Its a new era at the Wests Tigers in 2022, just ask them!
It has been a decade since the Wests Tigers have played finals football. Probably the worst run club in the game, poor signings, a multitude of coaching changes, a board and CEO that takes absolutely no responsibility for terrible results, a handful of stadiums they call “Home”…..its a mess.
The Wests Tigers recruitment has been like a game of Russian roulette at online casinos with players randomly dropped into their squad with no real plan in place for any long term success.
Michael Maguire finds himself coaching a squad of what is left over when the NRL player market cools down. The Wests Tigers are always beaten to the best players available by other teams. Every, single, time.
This season their big name recruit if Jackson Hastings, who had reasonable success over in Super League, but whose worth at NRL level is yet to be determined. A natural halfback, he will be linking up alongside Luke Brooks, who has been liked to a move from the club after a number of lacklustre seasons.
This all means that Adam Doueihi will be forced out of five-eight, where he played his best football for the Tigers. So where will he be playing?
It won’t be at fullback as Daine Laurie has that spot wrapped up. The club signed Oliver Gildart (From England) to play in the centres so its possible we could see Doueihi playing on the other side of the field. We will wait and see.
Meanwhile up front the Wests Tigers forward pack proved to be extremely soft last season…and I don’t expect much to change this season. Tyrone Peachey is the big name recruit among their forwards, and no one watched the Wests Tigers pack last year and felt they needed a utility player ahead of, you know, actual first grade forwards.
Why the club is calling this a new era is anyones guess. It looks like the same crap that Wests Tigers have been use to seeing for the last decade.
I cant see the Wests Tigers making the NRL finals in 2022. In fact I could very easily see them being in a battle to avoid the wooden spoon with the North Queensland Cowboys and the St George/Illawarra Dragons this year.
Thats the last thing Wests Tigers would want to see. They’ve had very little to cheer about for a long time. Still, don’t expect the CEO to take any responsibility, and the Wests Tigers board is just above the need to worry about things like, ya know, winning football games.
One thing is for certain, the club will sack Michael Maguire at some point this year. With such a poor rosters and the board and CEO having no responsibility, someone will be forced to take the blame.
As we saw in the 2021 documentary “Tiger Town”, Maguire works hard to get the most he can out of a very poor playing staff, but there is only so much he can really do.
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