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Speaker 2: West Tigers Podcast Episode number four hundred and thirteen. Joined
Speaker 2: by Stephen Declan on a Wednesday. I was gonna say
Speaker 2: a Wednesday night, Declo, but we're doing a very family
Speaker 2: friendly time today five point thirty pm. We're recording.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, Barry relate to record podcast at twelve
Speaker 3: o'clock at night, and you know the people that have
Speaker 3: nombals like to be dead by that time, So I
Speaker 3: appreciate everyone moving beot to five thirty.
Speaker 4: I think it's great for my sleep. Harbits, thank you.
Speaker 2: I don't deny that, Declan, but I do know that
Speaker 2: you told me that there's a rugby game on tonight.
Speaker 2: Apparently I don't really follow rugby, but what's on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the British and Irish Lions have started their turn
Speaker 3: to Australia, so I'm very excited for that they're playing
Speaker 3: the Reds today eight o'clock kickoff, So it's good. They's
Speaker 3: change your place where I'm going into a rugby game
Speaker 3: expecting my team to win. So I can't say that
Speaker 3: I'm not excited for it. But yeah, that's where we're.
Speaker 4: At the moment.
Speaker 5: I think you think the Reds all win.
Speaker 4: No, I don't think the Reds will win.
Speaker 3: I'm going for the Lions and I think they'll they'll
Speaker 3: do Persca on them, so.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure that'll be a huge game. I can't
Speaker 2: say I'll be tuning in, Steve. Do you do you
Speaker 2: deal far off the rugby league and cricket landscape or
Speaker 2: not really sport?
Speaker 5: No, not at all, not at all these days. I
Speaker 5: used to I used to enjoy rugby when I was younger.
Speaker 5: I'd get up for the you know, if there were
Speaker 5: test matches on the middle of the night, that sort
Speaker 5: of thing. But I haven't for a long time. They've
Speaker 5: just changed the rules and it's just so boring.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone knows the rules in rugby when
Speaker 2: the ref blows a penalty. But this is not a
Speaker 2: rugby podcast, boys, it's West Tiger's midweek podcast. We will
Speaker 2: preview the Bruster's game and we'll try and do Yoddi's
Speaker 2: quiz at the end as well. But we've got a
Speaker 2: fair bit of bit of stuff to get through. Mike,
Speaker 2: there was a Michael Chammers article that got that dropped
Speaker 2: about three o'clock this afternoon. I'm just going to paraphrase
Speaker 2: some of that and going to get your guy's reaction
Speaker 2: to it. The headline was West Tiger's promised things would change,
Speaker 2: but it's starting to look like the same old story.
Speaker 2: Chamis rehashed some old quotes from Shane Richardson when he
Speaker 2: joined the club, which was basically saying clubs win premierships
Speaker 2: when they bring through their juniors. We have to make
Speaker 2: it clear to everyone. We're not a recruitment club. We're
Speaker 2: a development club. This club and I'm parafer this let
Speaker 2: players go around seven years ago and we've never recovered.
Speaker 2: He then goes on to talk about a bit about
Speaker 2: talent the Silwell, which we'll go into later separately, but
Speaker 2: the Chambers article focuses on the fact that Marshall has
Speaker 2: basically backed Appy Kirasaur a strong relationship with his senior players,
Speaker 2: but in terms of selecting coaches, he's rarely looked outside.
