‘Putrid’ Tigers exposed for ‘mickey mouse review’ that won’t target ‘problem’ people

The Tigers have been taken to task for launching a review that will be run by the very people it should be investigating.

David Nofoaluma of the Tigers walks from the field.

The Wests Tigers have been taken to task for launching a “mickey mouse review” that will be run by the very people it should almost certainly be investigating.

Immediately following a disastrous 38-0 loss at the hands of bottom-placed Canterbury on Sunday, the Concord powerbrokers set about trying to figure out how the season went from bad to worse for a team that hasn’t played finals in a decade.

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The Bulldogs, who had won only two games for the entire year before Sunday, waltzed through a listless and lazy Tigers side that looked like it didn’t want to be there.

“It was a putrid performance,” Fox Sports reporter James Hooper told NRL 360.

In the immediate aftermath, the Tigers began end-of-year reviews but it is the coach, Michael Maguire, who dominated headlines on Monday.

His future as coach is in serous jeopardy following the debacle that was 2021.

The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Kent, though, believes the fault lies with the men on the field, not the one holding the clipboard.

“It lifted the lid on the character of the Wests Tigers,” he said.

“And it showed what Michael Maguire has been battling all season, which is they are, as a collective, weak.

“They haven’t got the character to get in the fight and stay in the fight. The fact they quit so easily yesterday in that game … as a group they turned it up, 38-0 against the worst team in the competition … if they have any semblance of professional pride they put in a performance yesterday, and they didn’t turn up.”

Luke Brooks of the Tigers looks dejected. Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

A review has been launched by the Tigers board to get to the bottom of the horror campaign.

But, bizarrely, the review will be run by club chief executive Justin Pascoe and his football manager Adam Hartigan.

“Why have a review done by people who should be being reviewed?” The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield said.

“They need an independent mob in there to do this review.”

Kent revealed the Tigers board will enlist the help of former coach Tim Sheens, who will return to Concord once he can fly into Australia from England.

“The ace up the sleeve of the Tigers is Tim Sheens,” Kent said.

“The board will be putting it to Justin Pascoe and Adam Hartigan to go and come back with some answers they want asked. It’s not about pathways or anything like that, it’s all about the performance of the NRL team.

“They want answers and they want them back from Pascoe and Hartigan. But I ask the question, what if they’re the problem? What is Pascoe and Hartigan are part of the problem? That (information) won’t come back.

“The board will sit down with the answers to those questions, Tim Sheens will be part of that review as well.”

Hooper slammed the Tigers board for handing the review duties to the two men who should be included in the investigations.

He also revealed Hartigan and coach Maguire recently had a stink while in camp in Queensland.

“It’s a mickey mouse review when you’ve got the CEO who’s under enormous pressure, and a general manager of football who’s in the same boat, who’s had a big stink with Maguire up in Brisbane,” Hooper said.

“Inside the bubble they’ve had a bust-up, they’ve obviously tried to smoke the peace pipe and bring it back on the same page.

“You can really see the self preservation and the desperation start to creep into things at the Tigers.”

Originally published as ‘Putrid’ Tigers exposed for ‘mickey mouse review’ that won’t target ‘problem’ people