Tigers legend Benny Elias has opened up on his beloved club, speaking with passion and frustration about the club’s hierarchy, recruiting shortcomings, and coach Michael Maguire.
Elias called for the Tigers’ infamous 2021 end-of-season review to be made public and he told foxsports.com.au the board must finally make some tough decisions.
The joint-venture are anchored to the bottom of the ladder after three rounds this season and with a tough draw ahead, things are expected to get uglier.
Elias believes the club won’t compete for a premiership until it addresses their recruitment problem, and added it would be tougher for Maguire to walk away than to stay - but he should.
Elias has called on Michael Maguire to “be honest with himself” when weighing up his future at the club.
The Tigers are bottom of the ladder after three rounds and have won just three of their past 14 games.
They haven’t played finals since 2011 and since Maguire took over in 2019 they’ve tracked backwards - finishing 9th, 11th and 13th.
“It’s very hard to talk about but if we want to be brutally honest…They know their position and there comes a time when you’ve got to be honest with yourself,” Elias said.
“The coach tells players they’ve got to be honest about themselves, well the club has to be honest about itself and where it’s at.
“I’m a big believer of sticking strong when things are down, but they’ve been down for such a long time. You’ve got to be honest with yourself and sometimes things just don’t work.”
Elias emphasised Maguire’s poor results at the club have not been from a lack of effort from the coach, but said sometimes things simply don’t work out.
“It breaks my heart to see a business person who invests all their money and time and effort in a venture that doesn’t work, that breaks my heart,” Elias said.
“Now I’m looking at the Tigers at the moment and the effort is there and the commitment is there, but the results are not there.
“They are the true facts and unfortunately sometimes you have to be totally honest with yourself, it’s easy to stay there, it’s harder to call it a day.
“Everyone is accountable and the buck stops and finishes with him, he’s the coach, the makes the selections, he makes the decisions on who is going to play. This is his fourth year and the buck stops with him.
“Even (Warriors coach) Nathan Brown shook his head after the last game and said ‘I don’t know how we won that game, it was probably one of our worst performances’.
“Now for a Tigers fan to hear that, it’s disturbing.”
Maguire survived an end-of-season review by the skin of his teeth last year but his assistant coaches were replaced and club great Benji Marshall returned to the fold.
Tigers legend Robbie Farah is a trainer, while 2005 premiership-winning coach Tim Sheens has returned this season as head of performance and veteran recruiter Warren McDonnell is also back at the club.
“The question is - are we living in the past?
“We all loved being part of that ‘05 era, but is it time to move on?
“Everyday everyone is asking me what’s happening with our Tigers and I haven’t got the answer.
“But the answer is not in the effort from the coach, it’s important to note that the coach gives his full effort. But he last won a premiership in 2014 and the coach that sits on top of him last won a premiership in 2005.”
The Tigers have missed out on a host of big-name signings in recent years and it has reflected in their results - winning just three of their past 14 games.
The Tigers are the only winless team in the competition after Round 3 and with a tough draw ahead, things are expected to get uglier.
They face the Titans, Sharks, Eels, Rabbitohs, Dragons and Sea Eagles and Cowboys over the next seven weeks and some pundits are tipping them to start the season 0-10.
Elias, a former board member and Tigers legend, emphasised they’ll struggle to compete until the club starts attracting genuine stars.
“The last time I had anything to do with players coming to our club was when Latrell Mitchell was all but signed,” Elias said.
“I was told he was signed and two days later I see on the back page that he’s signed with Souths.
“There are a lot of players we should be going after but it’s about being able to attract players
to our club and you’ve got to ask yourself - who was our last strike player to come to the club?
“The facilities are there, we’ve got plenty of money, the conditions are perfect. We spend the same amount in the salary cap as every other club.
“I’m shaking my head trying to give you an answer. The ladder is our balance sheet at the moment.”
