Our post-game reaction pod after another loss, this time to the Knights. Unfortunately, coaching comes particularly under the microscope. https://weststigerspodcast.com.au/wests-tigers-podcast-0352/
Wests Tigers Podcast - Talking everything Wests Tigers!
My rebuttal for the benji debate. Using dragons and bulldogs as examples of “bottom feeders” I feel is inaccurate. Everyone talks about their squad of journeyman but seriously, they have legitimate superstars in their team. Replace faatape and Bateman/potter with Kikau and Crichton and tell me we win another spoon with a straight face. We are missing genuine origin/international level players to make any difference in a game. Our current squad can hang in there but don’t have the strike power to get over the line. I’m not a huge benji fan (it was a love hate relationship when he was a player) but I reckon it’s harsh to pile on him for game success. Recruitment success is another thing though. He got luai and turuva, but I ned at least one more before I say it’s working.
Brad Fittler, Stacey Jones and yeah you guys said Terry Lamb but he was a tad older than the former.
But the thing with Benjamin is that he’s come in at a time when the club is at its lowest point. I honestly don’t think it would matter moving who was coach. There’s to much BAGGAGE at this club.
Funnily enough the one coach that could have taken us forward imo, was there for the controversial cowboys game in ‘22.
My rebuttal for the benji debate. Using dragons and bulldogs as examples of “bottom feeders” I feel is inaccurate. Everyone talks about their squad of journeyman but seriously, they have legitimate superstars in their team. Replace faatape and Bateman/potter with Kikau and Crichton and tell me we win another spoon with a straight face. We are missing genuine origin/international level players to make any difference in a game. Our current squad can hang in there but don’t have the strike power to get over the line. I’m not a huge benji fan (it was a love hate relationship when he was a player) but I reckon it’s harsh to pile on him for game success. Recruitment success is another thing though. He got luai and turuva, but I ned at least one more before I say it’s working.
This is a good point I feel.
I have real concerns about Benji as a coach, both now and longer term, but it's really hard to judge him on this current squad. We have a bunch of kids, interspersed with career reserve graders. It's a terribly put-together squad, and even the likes of Bellamy/Bennett etc. would struggle to get anything out of this lot.
That's not to say that he should get a free run, or that we should ignore some of the obvious issues we're seeing weekly. Just a point from a higher aspect in that it's folly to expect much more than terrible performances from a terrible squad.
My rebuttal for the benji debate. Using dragons and bulldogs as examples of “bottom feeders” I feel is inaccurate. Everyone talks about their squad of journeyman but seriously, they have legitimate superstars in their team. Replace faatape and Bateman/potter with Kikau and Crichton and tell me we win another spoon with a straight face. We are missing genuine origin/international level players to make any difference in a game. Our current squad can hang in there but don’t have the strike power to get over the line. I’m not a huge benji fan (it was a love hate relationship when he was a player) but I reckon it’s harsh to pile on him for game success. Recruitment success is another thing though. He got luai and turuva, but I ned at least one more before I say it’s working.
This is a good point I feel.
I have real concerns about Benji as a coach, both now and longer term, but it's really hard to judge him on this current squad. We have a bunch of kids, interspersed with career reserve graders. It's a terribly put-together squad, and even the likes of Bellamy/Bennett etc. would struggle to get anything out of this lot.
That's not to say that he should get a free run, or that we should ignore some of the obvious issues we're seeing weekly. Just a point from a higher aspect in that it's folly to expect much more than terrible performances from a terrible squad.
I don’t know about that. Bellamy and Bennett are great coaches because they get more out of guys like Nick Meaney and Jeremy Marshall-King.
Wests Tigers Podcast - Talking everything Wests Tigers!
It was a bit of a Benji bash this time around guys and some of it is probably deserved but the one person who really believes in Benji is Benji himself. He has been successful in everything he has done in life to date and so I can't see him giving up on this role. He will have to be be pushed if he is to go.
Good discussion on the referees. We haven’t earned the right to complain about them in the press conferences yet, but API needs to be more assertive with them on the field.
That game was a hard watch and the pod a fair but hard listen. I think we need to stay the course. It’s hard to say it, but we do. It’s more of the same otherwise. If next year there’s no significant improvement, meaning getting out of the bottom four at a minimum then do something, but it’s got to be a really good coach signing, not some left field thing.
Richardson has so much to do right now that though. Get some quality support coaches and improving the roster, if he can’t do those two things, nothing changes.
Pay big overs for good support coaches, it would not be a patch on what we have to pay overs for players and I guess there is no cap for support coaches.
Leave Benji there, he’s not the main problem.
The game was a hard watch, however unlike other games I did last until the first try in the second half before I switched over to something else. How we can leave our slow winger (good in the air) one on one with a speedster who had already burnt him twice for pace is beyond me. I know physicality is a one word raised regularly however for me it sums things up. We do not dominate in a tackle and allow a fast play the ball, spread it wide and strip us for numbers and score, or straight up the middle because our markers are not in position and score. Simple.
We complain about refs penalising us for laying on the tackled player, the reality is it's so obvious when we do it. When better defensive teams do it its disentangling from the tackle (wrestle) so the defender is always moving.
I don’t know about that. Bellamy and Bennett are great coaches because they get more out of guys like Nick Meaney and Jeremy Marshall-King.
Agree that they're next level but both of those guys are far better than the dross we have running out there. As an example, Rueben Porter has stuck in admirably, but he can't tackle to save his life - he's a 27 yo NSW Cup player for a reason.
The reality is the bar is set so low that a player like porter comes out and just puts in an effort and looks like a keeper compared to everyone else.I don’t know about that. Bellamy and Bennett are great coaches because they get more out of guys like Nick Meaney and Jeremy Marshall-King.
Agree that they're next level but both of those guys are far better than the dross we have running out there. As an example, Rueben Porter has stuck in admirably, but he can't tackle to save his life - he's a 27 yo NSW Cup player for a reason.
Storm: will warbick, jack howarth, grant anderson, Josh king, Trent loriero, tyran wishart, Lazarus vaalepiu, Chris Lewis, Alec MacDonald
Panthers: Daine Laurie, Casey Maclean, Matt eisenhuth, Scott sorenson, Lindsay smith, Trent toelau, mavrik Geyer, aj kepoa
Dogs: Connor Tracey, Jacob kiraz, Jacob Preston, Bailey Hayward, lipoi hopoi, Kurtis morrin, Harry Hayes
Each of these top 4 teams are carrying nsw cup players. Every team does. The solution isn’t putting half the team in the shredder. The difference is having a high quality half (Cleary, Burton, Munster/hughes) and game turning forward (Kikau, yeo/JFH, NAS). We have one answer in luai next year. Get us Payne haas and the rest will fall into place.
Don't disagree with your point, but some of those names are a stretch! Kiraz has been one of the best outside backs in the whole competition over the last 18 months or so.
Don't disagree with your point, but some of those names are a stretch! Kiraz has been one of the best outside backs in the whole competition over the last 18 months or so.
Yeah some of them are a little subjective, but I’d still take every other fullback in the comp over kiraz except maybe 3-4 (gutho, kini, Sloan and Tracey).