Speaker 2: He's sort of inner circle in terms of players that
Speaker 2: he played with in two thousand and five, and there's
Speaker 2: a feeling in the dressing room, according to Chambers, that
Speaker 2: the coach favors certain players or there are different clicks developing,
Speaker 2: and perhaps the Tigers have compromised their long term future
Speaker 2: in terms of backing Benji with some of these signings
Speaker 2: rather than looking at the long term. The last bit
Speaker 2: was interesting. I mean, it's easy to be flippant about it,
Speaker 2: but he actually describes the fact a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago that apparently I'm trying not to laugh when I
Speaker 2: say this, that Marshall actually tackled Adam Dewey and maybe
Speaker 2: sent him crashing to the ground, and there was an
Speaker 2: altercation after that, And the fact that he regularly joins
Speaker 2: in a post sessions plays for the reserve grade team
Speaker 2: against first grade team, which is I think has been
Speaker 2: well known over the past eighteen months, and that there
Speaker 2: is a concern that he doesn't know what sort of
Speaker 2: behavior is well, where the line is between being a
Speaker 2: player and being a coach and what's acceptable. Steve, I
Speaker 2: start with you on this one. A few people text
Speaker 2: me and said there's going to be a big investigation
Speaker 2: in the West Tigers. I've got to be honest. I
Speaker 2: didn't get any great revelations out of this. Looks like
Speaker 2: he's rehashing some old quotes and basically Benji Backs's senior player, Shakarra,
Speaker 2: what a horrible thing to do as a coach, and
Speaker 2: riche backs Benji even though Benji's not right all the time,
Speaker 2: and Benji likes to join into the training. They were
Speaker 2: my four main points I got.
Speaker 4: Out of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think Chalmers maybe sat down this morning and
Speaker 5: there wasn't a lot happening and thought, well, what can
Speaker 5: I write about regarding West Tigers because that'll always get
Speaker 5: some attention. And he's put together, you know, the main
Speaker 5: points of what's happened over the last couple of weeks
Speaker 5: and turn it into another article. And how he got
Speaker 5: his mate the Mole to put all those socials out
Speaker 5: saying breaking news and huge story about to drop and
Speaker 5: all this rubbish because it was it was. It was rubbish, right.
Speaker 5: There's stuff in there to discuss, for sure, but there
Speaker 5: was nothing earth shattering, There was nothing groundbreaking. It was just,
Speaker 5: in my opinion more clickbait from a journalist who had
Speaker 5: nothing better to do?
Speaker 2: Declan, did you learn anything from the article?
Speaker 3: No, not really except that, as you said, you know,
Speaker 3: HadAM do got forwarded by Benji Marshall. That was the
Speaker 3: only thing I really took away from that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I said in the group chat before that I'm not
Speaker 3: a huge fan of make Couch. Honest, I'm not really
Speaker 3: a huge fan of any Rugbyley journalists. I just think
Speaker 3: the whole environment is so toxic and if you but
Speaker 3: to get them on side, you have to give them access,
Speaker 3: and if you don't give them access then they absolutely
Speaker 3: go at you. They attack your character. This is the
Speaker 3: second like kind of big article that Michael Champs has
Speaker 3: wrote in relation to Benji not being a good coach.
Speaker 3: He said that that was the reason why Galvin ultimately
Speaker 3: decided to leave the club was because of like beers
Speaker 3: that Benji Marshall wasn't a good coach. And I think
Speaker 3: the thing that's extra kind of slimy about it as
Speaker 3: well is they always draft. They always draft the article
Speaker 3: as someone else is saying it, when it's probably just
Speaker 3: their opinion or maybe they've talked to someone I don't know,
Speaker 3: but like it's quite clear that that's Champis's opinion that
Speaker 3: he doesn't think that, like Benji Marshall is a good coach,
Speaker 3: and he just kind of weasily tries to make it
Speaker 3: seem like it's not coming from him, it's coming from someone.
Speaker 4: Within this club.
Speaker 3: He doesn't name anyone, like it's an anonymous source, and
Speaker 3: I just I don't respect that at all, Like it's
Speaker 3: just crazy in a like in a professional environment you
Speaker 3: can just write anything you want and you don't have
Speaker 3: to back it up at all, Like it's crazy to me,
Speaker 3: Like coming from a legal background, I just find that
Speaker 3: like golf smacking. So yeah, I didn't really learn anything
Speaker 3: in relation to it. I think we all know these
Speaker 3: kind of elements of Benji's coaching have been out there.
Speaker 3: I think it's probably fair enough to like attack his
Speaker 3: record as a coach, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: that's what he.
Speaker 4: The win game.
Speaker 3: But to just see all this stuff about how he
Speaker 3: joins in at training and like he runs plays, I
Speaker 3: just don't really see how it has anything to do
Speaker 3: with us winning and losing on the weekend. Like I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: Like if you want to see he's a bad coach
Speaker 3: then go for it like there's plenty of evidence.
Speaker 4: This season of us struggling and I was making mistakes.
