Does the Tigers' rebuild start with the players or deep within the club?

Not sure who you are 'Sam' but there are many of us Wests Tigers supporters who don't live in the inner west as I did when when I was younger as a Wests Magpies supporter. The fact is, that many of us live in the Southwest of Sydney namely the Campbelltown/ Macarthur area where we came to buy a block of land and build a house something we couldn't achieve in the inner west. Besides the premiership of 2005 we continue to support the Tigers on a day to day hope and belief things with get better. The 'glass is always half full'. Regards Brad.

I can't imagine McGuire's reaction to the 60 point flogging at the hands of the Storm, must create a record amount of f-bombs. The Tigers recruitment has to be on par with Dragons and Broncos- at least the Bulldogs seem to be able to recruit big names.

Wests Ashfield, who are the majority shareholders of the Wests Tigers, are not in favour of relocating the team permanently to Campbelltown. Ashfield is 5km from Leichhardt Oval and 45km from Campbelltown. A permanent move to Campbelltown would kill off Wests and Balmain's longstanding connection with the Inner West. Wests are a terrible team, no doubt, but I can't cop pundits and other fans questioning the club's identity or support base. When Wests are going well, they're crowds are among the best in the league and they always managed to be pull big tv audiences through good times and mostly bad.

Okay before I get started "Pre-season, the Tigers were tipped to be sitting around the eight, however it’s no surprise they have receded expectations.". Who tipped them to be sitting around the eight? They were 11th last year and lost their* best player (Harry Grant) and the player leading their try assists (Marshall). Many had them tipped for last and most for bottom 4. Anyways... The Tigers rebuild has already started. The rebuild within the club (off-field) started a few seasons back when Pascoe took over from Go and MaGuire from Cleary as well as the continued involvement (and investment) of Lee Hagipantelis. A host of back room changes were made with their introductions and Tigers are now one of the few financially stable clubs. The on-field rebuild will take longer still but again is well underway. As previously commented the Tigers currently are not a destination club and will struggle to sign any marquee players. The organisation have noted this and have targeted younger players. Utoikamanu and Laurie are young signings with limitless potential, whilst other young recruits such as Simpkin, Simpkins, Seyfarth, Blore, Pauga and Madden have tasted first grade and look to have promising futures. Strong performances in lower grades suggest there is plenty of talent coming through to build a future. If some of these players progress as expected there is no doubt they can combine with the few decent young first graders currently in the Tigers line up (Douehi (22), L Leilua (25), Mikaele (23), Twal (25), Ofahengaue (25)) to form a strong first grade side in the not to distant future. The issue moving forward, as it has been in the past, is can the club retain such players. We've all seen the lists of players Tigers have lost to other clubs. Convincing the current crop of young players to stay at the Tigers and build success instead of looking to move on to an already successful club will be critical to the outcome of the Tigers rebuild. What gives me hope that things will be different this time around is that Tigers should be able to financially match or even exceed any other options. The Tigers have a history of poor signings placing pressure on their salary cap. Currently it is the inflated contracts of underperforming players such as Russell Packer and Moses Mbye. Recently, the same could be said of Josh Reynalds, Ben Matulino. Prior to that Chris McQueen, Jamal Idris and Matt Ballin. It is a list that spans the length of their finals drought. However, this should not be an issue moving forward. Packer's contract is off the books at the end of this year, Mbye's the end of next. With the rest of the squad signed at around the value they are producing* salary cap pressure should not be an issue with regard to player retention. (*I've seen Brooks' contract valued at anywhere from 500-900K. It seems to grow with each article about him, however at the time of signing most reported at 600K per season, additionally i've found no evidence to support the proposed Brooks to Canberra trade). Finally, I don't know if MaGuire is the man to take them forward, but i also don't know that he is not. Much is made based on what was shown of him on the documentary (or in the case in some arguments, what was not) but I don't believe the documentary actually revealed anything at all. I am happy to retain him currently, as a) he hasn't got the roster to expect success b) hasn't had the cap space or the destination to make big recruitment moves c) is there really a better option?

Get one big name player and the rest will follow could be a simple approach. Look at Tampa Bay - they got Brady then the Gronk showing it can happen. The big problem is Tiger's are unfashionable and there is no great attraction to go there and you have to really question their recruitment the last couple of years . And that reflects on their administrators.

The Storms recruitment and retention is close to 10 out of 10 but a few clubs including the Tigers would have to be rated 1 or 2 out of 10. It's hard to imagine how it could be much worse. The Eels and Manly were terrible for a long period as well but both clubs improved in that area and are doing pretty well on the field. It seems the Tigers can't land todays big fish but maybe they should stop trying because they are landing small fish and paying big fish money. The alternative is to target potential big fish looking for a chance to shine , a bit like the Storm do and be patient.

just relocate them - Perth, NZ, QLD.... plenty of places they can have a fresh start

Underrated for mine

Firstly, If what I saw from the doco is anything to go by, why would any player want to be coached by Madge. I did not see even one bit of what I would call actual coaching, just ranting and then pathetic attempts at some sort of Zen. Secondly, the Tigers have to realise that they simply are not a destination location, they should have learned that lesson from both Latrell & the Foxx. JAC even signed a letter of intent that if he returned to Sydney he would play only for the Tigers, and then promptly signed for the Dogs. Thirdly, the Tigers are still a divided club that does not have an established territory that is their own. Their continued insistence of trying to hold onto the Leichardt area as the spiritual home is simply holding the club back. Given that Wests Ashfield now owns 90% of the Wests Tigers, and Balmain LC has been allowed to keep 10% of the shares in the Tigers, not to mention 5 of the 7 directors, surely it is time for the Wests component to simply say, "OK, we are now going to be permanently based in the Campbelltown / SW corridor, that is our future and we are going to embrace it." If they did that today and managed it properly, in 10 years time they would be a powerhouse club like the Panthers or Eels. Finally, the two foundational blubs, Wests & Balmain, need to merge all the way down to the U7's, a complete merger of the club to ensure a unified, unbreakable identity. Oh and BTW, pick a stadium, any stadium will do really and make that your home. This nomadic existence of playing at 3 or 4 different stadiums is a huge part of their lack of identity. But you can't have BankWest Stadium, that belongs to the mighty Eels !!!!

I reckon Garner is close to their best most weeks.

I'd like to hear what you think, Sam.

They have a winger , Twaal and Douehi and the hooker. They have the worst roster. Brooks on $850 k and Mybe on huge coin. Wtf