The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Aaron Woods needs to give up the captaincy

Roar Pro
18th April, 2017
Advertisement
Aaron Woods is off to the Doggies. (Digital Image Grant Trouville © nrlphotos.com).
Roar Pro
18th April, 2017
21
4089 Reads

Aaron Woods should immediately peel off the ‘C’ on this week’s team sheet and hand it respectfully to Ivan Cleary. He should tell Laurie Daley to not even consider him as Blues captain, and he should ditch the footy show panels.

Woodsy should put all of his energies into footy. Into tackling, into getting fitter and into running harder.

A number of reasons come to mind as to why Woods should bin the leadership role.

For a start, Woods’ recent performances against the Cowboys and Parramatta Eels were by no means terrible, but they certainly weren’t worthy of the dollars being tossed up for his services.

Woods has never been a destroyer of opposition defensive lines. Sure, he possesses a subtle shuffle of the feet prior to impact, is hard to get to ground, and he has a decent offload, but he’s not once caused the type of panic in enemy lines Jared Waerea-Hargreaves at full tilt can produce.

If Paul Vaughan were available at the moment, it wouldn’t be hard to guess who’d collect more coin at the negotiations table.

Aaron Woods grabbed by Greg Bird

And what about Woods’ body language during his recent matches? He looks to be uninterested at times, just going through the motions. No real discernible sense of urgency or spark and an apparent lack of desire to perform are just a few of the observations which have been made.

Advertisement

A case in point is the match against Parramatta on the weekend. With the game still there to be won, his efforts with seven seconds left on the clock were awful. Woods’ inability to rally a few troops to pack a scrum for one last-gasp play stunk.

Then there are his recent media appearances, which have been disappointing for supporters to watch. While his comments have not been bluntly oppositional to the Tigers, they haven’t exactly been supportive either. He has not once tried to alter the narrative being peddled.

At a time when the club is being battered in the media for its apparent shambolic operation, Woods has been allowing the stones to be thrown. It’s pretty ordinary stuff from the skipper.

The way he’s played and conducted himself on the paddock coupled with his increased, yet poor, media presence has unfortunately combined to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of most fans.

People have given the Wests Tigers a lot of grief about the farcical contract situation bubbling away at Concord. Many thought it laughable that of all the off-contract quartet, the club captain hadn’t already put pen to paper.

But where is Woods’ accountability in all this?

As club captain, shouldn’t he have shown some leadership and looked to re-sign sooner rather than later? Talk of wanting to know who the coach was was unhelpful and has turned out to be somewhat of a fib – after all, Ivan Cleary has been in charge for a fortnight and still nothing has changed.

Advertisement

[latest_videos_strip category=”rugby-league” name=”League”]

The length of the negotiations and the manner in which they have played out are conspiring to work against the players. The current sentiment is that most Tigers supporters will be happy to see off Woods, they’re not fussed that Mitchell Moses has jumped ship, and the outcry won’t be as loud as it once would have been if James Tedesco changes colours.

Unfortunately, the whole episode has given the four young Tigers players a lot of unwanted and distracting attention.

Furthermore, Woods’ leadership deficiencies and his poor sense of judgment have been glaringly and sadly exposed. That may be harsh, but the prolonged contract saga has taken its toll on all parties. It has all but wiped his stocks as NSW’s potential skipper for this year’s Origin series and dented his leadership credentials at any other club.

In hindsight, poor old Woods may have unfortunately been given something for which he wasn’t quite ready. A leadership vacuum, lack of quality candidates, and being the oldest of the young cubs at the Tigers combined to land him a role he shouldn’t have been given yet.

True, he may have grown into the role better if the Tigers were a successful club, but instead, Woods has been clearly affected by the experience of skippering a ship which has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.

To look at it another way, he’s probably a leader more suited to peaceful, jovial times. Not the landmine-ridden, guerrilla warfare in which he’s been found.

Advertisement
close