Sign now: 'Scapecoat' Taylor's plea to Woods, Tedesco

Sacked coach Jason Taylor says Wests Tigers superstars James Tedesco and Aaron Woods should show the embattled NRL club some respect and immediately re-sign.

Breaking his silence on his axing last month, Taylor has described himself a “scapegoat” but says he’s moving on with his life and career.

But he also believes, for the sake of the Tigers moving on too, skipper Woods and attacking trump Tedesco must stop procrastinating, commit to the club and start leading the team to the finals – as they’re paid to do.

The Tigers are already reeling after disgruntled five-eighth Mitch Moses, one of the club’s so-called big four, sought an immediate release on Wednesday in the hope of joining Parramatta.

The Tigers denied Moses the release and it’s understood the joint venture outfit will demand he plays out the final year of his contract in 2017 despite the club withdrawing a multi-season, multi-million-dollar offer to the 22-year-old.

Taylor said he was “shocked to think that Mitch had decided so quickly that he wanted to move on from the club” and implored Woods and Tedesco to follow halfback Luke Brooks’ lead to re-sign henceforth.

“The way that that those negotiations have dragged on; they’ve dragged on for a couple of years now,” Taylor told Fox Sports’ League Life program on Wednesday night.

“Last year it dragged on through the season. Someone made the point to me this year that it wasn’t until those halves got those contracts sorted last year that the team started playing well and went to within one win of the semi-finals.

“And to be honest, it’s been the same this year (with) the club having to go through the same period of uncertainty – and it’s been really hard.

“It’s been really hard for everybody at the club and we’ve seen the fallout from that.”

Taylor fears the fallout will continue and urged Woods and Tedesco to re-sign.

The discarded coach also took a veiled swipe at Tedesco, suggesting the incumbent State of Origin custodian wasn’t earning his keep at the Tigers.

“The (big) four players, in my opinion, was that they needed to repay the respect that the club had given them to allow them get to the point where they’re going to be earning top dollar in the game,” Taylor said.

“And they should be stepping up on the back of the opportunity that they’ve been given to develop themselves.

“I was disappointed this week to see some of those players say that they want to play at a club that’s going to be playing semi-final footy.

“I think the Wests Tigers have said that ‘you guys are the ones that we believe can take us to semi-final footy. Let’s get your head down and bum up, let’s work hard and you guys lead us into the semi-finals’.

“The team was one win short last year.”