Leading sports psychologist praises mental attitude behind Wests Tigers rebuild
As the Wests Tigers prepare to take on the reigning premiers and former teammate Lachlan Galvin at the Bulldogs, a leading sports psychologist believes Benji Marshall’s men are winning the battle of the minds in their rebuild.
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Character and culture.
Two well worn rugby league buzzwords that over the next two rounds will be a true litmus test for the Wests Tigers.
On Saturday, the Tigers are charged with the task of taking down four-time defending premiers Penrith.
Eight days later the Tigers take on Canterbury, and Lachlan Galvin, just two months after the young playmaker’s bitter break-up with the Concord club.
The script writes itself.
A disgruntled young gun who refused to entertain a contract extension and walked out on the club mid-season, taking on the ex-teammates who unapologetically went in to bat for coach Benji Marshall.
Pot shots on social media were exchanged and there were even allegations of bullying.
Inevitably, the headlines will come thick and fast next week, and emotions will be heightened.
Tigers players were unwilling to buy into the mind games of it all when asked about the Galvin clash.
“For me personally, I couldn’t care less about Canterbury,” Terrell May said.
“I’m focused on this week, we have Penrith this week and I’m not looking any further or ahead to the Bulldogs.
One week at a time.
Another well-worn cliche in the vernacular of NRL players.
To leading sports psychologist and founder of The Mind Room, Michael Inglis, who has worked with AFL and Super Rugby outfits, May’s predictable response is actually the only right answer.
The words ‘Lachlan Galvin’ should not even be uttered – this week or next.
“In their sense, the opponent is not important at all,” Inglis said.
“I wouldn’t put any focus on it. The coach needs to put a focus on what they want to do, how they want to execute it and not focus on who the opposition might be.
“When you are building a culture, it’s not individually focused.
“You’re building it for the team and for the club. So, if a person doesn’t want to be a part of that, what difference does it make to a club if they leave?
“Maybe they did lose a good player that doesn’t want to be a part of that.
”But that is an individual choice. So there’s no point in being concerned with that one individual because other people are buying into the culture they’re building.”
The Tigers kept their faint finals chances alive against the Titans on the back of an 80th minute Adam Doueihi field goal.
Amid the Leichhardt Oval elation, coach Benji Marshall was blunt in the assessment of his side’s performance, labelling it as the worst this season.
Publicly, it was an attempt to temper jubilation knowing the job at hand over the next two weeks is monumental.
Privately, he praised his players for the character shown, particularly in the second half of last week’s clash.
The Tigers will need every bit of that character, and the inside knowledge that the likes of Jarome Luai, Sunia Turuva and Api Koroisau can bring if they are given any chance against Penrith on Saturday night.
With a bye in hand in Round 23, a win against either the Panthers or Canterbury will keep alive what might seem unthinkable to some: a whiff of the finals.
A late season charge will go a long way in the Tigers shedding the reputation that they are a club, after three-straight wooden spoons, some see as the laughing stock of the league.
It’s a narrative all too familiar Kurt Wrigley.
The former Newcastle Knights assistant coach is now a program facilitator at Leading Teams helping organisations and sporting teams with cultural change and high performance.
But he was there at the Knights’ lowest ebbs.
“After three wooden spoons in 2018, we had an honest conversation as a group asking, ‘How were we seen by others’?” he recalled.
“They were not great words … weak, soft, easy beats, no-hoppers.
“So how do you think that affected the way they played and trained?
“And it’s easy to get stuck in that.
“That plays into a players’ self talk, self talk will impact the way you play.”
At the Tigers, there are clear signs of attempting to recalibrate any of that, which is not only vital to building winning cultures but character and an identity too.
Four-time Panthers premiership winner Jarome Luai has routinely spoken about the Tigers no longer ‘being a push over’, and wanting ‘to put up a fight’.
Many believe Luai’s form so far this year is yet to pay dividends on the rich five-year deal, worth $6 million that the club forked out to lure the playmaker to Concord.
But Inglis believes a price cannot be put on the intel Luai has gathered about winning and professionalism during his time helping the Panthers build a premiership dynasty.
“He can tell his story of how success was built and then share those behaviours, it’s one way of fast racking a winning culture,” Inglis said.
“I think for a team that has been at the bottom for a long period of time, they are making progress … but how long it will take .. how long is a piece of string?
“They’re on the right path and you need to keep instilling those behaviours.
“The leaders in your team need to drive a winning culture.
“You might have two or three players in your group that have what it takes, that stand up under pressure and can get you over line.
“While that might not be enough for the whole team, those players lead the attributes and skills that then spread through the team.
“The most significant thing they will go through between now and the next step is complacency, that ‘this is enough’.
Therein lies Marshall’s brutal assessment of the Tigers’ win over the last-placed Titans.
He knows his men won’t stand a chance against either Penrith or Canterbury if allowed to accept the sub-par performance against the Titans as the standard.
Not when the coach also has to navigate the minefield that is likely to surround the build to the club’s grudge match against Galvin.
But the enormity of the next two weeks, and the headlines to come with it, is not lost on the Tigers.
“Everyone knows our season is in the balance,” centre Starford To’a said.
“That’s been our focus for the next two games because after that we have the bye.
“We haven’t spoken about any possible tension ahead, whether it’s this week or next.
“We need to empty the tank these next two games and come away with some wins that will set us up for the finals.”
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