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Opinion
Millions of hours have been wasted on YouTube by people watching cat videos. Chasing their tails round and round, amusing stuff.
Not so funny when it’s the Wests Tigers, who have been doing the same for a decade-plus.
The imminent exit of Tim Sheens follows a familiar … tale (last feline pun, promise) that has been repeated since the first time he was shown the door in 2012.
Benji Marshall will be the eighth coach who has been coach of the Tigers, interim or full-time, since Mick Potter inherited the poisoned chalice a decade ago.
Sheens stepping aside, or jumping before he was pushed depending on whose spin you believe, is the right move.
Benji Marshall. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
But it’s yet another example of the Tigers fixing an error of their own creation.
The cockamamie plan for Sheens to return for a two-year term while Marshall served an apprenticeship was flawed from the get-go.
It was a venture that was supposed to bring stability to the joint but it painted the merged club as being in a holding pattern.
After signing Api Koroisau, Isaiah Papali’i, Charlie Staines, John Bateman and David Klemmer this year, they should have at least shown signs of improvement but they’ve somehow gone backwards.
They finished with a 4-20 record last season and with three rounds remaining, they are 3-18 after losing their past 10 matches since their 66-18 triumph over the Cowboys at Leichhardt in Round 12.
Wests have been competitive to not awful in most matches during their streak apart from the 74-0 revenge mission the Cowboys wreaked upon them last month.
Sheens has been up in arms about refereeing decisions most weeks, repeating himself in post-match media conferences to such an extent he’s started wondering aloud himself whether there’s any point in making the same complaints to the NRL after each round.
It’s a mentality that Marshall needs to eradicate from the Tigers.
He has been hands-on with the preparations at training and calling shots from the coach’s box on game days but now it’s his team.
Refereeing decisions can be costly but when a coach is constantly feeding the narrative that a club can’t catch an even break, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Paul Green, when he took over at the Cowboys, told the players to stop moaning about the officials after a few straight years of controversial calls contributing to early playoff exits and they became premiers the following year.
Marshall faces at least a few years of further rebuilding before the Tigers can even think about ending their 12-year playoff drought let alone dream of adding to their 2005 trophy which the incoming coach was an integral part of winning.
Tim Sheens. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
There have been green shoots in the form of fullback Jahream Bula, who should probably win Dally M Rookie of the Year, prop Stefano Utoikamanu graduating to the Origin ranks and a bunch of prospects getting accelerated first grade educations like Fonua Pole, Aitasi James, Justin Matamua and Tallyn Da Silva.
Getting a taste of NRL level before players are ready can go two ways – they can be burnt by the experience and their careers never reach their potential or it can provide a few early scars to harden them up when the time is right for them to cope with the weekly grind.
The addition of NSW under-19 duo Latu and Samuela Fainu and Dragons playmaker Jayden Sullivan gives the Tigers even more young talent for Marshall to mould into game-changers for the club.
But it’s going to take time.
Despite the change in roles, Marshall remains under contract until the end of 2027, only now he will be serving four of his five years as head coach.
No matter what, the Tigers have to stand by him. It would be a public relations disaster to not fully support arguably the most talented players who ever pulled on the club’s jersey but unfortunately on brand for factions to be sniping in the background if fortunes don’t turn around swiftly next year.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Cameron Ciraldo is another young coach who has gained massive plaudits but nobody is questioning his appointment at Canterbury – well, not yet anyway – because he has a five-year deal unlike his two immediate predecessors.
The long-term deal to an inexperienced coach doesn’t always work out – just ask Broncos supporters still trying to forget the Anthony Seibold experiment which started poorly from the moment he was parachuted in early to replace Wayne Bennett and only got worse.
Marshall was an instinctive player in his early days at the Tigers but he developed a shrewd understanding of the game as his career progressed.
As the pace in his boots gradually diminished, his speed between the ears more than made up for it.
Whether he can pass on that knowledge to a Tigers team which has been bashed from pillar to post on and off the field will be one of his main challenges.
Settling on a spine will be a process of trial and error, finding the combination that complements Koroisau at hooker and Bula at the back.
Aidan Sezer is being brought back at 32 from the Super League to be the mentor to Sullivan and Latu Fainu, who both have been touted as stars of the future as they’ve progressed down the junior Origin pathway.
While Luke Brooks is heading to Manly, Adam Doueihi remains on the roster but he is unlikely to be fit again until midway through next season at the earliest after yet another knee reconstruction.
The fans and everyone associated with the club are crying out for the Tigers to shed their tag as the NRL’s laughing stock but outweighing that desperation is the reality that expectations are at an all-time low.
For Marshall, the only way is up and if the Tigers can stay out of their own way, and more importantly his, they can finally stop chasing their tails and three years from now again be finals contenders.
After the recent years of misery, their fans would even be happy to rack up another ninth placing – reviving that old joke is much better than being a perennial punchline.