The Wests Tigers have become something of an NRL joke over the last 22 years.
Aside from the most unexpected and thrilling of premierships in 2005, there has been little else of note for fans of the joint venture to celebrate.
Across those 22 seasons since the infamous merger, the Tigers have an average end-of-season NRL ladder position of 10.2, and have won just 224 of 538 matches… while employing nine coaches along the way.
Now, the Tigers have put the most successful of those nine, 2005 flag-winning coach Tim Sheens, in charge again for the next two years.
In an extraordinary sequence of plans, Sheens is shifting from his current role at the Tigers back into the senior coaching position, with club great Benji Marshall set to serve an apprenticeship under him for the next two seasons before taking the reins in 2025.
Tigers stalwart Robbie Farah is the third prong in the plan, with an assistant role alongside and then under Marshall once the baton is passed.
Goodness me, talk about back to the future.
Under their temporary mentor Brett Kimmorley, the Tigers have continued to lose as they did under Michael Maguire – they sit last on the NRL ladder and have just three wins to crow about in season 2022.
The broader rugby league community is far from shocked at their current plight, either. It is completely consistent with the pattern built across the club’s history, in which finals play has been achieved on just three occasions.
The need for a circuit breaker is obvious to everyone else watching on; yet seemingly is still a foreign concept to those calling the shots at Tiger town.
Sheens is a four-time premiership-winning coach whose credentials are beyond question when it comes to success on a rugby league field.
Reaching the pinnacle of the NRL at two clubs – three times at Canberra and once at the Tigers – saw his skills called upon at provincial, state and national level, where his reputation as an excellent man manager was enhanced further.
Kiwi international Marshall played a key role through the Sheens years, both as a will-o-the-wisp player and as a leader who fought desperately to mould the Tigers into a premiership force.
Sadly, that intent never came to fruition, with personal injury concerns and a lack of depth in the squad hampering the Tigers’ chances of raising the trophy for a second time.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Sheens has been a great coach in the past. Marshall may well be one in the future. And Farah does bleed black and gold.
Yet there appears to be something all too familiar and predictable about any Sheens/Marshall/Farah plans for the future success of the Tigers.
Something tells me the board have difficulties in looking beyond the confines of their own club, with season after season of disappointment passing and zero improvement occurring under very familiar faces.
Perhaps it is time for the Tigers to admit that long-term solutions are not to be found by simply recycling the same old names through the club, especially considering the appalling record it has compiled doing the very same thing.
Marshall is completely untested and unproven as a coach. Farah will no doubt be in the background and true to form, not thinking of anyone other than himself.
As for Sheens, the veteran coach will be somehow expected to produce improvement AND mentor both over the next two seasons.
If the plan works, kudos to them; yet something tells me that few will be convinced by what seems yet another attempt to give fans false hope based on nothing but the leverage that comes with the names attached to the latest unsuccessful plan in what has become a long line of them.
The club needed something different many years ago, and it may well be proven foolish by re-inventing the past once again.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Every drink Mick Potter has between now and next season will be cheers to the tigers. Chuckle chuckle. Seriously tigers go to campbelltown 1 game at leichardt each year and any board member who sayes no , sack em!
Tony Dargon
Roar Guru
It will be every man for himself, that's for sure
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
The Board at that Club is atrocious - personal opinion. Then the succession plan. Plan? These clowns are grasping for planks in the shipwreck.
Rick
Guest
The Balmain Tigers won 11 premierships. West 4. Balmain was always the superior club both in terms of management and performance. Certainly Wests are now the ones with the money and he who pays the piper calls the tune. However the current board and management demonstrate the same lack of performance as the old Wests board did. Therein lies the problem for the Tigers. Until that problem is overcome no coaches or home grounds will remedy the problem.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
“Bleeding black and gold” and only thinking of himself are very contradictory qualities.
Popavalium Andropoff
Guest
Wests Tigers have less finals appearances than the Titans and have been around for longer? Boy oh boy wowee.
Muzz
Guest
It's a crazy plan! I'm glad they're not skippering my boat.
Danno
Roar Rookie
Or it could be a great sporting movie , where the master coach teaches his ex star players how to at least fight for a top 8 spot in next few years
Davico
Roar Pro
Why should someone with zero experince or track record be given a go? That is the talk of loser clubs who never win anything.
Davico
Roar Pro
And Wests had done exactly what?? And what exactly have they improved since taking over? Nice to cherry pick peices of what I said byt Wests have been and will continue to be an abject failure Speak about my whole comment. You wont, because you know I am right!!
Cat Brown
Guest
Let's just give him a go. You can see how much the team means to him so step back and give him a go. Go Benji
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Yes the Balmain side had no money but at least they had some success pre merger. Not really. Any success Balmain might have had pre-merger is so long ago it is irrelevant now. Remember this was the club that allowed Alan Jones to coach them for 3 years in the 90’s. And the success they had was incredibly meagre for a very long time prior to the merger. They were runners up in 88 and 89. The years after that were dismal, including the wooden spoon in 1994. They last won a premiership in 1969 and before that it was 1947. The last period when they were winning more than one premiership every 20 years was in the 1940’s. We are talking 75 years ago - the people who remember that era are in their 80’s or 90’s now. They had been a lacklustre club for a long time prior to the merger. There seems to be this myth that they were a good football side because they supplied 25 of the original players to the Wests Tigers playing roster. That would mean something if that combined roster was not still as weak as it was as demonstrated by how poorly it performed on the field.
Davico
Roar Pro
The problem is the board. Yes the Balmain side had no money but at least they had some success pre merger. Wests had nothing! Well Wests control the board and have done for many years and the club has gone backwards. I have no problem with embrassing the west and I think the future for the tigers is in Campbeltown and the juniors that are out there, but the decision needs to be made now and this board is just not up to the task. Another 5 wasted years coming up. The club will be lucky to survive.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
'Most coaches ultimately fail' There's the Rub. So of course Benji is likely to fail . The odds are against him . They seems to be two theories with Coaching . Choose a great player or an assistant from a successful system . Nothing in it for mine. I wish him well.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
The fact that they are appointing Marshall is a sad endictment that no other coaches want to go there .
souvalis
Roar Rookie
I want to play under an inspiration.
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
Do you want to play under your best mate, or under the best coach? I think the recruitment aspect of Marshall will be short-lived, if it happens at all.
Redcap
Roar Guru
You could make much the same argument about Manly and their preference for old boys. Or the Broncos in bringing Bennett back and appointing Walters, in part to appease the club's old guard. I've no idea if this is a good idea or not. It probably won't work well, but only because most coaches ultimately fail, especially at Wests, not so much because of who's involved. They key is likely to be the quality of their succession planning. Sheens can certainly handle a transition, but is the club as a whole capable of identifying what Marshall will need in terms of the roster, coaching support, etc come 2025?
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Who are the realistic options ? Don't get the negativity here.. Interesting to see Benji's pulling power re: recruiting.
Curmudgeon1961
Roar Rookie
Agree Big Daddy. Not sure Stuart knows what stalwart means