Paul Kent: Wests Tigers’ most embarrassing moment amid comedy of errors

Reasonable witnesses thought the most embarrassing blow occurred just before full time. But the real Monty Python moments were still to come, writes PAUL KENT.

The quiet fear about The Experiment, commonly known in these parts as the Wests Tigers’ recalling of Tim Sheens as head coach with Benji Marshall apprenticed beside him, was what would happen if Sheens’ two-year tenure was a bust?

After two failed seasons, were Wests Tigers fans going to have to accept that the bloke who had just spent two years learning from the bloke who failed to improve them was going to do any better?

Tigers fans shuddered but, understandably, didn’t want to talk about it.

Club bosses refused to even entertain it.

Impossible, they said.

Sheens is a legend in the game. He coached Canberra to multiple premierships, the Tigers to an unexpected one, and perhaps more importantly he revolutionised the game in his own way.

When the umbrella defence was stifling the game and league bosses were wondering how they could open it up again, Sheens came up with a strategy.

Tigers coach Tim Sheens is recognized after coaching his 250th match in round one. Picture: Getty

A long pass from Steve Walters at dummy-half to Ricky Stuart at first receiver who could take the eye out of a flying dove from 30m away with a football and the Raiders were set.

Stuart would hit Laurie Daley running an out line, already outside the outside defenders.

Defences would have to learn to slide.

Where do Tigers fans go after Sunday?

The time might have come sooner than anybody thought.

After just two rounds the Tigers have reinforced their reputation as God’s Gift To Columnists.

Reports out of Tiger Town all summer were that Sheens and Marshall had gone back to the future, the short passes and changes of direction in attack that were the foundations to their 2005 premiership.

But the attack was painful to witness on Sunday.

They played mostly sideways, barely able to come up with a meaningful challenge to the Newcastle defence. And not just any defence but a defence weakened by a one-man bench for the final 60 minutes of the game, and down to 12 men for the last 15 minutes.

For this afternoon, at least, the pre-season hype was a falsity.

Jackson Hastings and David Klemmer have words at Leichhardt Oval. Picture: NRL Images

When events of the afternoon are spliced into the narrative, though, it makes you wonder where they go in Tiger Town.

Most reasonable witnesses thought the most embarrassing moment came late in the game when Tyson Gamble played into the Tigers’ frustrations and revved up the mild-mannered Adam Doueihi after a fumble in the play-the-ball.

Doueihi miraculously recovered from the injury and jumped up to grab Gamble by the throat.

It was comical. The Tigers came in like an Apache war party, only the battle was basically over. There certainly wasn’t enough fight in the rest of their game.

“What’s happened to your cramp?” Gamble asked repeatedly.

This superseded Alex Twal getting over the line for the first time in his 104-game career – only to be stripped!

Believe it or not, the real Monty Python moment was still to come.

After the game, former Tiger Jackson Hastings approached former teammate Tommy Talau to apologise for breaking his nose earlier in the game, as you do.

Hastings seemed genuine; he had actually just finished his interview with Fox Sports’ Jake Duke by saying he was going to apologise and, when he turned, the camera followed him into the Tigers’ huddle.

This being rugby league, though, Talau gave him a shove and a few choice words punctuated with several colourful nouns as a stunned Hastings backed away.

David Klemmer and Jackson Hastings had to be separated. Pic: Fox League

Nearby was Tigers prop David Klemmer who, although his nose was injury free, fronted Hastings just as our man on the ground, security guard to the stars Bux Laalaa, moved in to break them up.

Laalaa had just finished the weekend of all weekends, having also escorted Latrell Mitchell off at halftime in Thursday night’s racism drama.

What it is about Hastings that nobody likes is hard to discover, but what we do know is it travels.

Run out of town at Manly and the Roosters before that, brought back to the Tigers last year but gone after a season, when he was clearly one of their best players, his reputation is of a man who is hard to like.

Some did note that in his interview Hastings was specifically full of praise for his new Knights coach Adam O’Brien and his former Tigers coach Michael Maguire, when others noticeably missed the cut.

Tigers supporters will argue there is still plenty of time left for The Experiment to work but time is already running out.

The Tigers are yet again battling.

Most Tigers fans would have banked the first two games, at Leichhardt Oval against Gold Coast (13th last year) and Newcastle (14th), as wins for the new and improved version in their trek to the finals.

It lasted a fortnight.

Now it is two wins they will need to find somewhere else to get the minimum 12 required.

The Tigers can shuffle their coaches all they like, masking the real problem.

Some years back the Tigers hired Ivan Cleary, who couldn’t get out of there quick enough when the time came.

He has won two premierships since.

In his place came Michael Maguire and his background check revealed he had won premierships at two different clubs, Wigan and South Sydney, before arriving in Tiger Town.

Yet Maguire, who clearly showed he knew what a winning organisation looks like, was unable to make the changes he needed to bring success to the Tigers.

They ruled him by committee.

That would suggest the problem goes above coaching level to the decision makers.

And for Tigers fans, who all hold a vote, it might be worth thinking that it could go all the way to the top.

Originally published as Paul Kent: Wests Tigers’ most embarrassing moment amid comedy of errors