Luke Brooks is one of the last men standing from a Wests Tigers golden generation that never came

THE Tigers were supposed to ride to glory on the back of a golden generation of young stars led by Luke Brooks. Now, the mercurial halfback is one of the last men left standing.

WESTS Tigers were supposed to have a golden generation.

With some of the most talented young players in the league at their disposal, the Tigers were supposed to convert budding stars into elite NRL players, they were supposed to end their finals drought and launch new premiership assaults on the back of their fresh brigade.

Only, none of it happened.

Aaron Woods, James Tedesco, Mitchell Moses ... they’ve all skipped town.

Marika Koroibete fled to the Storm, then the Rebels, but was replaced by another former Tiger in Josh Addo-Carr.

Curtis Sironen was put on the scrapheap before Manly dusted him off.

Kurtis Rowe, Mania Cherrington, Jacob Miller and Jake Mullaney just didn’t work out.

In fact, of all the 29 Tigers players to debut at the club between 2011 and 2015, only three are still with the club — David Nofoaluma, Sauaso Sue and Luke Brooks.

Woods, Tedesco, Moses and Brooks were supposed to be the leaders of the young revolution.

Each of them had individual success, but it never converted into a return to finals footy for the joint venture.

The Tigers never saw the full potential of their young stars.

Now, three of them have scattered to the wind, leaving just Brooks, who had the fastest start and the loftiest expectations of them all, behind.

It makes 2018 a whole new world for Brooks. Previously, he’d been surrounded by teammates from his junior days or his time at Holy Cross Ryde. Now, he’s the last man standing of a generation that never quite got going.

“Ever since I started playing first grade I’ve had a lot of good mates that I went to school with or I’ve known and played footy with for ages, but a lot of those boys are gone,” Brooks told The Daily Telegraph.

“It put me out of my comfort zone when I first started pre-season but I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been a good challenge for me.

“It’s not what you’re used to. You’re used to coming in and seeing the same blokes. But I guess half our team left last year, it’s a whole new team.”

Woods was the first of the Tigers youngsters to play Test and Origin football, Tedesco was the most spectacular after rebounding from a series of early career injuries and Moses found his feet quickly, securing a top 10 Dally M finish in 2016.

But none of them started like Brooks.

Five years ago, the whispers began that Brooks, who was still only 18 at the time, was the biggest of the next big things. The Andrew Johns comparisons came thick and fast before he had even played a game.

Then when he did finally play, in a late season clash with the Dragons at the SCG, the hype kicked into overdrive. Brooks was tremendous, setting up two tries and scoring one himself. A rookie of the year campaign followed and Brooks, Moses and Tedesco figured to be the trio to take up the torch from the Robbie Farah-Benji Marshall generation.

But Brooks stagnated, as young players often do. Defensive problems, hamstring injuries, roster turnover and off-field turmoil for the club have reined in his development.

Of the Tigers four stars, Brooks was the only one to stay and playing away from Moses, one of his best mates, could be the best thing for his football in the long run.

No longer will he have to contend for the ball with a dominant playmaker, an issue which came up when he was paired with Moses.

“I think we’re both traditional halfbacks. That might have affected us a bit,” Brooks said.

“And we were stuck on the left and right hand side. Now that we’re able to move around the park, that’s helped my game a lot.

“In the past I was stuck on that left hand side, but Ivan wants us playing both sides, both of us.

Brooks has been given freedom to direct the team around.

“That helps a lot with being able to control the team, moving off that left hand side and getting my hands on the ball more.

“From the start, Ivan’s put a lot of trust in me and told me that it’s my team.

“I think having Josh (Reynolds) here as well, he’s a traditional five-eighth so I can play that halfback role and lead the team around, tell them what to do and then Josh can play off the back of that.”

In Reynolds, Brooks doesn’t have a perfect player but he has a player who may be a perfect partner for him.

Reynolds has little in the way of technical refinement, as he’d be the first to admit, but covers those gaps with sheer, unbridled enthusiasm.

Moses is the more skilled player, but Brooks has skill enough of his own and may well do better with a human spark plug — over their two-and-a-bit seasons together it was noticeable that Brooks and Moses sometimes played better apart than they did together.

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What has Brooks most excited about his brave new world is breaking outside of the structures and set plays that have bogged him down at times during his 82-game NRL career.

Not only has coach Ivan Cleary freed up Brooks to play both sides of the field, but he’s also encouraged Brooks — and the entire Tigers team — to take an opportunity if they can see it, to respect the structure without being a slave to it.

“It’s sort of become part of the game — very structured and every team doing the same sort of plays,” Brooks said.

“If we can play what we see — for instance, taking a short side. You’ll have an overlap on the short side but you won’t take it cause you don’t want to go out of the structure.

“Who cares about the structure? If we have those opportunities we have to take those opportunities.

“If we have a quick play the ball, just play it. Don’t worry about the big plays or anything like that.”

Brooks won’t tick all the boxes overnight. Combinations take time and so does adapting to changes.

But, for the first time in his NRL career, he is in a real position to succeed.

The Tigers are among the favourites to prop up the competition and have an awful run to begin the season, but they finally have some stability off the field and a bit of depth around the place.

Originally published as Luke Brooks is one of the last men standing from a Wests Tigers golden generation that never came