Wests Tigers angrily deny they are set to fast-track Benji Marshall into head coaching role
In a firm and public display of support, Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis has angrily exterminated suggestions his club will push aside their head coach.
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Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis has angrily exterminated suggestions his club will push aside their head coach, insisting Tim Sheens will remain in charge for next season.
It is a firm and public show of support for the embattled Sheens.
Speculation had been increasing that Wests Tigers were poised to fast-track assistant Benji Marshall into the club’s head coaching position for next season – one year ahead of schedule.
A disastrous season, which included a humiliating 74-0 loss to North Queensland on Saturday night, accelerated rumours that Sheens would step aside for Marshall’s promotion in 2024.
Marshall was signed as Sheens’ understudy for 2023 and 2024 before assuming the top job in 2025.
And that plan, according to Hagipantelis, will remain.
“Benji will continue to transition into the head coaching role, taking over in 2025,” Hagipentelis said.
“Tim is and remains head coach and publicly said that he is a transition coach, responsible for transitioning Benji into the role.
“Nothing has changed.”
The Sheens’ experiment at Concord this season has floundered, the club winning just three from 15 games to sit last on the NRL competition table.
Marshall appears to be coaching the side with Sheens advising.
Vision of the Wests Tigers coaching box each week shows Marshall seemingly in control.
Despite never having coached at a high level, Marshall is ready to take the club forward, according to well-placed Wests Tigers sources.
But he may have to wait another season.
Sheens is still a senior and influential figure at the club but Marshall’s role is increasing each week.
With the club struggling for success, Sheens will continue to front up to critics and cameras to protect Marshall.
Wests Tigers have lost multiple close games this season and continue to play without key playmakers Luke Brooks and Api Koroisau, both unavailable through injury. Tigers fans have taken to social media to vent their anger at the 13-try capitulation to North Queensland on Saturday night.
‘I’m that hurt’: Tigers could be wallowing for next 10 years
Balmain legend Steve Roach has described Wests Tigers’ 74-0 capitulation as “embarrassing and unacceptable” before declaring the club could be “wallowing for the next decade.”
“The defence was like Tally Ho paper,” said Roach, a former Australian and NSW enforcer who played 185 first grade games for the Tigers.
Wests Tigers’ debacle against North Queensland on Saturday night was the third biggest losing margin and biggest score to nil in premiership history.
North Queensland’s 74 points was equal third for most points scored in a game since 1908. Even Wests Tigers’ Twitter handle could only post: “No words”.
Roach was stunned and “hurt” by the loss while still lamenting the club’s failure to re-sign Luke Brooks, the Manly-bound halfback who missed the Cowboys game through injury.
“It’s embarrassing for what was once a great club – what’s happened to them? I don’t think anyone can fix it at the moment. I’m that hurt,” said Roach.
“We could be wallowing for the next decade. Where are you going to get a halfback from? Halfbacks are like hen’s teeth. If you’ve got a half decent one, you keep him, don’t you?
“It was just a precession. It was paper thin defence, like Tally Ho paper. Terrible. The old furphy that there’s always next week; mate, how do you come back from that?
No words. pic.twitter.com/5AYNcAXEIC
— Wests Tigers (@WestsTigers) July 1, 2023
“I really wouldn’t know what to say to the fans. It’s just gone from bad to worse, hasn’t it? I can’t see how we’re going to get out of this.
“Who are you going to bring in? You can’t replace players that aren’t better than the blokes you’ve already got. What’s the sense of that? They’ll get beaten by even more.
“The Tigers were renowned for digging deep, having a go, a working class club. When you’re playing like that and you’re down the bottom, and you’re trying to attract players, who is going to go there? If you’re half decent then you’ll want to go to a half-decent side.
“I don’t think it would matter who was coaching them at the moment. I don’t think you can blame the coaches. It comes in effort areas from the players.
“I want them to do well – they’re my team. They are the team I support but I tell you what, it’s bloody hard to support them when they play like that. It’s not only embarrassing for Tigers fans but also the players. Surely you have to put your body on the line and go down swinging. It was unacceptable.
“I hear all the time that we have good juniors coming through but, realistically, have a look at how many juniors actually come through and make it. Even if we do have a couple of good juniors, and I hope they’re halves, it takes them 60 to 80 games to know what they’re doing. It takes time.”
NO COMMENT
After the game, a drained and under-fire coach Tim Sheens fronted the media to declare: “We have just got to shake it off and wear the embarrassment of it because it is embarrassing to get beat by that score.”
While Roach vented his frustrations on Sunday, Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis and club chief executive Justin Pascoe were not commenting publicly.
Hagipantelis sent a text message to this masthead, saying: “I’m not going on the record today. Nothing I can say today will assist. Trust you understand. There is nothing further I can add to Tim’s comments post-match.”
Tigers legend Garry Jack took to Twitter during the game to post one word: MERCY.
MERCY...#NRLCowboysTigers
— Garry Jack (@jimmyjack244) July 1, 2023
OVERSEAS TRIP
Wests Tigers gave their players an eight-day break through a round 17 bye.
Forward John Bateman returned to visit family and friends in England while coach-in-waiting Benji Marshall ventured to Fiji for a break.
Fans have asked how Bateman was permitted to travel 24 hours in a plane, particularly given he started the NRL season late through injury. Marshall is, according to well-placed sources, essentially coaching the team with Sheens advising.
DAMNING POLL
This columnist ran an online Twitter poll asking who should shoulder most responsibility for the loss – the board, players, management or recruitment and retention.
Nearly 2500 fans responded with 48 per cent directing their anger at the eight-person board. The players attracted 24 per cent of the vote with management pulling 19 per cent.
Who shoulders most of the blame for that Wests Tigers fiasco?
— Dean Ritchie (@BulldogRitchie) July 1, 2023
WOODEN SPOON BETTING
Wests Tigers have tightened into $1.80 favourites to record the most losses this season with St George Illawarra now out to $2.40. The Tigers have won just three games all season.
“It was hard to believe you could find a team in more strife than the Dragons but the Tigers have managed to,” said TAB’s Rohan Welsh.
“The race to the bottom is starting to attract as much interest for TAB punters as the premiership market. Usually during the Origin period, battlers at the bottom end can pinch a couple of wins but the Tigers have managed to stoop to a new depth.”
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