Paul Kent: Wests Tigers find Anzac jersey scapegoat as spin doctors try and paper over cracks
The employee responsible for the Anzac jersey saga has been quietly let go by the Wests Tigers - but not for the kit blunder, PAUL KENT reveals.
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Wests Tigers have won one game since sacking Michael Maguire last June, which suggests to the reasonable mind that maybe he wasn’t the problem at all.
Maguire had three wins before the Tigers dumped him after round 12, sitting 13th on the ladder.
Such results were considered unacceptable then, but not so much now.
In this curious dream world called TigerTown the club is somehow spinning a 0-7 start to this season – that has them 17th and last on the ladder – as all part of the plan to make the Tigers great again.
Maguire was dumped because the club did not see it improving over the next few seasons.
What they see now has not been revealed, but there are four more years to go.
There were positive signs after the Manly loss, apparently.
They now measure success like it was under-10s. A good effort in a losing game is something to be excited about.
Everyone gets a ribbon in TigerTown.
ON-FIELD ISSUES CAN’T BE HIDDEN
Back in the real world, more of the closeness in the 22-16 loss could be put down to Manly’s awful performance as any sign of improvement from the Tigers.
The Tigers still struggle to score points. They march up field well enough and then once in the opposition red zone basically go from one sideline to the other wondering what to do.
Manly could not have been worse on Sunday afternoon and the Tigers still couldn’t get the result.
What makes it doubly worse is why the Sea Eagles appeared so bad.
They simply had no respect for who they were playing. Not personally, but in a professional sense.
If they were playing a better team you would have to hope Manly would have made smarter decisions. Played higher percentages, for instance.
Daly Cherry-Evans might not have kicked on tackle two, a speculator for Jason Saab, for one example.
Instead, against a Tigers team they had little respect for, in a competitive sense, Manly dumbed their football down to Tigers level and the Tigers, having lulled them there, then nearly beat them, as they say, with experience.
Manly had just 42 per cent of the ball for the game, handing a massive advantage to the Tigers. They completed 26 of 36 sets, for a comparatively low 72 per cent. The Tigers were at 78 per cent.
The benchmark in the modern game is 80 per cent.
The Tigers ran for 1496m, Manly for 1117m. Manly had 32 missed tackles to the Tigers’ 23.
Manly had 13 errors in the game, the Tigers’ 11.
Yet they still couldn’t win the game.
WHERE THE REAL PROBLEMS LIE
While the players are brave, and are competing, the spin on performances to distract Tigers fans is symbolic of the problems at the club.
A lack of accountability runs through the club and the last thing needed is for it to infect the football team.
Earlier this week, board member Simon Cook, one of the few bright lights at the club, stood down from his position on the board to make way for John Dorahy.
From the outside it looks a cynical ploy to add an extra layer of cover between criticism of the football team and criticism of the board, where the true problem lies.
Dorahy is a cult hero from the days of the Western Suburbs Magpies, the days of a cloud of dust and a bucket of blood.
Dorahy is a class act. He has worked at various levels of local council and government, as well as holding board positions before, and his appointment will somewhat safeguard the board against criticism for its lack of footy knowledge.
The directors will just nod towards Dorahy.
The true problem at the club is still to be addressed.
It took off recently with the Anzac jersey fiasco, where the response from the club was actually worse than the initial mistake.
It is a common theme throughout the club, the method the same, just the circumstances differing.
Selective leaks in the media, offering versions of what happened in a bid to explain their inadequacies, are slowly adding up.
SCAPEGOAT TO THE SLAUGHTER
Chief executive Justin Pascoe stood up in club suit and tie and gave an all-encompassing apology after they blew it with the jersey, an apology so broad it was almost meaningless, saying the buck stopped with him and he took full responsibility.
Meanwhile, the club quietly let go the man who managed merchandise following the jersey debacle.
Officially he was not let go for his role in the jersey, which was under his watch and passed briefly under his nose on the way through, but for breaching social media protocols, according to a Tigers spokesman.
The post in question seemed inoffensive and was unrelated to the Anzac jersey.
So they remain upset in TigerTown, but not nearly as much as their fans should be or, worse, are aware they should be.
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