Burning issues confronting Wests Tigers coaching saviours Tim Sheens and Benji Marshall
These are the burning issues facing the Tim Sheens and Benji Marshall coaching combo — starting with one crucial cut to the playing roster.
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Let’s be honest – the Wests Tigers have lost their soul.
A car-crash club surrounded by pessimism.
They have become the lost sheep of rugby league, a sad entity without an identity.
But two unlikely heroes have emerged – Tim Sheens and Benji Marshall – to try to save a club which has bounced from one disaster to another.
Born in different countries from different eras – one conservative, the other flamboyant – Sheens and Marshall have been tasked with rebuilding a club which, brick by brick, is collapsing.
At 71, Sheens knows the laborious journey ahead, as does Marshall, the head coach from 2025 who is 34 years younger.
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I fear for the Tigers’ future if Sheens and Marshall cannot restore this floundering club.
Where to from here if this fails?
I hate laying the boot in because I have a genuine soft spot for Wests Tigers.
I used to love working-class Balmain Tigers (Blocker) and enjoyed the fighting roughness of Western Suburbs (Tommy).
No one seems to know exactly what Wests Tigers stand for anymore.
Here are just four of the issues the Tigers must quickly address.
1. ISAIAH PAPALI’I
Sheens has to look Papali’i square in the eyes and tell him to be at off-season training in November.
The club has to show some mettle to enforce the contract of Papali’i, who is threatening to exit Concord before he has arrived.
If the club backs down, whatever respect remains at Concord will evaporate.
Papali’i had a chance to eliminate rumours he wants to remain at Parramatta over the weekend but only offered: “Whatever happens, happens.”
Hardly a ringing endorsement from a player about to cop $1.9m from that same club. This is a true test for Sheens and Marshall – brace for repercussions if they kowtow to Papali’i.
2. HALVES DILEMMA
It appears simple arithmetic – three into two doesn’t go.
Adam Doueihi, Luke Brooks and Jackson Hastings all want to play in the halves. The club has to find a solution – and that means one leaves.
Although it’s been denied, I keep hearing of an unsettled relationship among the three players. The last thing Sheens would want in his first season back as a head coach is internal friction among his three highest-paid players.
For the sake of club harmony, and a fresh start, one has to exit. This internal power struggle for the six and seven jumpers cannot stretch into 2023.
I’d build the club around Doueihi.
3. DON’T DISMISS SHEENS
It seems unfair having won four premierships – and coaching NSW and Australia – but Sheens will have to prove himself once again.
Social media is full of quips about Sheens’ age.
It is quite conceivable – given Wests Tigers’ poor record and his age – that Sheens will coach next season under the most pressure of his career. And while trying to win, he also needs to be Marshall’s mentor.
But don’t write off Sheens. We in Australia tend to dismiss our ageing sportspeople and coaches too early in life. Wayne Bennett will be 73 when he coaches the Dolphins in their inaugural season next year.
Sir Alex Ferguson was 72 when he retired as Manchester United manager. Pete Carroll, 70, is head coach of the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise while Bill Belichick, head coach of New England Patriots, is also 70. Roy Hodgson managed Watford this year at age 74.
4. THE APPROACH
Will Sheens and Marshall take a hard line approach to coaching?
The last coach to try that at Concord – Michael Maguire – was eventually sacked.
Maguire tried to implement an uncompromising coaching style - it was there for all to see on the Tales From Tiger Town documentary.
But players began moaning to their player managers.
Surely this underachieving roster doesn’t need a gentle, restrained attitude from their coaches. It will be fascinating to see how Sheens and his assistant Marshall treat the players.
Sheens is tough with old school values.
The players’ complaints may have won out with Maguire – but they won’t with Sheens.
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