The Tigers completed an internal review after a disastrous end to last season which saw them spanked 38-0 by wooden spooners Canterbury.
It concluded with Maguire keeping his job but the findings were not publicly released which infuriated many supporters, including Elias.
“They did this review last year and our supporters need to know what was in it,” he said.
“They said they made some internal changes with a couple of assistant coaches gone but I don’t know what the review was.
“A review has to be done by an outside independent mob and believe you me, if they outsourced that review to a third party, I’d love to have sees those findings.
“They needed a full forensic audit and analysis done by third party.
“The review they’ve done internally hasn’t been disclosed to anyone, not the supporters, not the sponsors, no one. Now why even say you have an internal review if you’re not going to share that information?
“That internal review you might as well wipe on your backside with because it gave no answers to anything that has happened to the club, especially in the last decade when they haven’t made the top eight.”
Elias was a Tigers board member until 2011 and was instrumental in getting Sheens to club for the 2003 season, 18 months after the Cowboys sacked him.
He talked Sheens out of retirement and in 2005 the Tigers won their only premiership - beating the Cowboys in the grand final.
Elias said the Tigers’ board has stayed largely unchanged over the past decade and they were afraid of making the “big decisions”.
“It’s the same personnel at the top and if I say anything I get hammered because I’m a Tiger, but it’s the same regime,” he said.
“They make the same decisions year in year out, why expect any change? With the regime we have at the moment in the boardroom, I think Madge is safe.
“Its easy to keep the same regime, however it's the gutsy call making the big decision and at the moment our club needs it before the season gets away from us.
“Nobody likes making the big decisions. I want to be positive and optimistic but then I’d be lying to myself and I’d be putting my head in the sand and ignoring it.
“Sometimes people have got to ask themselves is it time to go? Is it time to move on?
“I love the club and sometimes it’s called hard love. It is hard love at the moment and hard love means being totally honest with yourself and taking responsibility.”
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We should all take notice of what he says about the board - he’s spot on.
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Love him or hate him, he's right.
Benny has hit the ball out the park 👍
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Just shut up Elias, you are not a Wests Tigers legend.
Elias does everything he can to destabilise the club. We’d be playing out of Perth and Elias would be making squillions if he had his way.
I think Elias still has his nose out of joint because the Board would not accept his take over offer.
The media need to put Balmain Tigers legend when giving this guy air .. he is not a Weststigers legend in any sense of the word !!!!
he may have his own interests at heart, but i think benny is completely right with this article, the board has a lot to answer for !!
Benny has been reduced to a sound bite and nothing he says is in the best interests of the club. A seedy former player trying to stay relevant.
I don't talk much about the coach but I'm not sure any coach is going to get the current, available players on a huge winning streak. The 'attract players' narrative is a different beast but over the past few years I'm not sure many players or agents would have WT at the top of their priority lists - and I don't think it's because of Madge. We've not had the luxury of picking who we want, it's been who would come.
It's not possible to wave a magic wand and fix something which has been broken for a decade. Hastings, AD, Stefano, Papali, Api and Blore are the best signings we've made in a long time and are a decent core to build a team around. If we could score a Pele, Nikora (or similar) and get Talau, To'a, Gildart, Nofo and Ken playing at their best we have the makings of a competitive side. In this team Brooks (or Madden) would also have a better chance to perform.
The biggest joke was when he and Blocker were angry about not being brought into the club. Whenever those 2 are together, all they talk about is how good each other were and the grand final they lost. Yeah...that ought to fire up a bunch of blokes in their 20's...Honestly, the Balmain guys talk about it way more than any Raiders player.
Just shut up Elias, you are not a Wests Tigers legend.
Elias does everything he can to destabilise the club. We’d be playing out of Perth and Elias would be making squillions if he had his way.
I think Elias still has his nose out of joint because the Board would not accept his take over offer.
Exactly right Mike .....everything he says has to serve a self purpose ...nothing else