Speaker 3: But I don't see why the media is obsessed with
Speaker 3: going back to this thing of him like picking up
Speaker 3: a ball and running drills of training.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make sense to me because.
Speaker 5: They take the one story Decline that maybe three four
Speaker 5: six months ago someone wrote and it got a bit
Speaker 5: of it got a bit of momentum, and they saw
Speaker 5: that that story got momentum, so they just rehashed the
Speaker 5: same thing over and over and over again in the
Speaker 5: hope that it will also their story will pick up momentum.
Speaker 5: Like how many times have we heard this stuff about
Speaker 5: Benji Marshall been involved in training, Like I've heard this before.
Speaker 5: You know, Brad Arthur, Michael maguire used to do the
Speaker 5: fitness with the players and beat a lot of them,
Speaker 5: So what right? Okay, there needs to be separation from
Speaker 5: player and coach. Absolutely there does, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 5: the bloke can't get involved in you know, hands on
Speaker 5: sessions out on the field.
Speaker 2: But I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying. Boys,
Speaker 2: I will say Declan, I generally agree with you your wide
Speaker 2: premise there that analists. I don't have a lot of
Speaker 2: time for a lot of them. I will say that
Speaker 2: Michael Chammers is one I do. I don't know the
Speaker 2: guy at all, never spoken to him, never met him
Speaker 2: in my life, but I will say he stood up
Speaker 2: to feel Good in that one a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2: And I think generally he's pretty fair and he's accessible
Speaker 2: to the fans at least on his his social media stuff,
Speaker 2: which a lot of them are not. I know Steve's
Speaker 2: had dealings with ones in the past that won't even reply.
Speaker 3: You don't agree, well, just on that Fell guild thing,
Speaker 3: like everyone says that make Chalmers stood up to him,
Speaker 3: but in the actual interview he qualified his opinion by
Speaker 3: staid that, oh you're a Fell. No, you're you're three
Speaker 3: steps ahead of everyone, like you obviously knew what was happening.
Speaker 3: So he was clearly like sucking up to him.
Speaker 2: But that's that's sometimes that's the tactic to, you know,
Speaker 2: give someone a compliment then having them down. That's a
Speaker 2: fairly that smart play for me.
Speaker 3: But that's like the level the expectation we have on
Speaker 3: these journalists to like ask journalistic questions that have integrity,
Speaker 3: Like it's just so low that like he like he
Speaker 3: asks Bill Goold a non softball question and then everyone
Speaker 3: just like appraises him for being some sort of like
Speaker 3: like emblem of like journalistic integrity. Wouldn't in actuality like
Speaker 3: he fair played too, we did ask a question, and
Speaker 3: like he asked it to someone who's on the same
Speaker 3: side of the Fairfax News Corp. Like feud, So like
Speaker 3: credit him for that, but I wouldn't say like he
Speaker 3: put him on the spot or like he really he
Speaker 3: roasted them in a way that I think other like
Speaker 3: if this was another sport from another country, like Goild
Speaker 3: would have gotten so much worse. So I give him
Speaker 3: a little bit of credit, but I don't give him
Speaker 3: a ton of credit like a lot of people do.
Speaker 3: I think that I agree a little bit with you.
Speaker 4: I think he's.
Speaker 3: Better than a lot of other people, but like there's
Speaker 3: still things that he writes that I have a problem with,
Speaker 3: And I don't think he should be someone who like
Speaker 3: people just like, oh he's the good one, you know,
Speaker 3: like Michal Champion, he's gonna because he's just he just
Speaker 3: plays the same game as everyone else. Like it's just
Speaker 3: like you gave me access. Otherwise I'm going to flog
Speaker 3: you in my articles. And that's the scene as all
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, they.
Speaker 2: Fired up Declan tonight. I love this second and he's back.
Speaker 2: He's back, and he's fired up. Steve just breaking down
Speaker 2: little bits of the article I want to touch on. Look,
Speaker 2: we're all if we're all going to be prisoners of
Speaker 2: quotes we made eighteen months ago, we'd all be dead
Speaker 2: and buried. So I don't want to hammer Shane Richardson
Speaker 2: for the fact that he came in and he said that,
Speaker 2: you know, premierships are won through local juniors, and you know,
Speaker 2: we want to make it clear to everyone we're not
Speaker 2: a recruitment club, We're a development club. But I just
Speaker 2: I don't really understand that line of recruitment club development club.
