alright let’s get down to the cold hard figures.
The 2001 Wests Tigers side played 26 matches for nine wins, one draw, 16 losses and a -272 points differential.
The 2013 side has played 20 matches for six wins, 14 losses and a -233 points differential.
Worse: 2013
Will the 2013 side win three games before the end of the year? No chance, they still have to play the Roosters, Souths and the Cowboys in Townsville. One blow out and they’ll see their points differential dip below the 2001 side.
So, which team is worse? Technically one could argue the 2013 Tigers side, but for their combined efforts to desecrate rugby league as a sport, I’m still saying the 2001 side.
By a finger.
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