NRL 2020: Player unrest at Wests Tigers and pressure mounts on Benji Marshall to decide future
Another season without finals football is taking its toll on the Wests Tigers, with rumblings of player discontent emerging as Benji Marshall faces a big decision on his future.
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Wests Tigers’ season threatens to capitulate even further with fears of growing player unrest at the struggling NRL club.
Already faced with the prospect of missing the finals for a ninth straight year — the longest current drought in the competition — there is “disharmony” in the ninth-placed Tigers’ camp as they prepare to take on a red-hot Penrith side on Saturday night.
Speaking on The Daily Telegraph NRL Podcast, Sports Editor-at-large Phil Rothfield revealed Tigers coach Michael Maguire has a potential player revolt on his hands.
“I’ll be really, really interested to have a look at the West Tigers this weekend because I’m hearing talk out of there it’s not the happiest camp in the NRL,” Rothfield said.
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“All these losses over the last month, there’s a little bit of disharmony in the camp now … the continual switching of their halves.
“We know Madge is a really tough task master. And you get boys there who don’t cope with that, like the Leilua brothers (Joey and Luciano), particularly.
“Their football in recent times would suggest there’s something wrong there and it’s not just technical, it’s not just effort but there’s a relationship issue that potentially might blow up with the coach.”
The Tigers’ halves combination has changed constantly in 2020 with Benji Marshall, Josh Reynolds, Luke Brooks and Billy Walters all being axed from the starting side at different times this season.
“It is worrying time for the Tigers and it’s got a bit to do with uncertainty over players’ futures,” Rothfield said.
“We know Josh Reynolds has been offered to Wigan, we know Moses Mbye, they’re trying to offload.
“There’s still no word on whether Benji Marshall will be offered another contract. Luke Brooks has been in an out of the side. These are their big names, their gun players.
“Russell Packer was off with the coach (earlier this season).
“I got a text message from someone in the know earlier in the week suggesting there were problems behind the scenes at Concord.
“We will be able to tell against Penrith because they will get absolutely flogged if they don’t turn up in a mood to play footy.”
The Tigers’ lack of stability and success has contributed to their struggle to attract big-name signings. They missed out on Latrell Mitchell in the off-season, instead landing South Sydney’s Adam Doueihi.
While Luciano Leilua’s signing from the Dragons has proved a success, the club lacks a marquee signing to help end their near decade-long finals absence.
Of the current crop, Brooks is contracted until the end of 2023, Moses Mbye is signed until 2022 and Russell Packer and Josh Reynolds are on the books until the end of next season.
“The thing with the Tigers is that their top five paid players are arguably the most inconsistent,” The Daily Telegraph NRL writer Michael Carayannis said.
“Benji is the only one there getting value for money out of all those players. They are not getting bang for their buck — you have to try and move them on because it’s just not good enough.
“I don’t think they’re far off but it’s just a matter of persisting and having that faith in Michael Maguire that he’s going to deliver what he promised to and what he can do.
“For too long the Tigers have had a soft underbelly, players have been running the club and they just haven’t been able to deal with the genuine criticism.”
Since Tim Sheens’ 250-game reign at the Tigers came to an end in 2012, the club has churned through five coaches in eight years — Michael Potter, Jason Taylor, Ivan Cleary, Andrew Webster and Maguire.
Rothfield agreed that the Tigers could not go through the process of another coach because of player unrest.
“They have to back Michael Maguire because he is a premiership-winning coach in 2014.
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“He is the Kiwi Test coach and if he is going to rebuild he should be able to use his connections in international football with the Kiwis to attract some new players.
He inherited this horrible roster from the previous coach, the guy he’s up against this weekend, Ivan Cleary.
“There is a culture problem at the West Tigers. It’s always a blame-the-coach culture and, some tough decisions need to be made at that club and I can totally understand they are moving on players, because finishing ninth is not good enough.
I hope they get behind Michael Maguire, that he is allowed to make the tough decisions and then he can go about rebuilding. I don’t think they’re going to be anywhere near winning a premiership next year, but they can improve next year and maybe something like 2022. But it’s gonna take patience and new players.”