‘Difficult to take’: Tigers CEO slams ‘crap’ reports, praises Benji for taking on ‘unenviable task’

Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson how blown up over the Benji Marshall ‘crap’ after his team’s huge win over the Roosters.

Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson believes the team’s upset win over the Roosters was a “statement” by the players in response to “crap” reports about their coach Benji Marshall.

Richardson also admitted that the exit of Lachlan Galvin “hurt” both him and Marshall, and he explained the reasons behind letting young gun Tallyn Da Silva leave early.

The Tigers ended a six-game losing streak on Sunday without three of their most important players in Jarome Luai, Api Koroisau and Jahream Bula.

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The 30-28 win came after another week of headlines surrounding the Tigers, including a story that alleged Adam Doueihi got into a fiery exchange with Marshall at training.

There were also claims that Richardson wanted to bring in former Dragons coach Paul McGregor as an assistant, but Marshall didn’t allow it.

Coach of the Tigers Benji Marshall looks on prior to the round 14 NRL match between Wests Tigers and Penrith Panthers. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)

Marshall hit back at the reports in his post-game press conference and on Monday night Richardson backed his coach up while appearing on NRL 360.

“I just think the players stood up and said to the world that this crap about Benji is crap. You don’t play like that with all the players we had out yesterday without having a real commitment to the coach,” he said.

“The articles written earlier in the week, I understand journalism, clickbait and all the rest of it but agenda-driven journalism is not true.

“The lies that were written in that article were very difficult for Benji to take.

“The players particularly knew it wasn’t true, Adam Doueihi knew it wasn’t true. I’ve never even met Paul McGregor so how I was even going to get him as a coach I don’t know.

“At the end of the day, it was a statement by the players and how they feel about Benji.”

The Tigers have claimed three-straight wooden spoons — two of which have been under Marshall — but Richardson believes the 2005 premiership-winner is trading in the right direction.

He also praised Marshall for showing the courage to take on the “unenviable task” of turning the Tigers around.

“Everybody in the press was bagging the Tigers for the last three or four years (saying) ‘how terrible they were’ and ‘they weren’t getting any better’,” Richardson said.

“He’s taken on the job that not many people would’ve ever taken on. He’s taken it on without coaching before and he took it on because in a lot of ways they gave him the blaze of it because he tried to give them some face in the marketplace.

“Then all of a sudden the Tim Sheens stuff happened and he inherited the side. He inherited a tough roster, which I believe there was only 22 of the 36 players could play NRL. So he had no depth work with, we ran last in reserve grade.

“He’s taken on that challenge and worked forward. This year we’ve gone in with the changes we can make and he’s got better and better.

“He will be the first to say he was stunned when he went in there but he learns every day. You can’t learn if you don’t want to learn, you can’t learn if you’re not intelligent.

“He’s intelligent and he’s there for one reason and one reason only. I can assure it’s not about the money, it’s about the want to make Wests Tigers successful again.

“He’s taken on an unenviable task and I think he’s done a great job.”

Benji Marshall and Shane Richardson.

The Tigers’ roster management has been criticised of late following the exits of Galvin and most recently Tallyn Da Silva.

Galvin was a week-in, week-out starter but wanted out of the Tigers and made the move to the Bulldogs around a month ago.

Da Silva hasn’t been able to nail down his role in the 17 and agitated once the club indicated they were going to re-sign co-captain and star hooker Api Koroisau.

That’s why Richardson said their situations were “very different.”

“Lachie just didn’t want to be there,” he explained.

“He told us up front that he didn’t want to be there and didn’t want to be involved with Benji as a coach and he wanted to move on.

“He had to make a decision and then we had to make a decision after that.

“It hurt Benji and it hurt me too because I never want to lose a junior and I watched the tapes before I went there and I could see what a player he was and that we could build the club around him.

“And we did, we named him straight away at five-eighth in the first grade side — no one had ever heard of him.

“He’s got a way of looking at things... I hope he’s successful and I think he will be successful, he’s a good player. We had to make a call on what was best for the club and the squad... we had to move on.

“The other one was different. It was a young kid who had made it clear to us that he wanted to be there. I went and saw his parents two weeks before this happened and they said ‘if Api signs we want him to be able to move on’.”

Richardson then explained that when he approached the Knights about getting Kai Pearce-Paul to the club early they suggested a player swap involving Tallyn Da Silva for the rest of this year.

However the Knights then decided they wanted to sign Da Silva longer-term, so the Tigers decided to let him go to market immediately. The Eels ended up winning the race for Da Silva though and the 20-year-old made a mid-season move.

Koroisau is yet to put pen to paper on the new deal that will lock him in beyond 2026, however Richardson revealed the club “accelerated the process” a fortnight ago and it’s close to being signed.

“We’ve chosen his loyalty and leadership,” he said when explaining why the Tigers are investing in the 32-year-old.

“We don’t have a lot of senior leadership and we felt that going forward that Api has done the right thing for the club. And more importantly he’s still an outstanding player.”

Originally published as ‘Difficult to take’: Tigers CEO slams ‘crap’ reports, praises Benji for taking on ‘unenviable task’