NRL 2023: Wests Tigers players hold closed-door meeting amid Benji Marshall-Scott Fulton feud
No coaches, no club staff. Wests Tigers players have held a closed-door meeting to address the club’s off-field dramas, as they desperately prepare to avoid back-to-back wooden spoons.
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Wests Tigers players held a closed-door meeting on Monday morning when they vowed not to let the ongoing dramas at the club hijack their bid to avoid the wooden spoon against St George Illawarra on Thursday night.
Forwards John Bateman and Shawn Blore confirmed the players had addressed the dramas at the club, which reached a crescendo on Monday morning when chief executive Justin Pascoe held separate meetings with assistant coach Benji Marshall and recruitment boss Scott Fulton in a bid to repair their fractured relationship.
Marshall and Fulton have been at odds over several key recruitment decisions and this masthead understands the former was scheduled to front the board on Monday night along with head coach Tim Sheens.
The players insist their only priority is to beat the Dragons on Thursday night to give themselves a chance to avoid a second successive wooden spoon.
“We had a little chat,” Bateman said.
“The boys are pretty blasé, like you have to be in this game. You move forward. It is not our job (to run the club) - I don’t get paid to do that.
“If I was, I would be behind a desk. We have more to focus on. Hard times, it has been tough times. We haven’t been able to get a win.
“I think you watch me and I am pretty competitive, I want to get the win. It’s about working hard. For some reason, we have not been able to get the wins over the line.
“The last couple of weeks have not been acceptable as a playing standard and a club. It is a massive, massive week for us playing the Dragons, who are just above us.
“No-one wants to finish bottom of the league.”
Certainly not Bateman, who has spent the vast majority of his career in England and Australia competing for premierships rather than wooden spoons.
Asked if he had ever been in a side that finished last, Bateman shot back: “Never. I don’t want to either. It is as simple as that. I came here to win.
“You go through the dressing room and everyone else wants to win as well. It is just about getting the win.”
Blore confirmed the players had discussed the club’s current plight on Monday morning, although he also insisted most of the team were unaware of the latest drama to envelop the club.
“I think most of the boys didn’t read the news anyway,” Blore said.
“We came together and said let’s just focus on us and what we can control. What we can control is this week and how we prepare.
“What happens between coaches and staff is not for players to worry about.”
The drama between Marshall and Fulton has taken some of the focus off what shapes as arguably the most important game of the Tigers season.
Should they lose to St George Illawarra, they will be four points adrift in last spot with six games to play. Another wooden spoon would heap more pressure on a club that has drifted from one disaster to the next in recent years.
The club desperately needs reinforcements and they have been linked with former Canberra half Aiden Sezer, who is in England and interested in a return next season.
Marshall and Fulton are apparently at odds over Sezer but Bateman backed the bid to bring him back to the NRL.
“I had a good year alongside him and he is a good player,” he said.
“If he were to come in, I think would be a great addition.”
As for what he had learned from the season, Bateman was brutally honest.
“It is shit losing,” he said.
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