Surprise, surprise, Sheens going, going…g

[Graham]

Given this difficult season for Wests Tigers it probably isn’t surprising that it would cost someone their job:

Quote

The Wests Tigers’ five-year plan has not gone to plan.

The club confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that it will part ways with coach Tim Sheens at the end of the season and hand the reins to Benji Marshall 12 months earlier than planned. 

Sheens was meant to coach the Tigers for 2023 and 2024 before his assistant Marshall took over for the following three seasons. 

The Tigers board made the call to move Sheens on after concerns were raised by key stakeholders over the direction of the club which is headed for consecutive wooden spoons.

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Graham

[Farmduck]

I have mixed feelings about this Wests season. It's horrendous but ... they lost 7 games by 6 points or less so we definitely turned up some weeks. We've got Koroisau, Utoikamanu and Bula nailed down and we've finally got rid of Luke Brooks. We also lost Doueihi for most of the season and, while no team will ever win a GF with Doueihi as their 6 or 7, he was our best goalkicker - see "games lost by 6 points or less" above.

It's complicated and, dare I say "nuanced." In some of those narrow losses, Doueihi played and kicked 100% but I wonder if there were chances where another team would have taken a tough penalty kick to gain that 2-point psychological edge at strategic points in those games. Same with Brooks. He wasn't directly costing us games but his chunk of the salary cap has limited our ability to sign other players. He's been getting paid more than Teddy, Latrell, Harry Grant, and Grunt Clitherson. Compare the impact that those players can have on games with what Brooks has delivered.

So now the team will be run by the two club legends I despise the most* - two other players who insisted on getting Brooks-type money back when $900K could still buy lunch in Sydney.

*Disclaimer: I despise Benny Elias more but he wasn't a Wests Tigers player as such, although his post-playing activities certainly hurt the merged venture. The whole notion of "Wests Tigers" being broke was always untrue, didn't help recruitment, and related directly to Elias's activity at Balmain, who were in fact broke.

[DavidM]

It’s always interesting / bemusing seeing the Wests box during games . It’s packed with people like they sell tickets , including a woman who’s always there. Who’s in charge ? Quite a few coaches there but it looks like to many cooks and they’re still unable to make any kind of broth . I’ve a soft spot for Wests though as they keep Dragons off the bottom 

[graveyard johnny]

its ok Sezer is coming!