‘They’re going backwards’: Wests Tigers torn to shreds in NRL nightmare

Benji Marshall was heavily criticised for his mid-season holiday to Fiji last week — after Friday’s game, he’ll be wishing he never came back.

The Wests Tigers have been demolished. Photo: Getty Images

A horrific capitulation has seen the Wests Tigers plummet to their ninth straight loss in a ruthless 56-14 beat down at the hands of the St George Illawarra Dragons.

A historic 32-point haul from Dragons winger Zac Lomax, which beat the joint venture’s club record by 10 points, and a try and four try assist performance from halfback Ben Hunt after both men backed up from State of Origin left the Tigers in their dust.

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Most incredibly, the Tigers actually led at halftime 14-12, meaning the Dragons outscored Wests 44-0 in the second half, tallying seven unanswered tries.

While it was a stunning capitulation for the Tigers, it’s almost nothing new for the club which has claimed the last two wooden spoons and hasn’t tasted finals football since 2011.

Ranked 16th in 2024 ahead of South Sydney purely on points differential, it seems the Tigers are heading for another bleak season in its first season under head coach Benji Marshall.

Although the Tigers had put in somewhat improved performances in 2024, Friday nights result was a return to the club’s darkest days over the past few seasons.

On Fox League, Michael Ennis pointed out that the Tigers ran for just 220m in a complete half of football. The entire team.

“It was an absolute diabolical second half from the Wests Tigers side that have now lost nine straight,” Ennis said.

The Wests Tigers were third in a two-horse race. Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images

“They were winning at halftime,” James Graham added. “That’s really bad — it’s quite shocking.

“This will be up there with one of their worst performances in a bad six or seven year period, especially in that second half.”

Graham said that although the Tigers had some injuries, there can’t be excuses.

“How much sympathy can you give?” Graham asked. “Not even from people like us — from the fans. How much sympathy can they afford their team?”

Yvonne Sampson replied: “When do you get empathy fatigue?”

“It’s just so far below par,” Ennis said.

Graham argued that it once again put Marshall himself under the microscope after he went on a family holiday to Fiji during the side’s bye week.

Marshall was criticised after the Tigers had lost eight-straight games leading into the bye but hit back during the week, revealing “I preach to the players that family is No. 1 and footy is No. 2, so in that break, spend some time with your family. If I’m leading that and preaching that, I’m going to do that too.”

But Graham said it raised the question of whether it’s a correlation or a causation after their “worst performance of the season”.

Sampson summed up: “The working bye may be the way to go in the future”.

Benji Marshall will be wishing he never came back. Photo: Fox Sports

Although he wasn’t asked about the mid-season trip in the press conference, Marshall said the team had come out “freshened up”, but lamented that he was “saying the same thing every week”.

He added that having only 20 per cent of the ball in the second half and “making schoolboy errors was unacceptable” and that he may have to make personnel changes.

“If the actions don’t change, then the players have to change — it’s unacceptable,” he said, adding there was “no excuse”.

As for the fans, Marshall said: “I feel sorry for them to have to watch that capitulation in the second half. I actually do, I feel sorry for them. And I can imagine how frustrating it must be putting your hard earned into it but at the same time, we’re on a trajectory of improvement.

“Although tonight was terrible, there’s definitely been improvements and we’re on a path for building for our future that we need to stick to.”

Marshall said there had “definitely” been improvement despite not winning since back-to-back wins in round three and four, saying those wins built expectations.

But on Channel 9, NRL great Paul Gallen said he didn’t think the Tigers were getting any better.

“I think being that young, you need to see players stand up and play well,” Gallen said. “When you look at their senior players, Olam had a shocker, Stefano (Utoikamanu) was relatively unsighted, Koroisau tried his guts out but he’s a hooker so you can’t do much unless you’re forwards to going forward, Alex Twal, relatively unsighted — that is about all the senior players they’ve got.

“The rest of the blokes are young kids getting their career started. I worry for a few of them. To me, they are going backwards.

“Looking at players like Jahream Bula and Lachie Galvin, I just wonder if week-in, week-out getting pumped, it’s going to take a toll on them. Obviously today they turned up and had some good moments in the first 15 minutes, they competed really well.

“If they can complete their sets, they give themselves a chance but when they make errors, they keep compounding them. It’s like they have no fallback plan. When things go wrong for them, they go really wrong.”

The Dragons were scoring at will. Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images

ABC’s Michael Doyle added: “Six weeks ago I would have said the @WestsTigers were an improved side in 2024. After nine consecutive losses, and that performance against the Dragons, I am starting to think the Tigers may have gone backwards.”

While it was a nightmare for the Tigers, it was a brilliant result for the Dragons, cracking 50 on the scoreboard at WIN Stadium for the first time since 2017.

And Lomax annihilated the club record for most points in one game by 10 points.

The previous record was held by Amos Roberts (2000), Jamie Soward (2007), Gareth Widdop (three times — 2015, 2017, 2018) and Lomax (2021) at just 22 points.

The result also moved the Dragons into the top eight for the time being, although could drop to 12th by the end of the round.