Speaker 2: I think we need to throw it out and put
Speaker 2: in the bin because surely the good clubs I think
Speaker 2: I mentioned in a few weeks ago just have to
Speaker 2: be both. They have to be ruthless, they have to
Speaker 2: be balanced, they have to be winning clubs. And I
Speaker 2: think unfortunately with some of these quotes, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to hammer him, but it sort of backed him
Speaker 2: into a corner.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you're right. Look, I think if you're
Speaker 5: a development club, it goes without saying that you are
Speaker 5: still going to recruit from the outside. I just think that,
Speaker 5: you know, like I think that the problem with all
Speaker 5: these terminology is in the actual meaning of the terminology
Speaker 5: right now. And so if you're a development club, it
Speaker 5: doesn't mean you don't recruit. It just means that you
Speaker 5: mix your squad with outside players and inside players, I
Speaker 5: would say, And that's the same I suppose if you're
Speaker 5: if you're a recruitment club, you know, it's just what
Speaker 5: you do more of. So I think you're right. I
Speaker 5: think you're a you know, with rich O I said
Speaker 5: the other day when we all said it on the pod,
Speaker 5: we were dumbfounded, right, we were dumbfounded with the Silver situation,
Speaker 5: and none of us seem to be able to understand
Speaker 5: or see reasoning as to why he was let go
Speaker 5: so early, you know, considering the position that's left us in,
Speaker 5: which which has made the fan base quite volatile. Really,
Speaker 5: but we don't know the whole situation. I'm not going
Speaker 5: to bag him over the Galvin situation. I've said before,
Speaker 5: I think he handled the Galvin situation pretty much spot on.
Speaker 5: I don't know what else he could have done. I
Speaker 5: don't know what else the club could have done in
Speaker 5: the Galvin situation, So I think to use that against
Speaker 5: him pretty poor. The DA Silver, Yeah, I've got questions
Speaker 5: about that, but I don't know. You know workings either.
Speaker 2: Well, let's go straight to the DA Silver quotes that
Speaker 2: Rich I think put out a day or two ago,
Speaker 2: and will circle back to maybe Charmer's article on a
Speaker 2: little bit on Beggie's future, but declan Some of his
Speaker 2: quotes were basically, I told the family we would not
Speaker 2: hold him back if we re signed Appy. The kid
Speaker 2: wants to play NRL and I think he can. We
Speaker 2: had to make a decision for the betterment of the club.
Speaker 2: We want to win games now, but we don't want
Speaker 2: to string him along for another two or three years
Speaker 2: waiting to play first Raid again. Oh stress, These are
Speaker 2: not direct quotes. It's paraphrasing a lot of his quotes.
Speaker 2: He said, there's too much money for a in our
Speaker 2: hooking ranks. I think that would probably be understandable to
Speaker 2: be spending one point three to five million on two
Speaker 2: hookers and having a backup hooker on considerable money for
Speaker 2: next year. This is the big one for me. By
Speaker 2: letting him go, it gives us a little bit of
Speaker 2: extra money in our cap, or we save a little
Speaker 2: bit of extra money this year, but we save a
Speaker 2: significant amount of money next year. This was the best
Speaker 2: decision for all. You were fired up about this a
Speaker 2: couple of days ago, and I think for the same
Speaker 2: reasons that we were. Not that the fact that Talan
Speaker 2: won't be here in twenty twenty seven, but the fact
Speaker 2: that he's being he's already training with paramatter and he's
Speaker 2: gone and he's out the window, and the fact that
Speaker 2: Rich has come out and the best he could offer
Speaker 2: for me is that we're saving a little bit of
Speaker 2: money in our cap this year. Is that going to
Speaker 2: wash with fans? And is that fair enough for he?
Speaker 3: I don't think it'll wash with the fans, And I
Speaker 3: think that's fair enough as well. I think that's a
Speaker 3: poor excuse to spin what's happened, because I understand that
Speaker 3: we think that happy is the best option going forward,
Speaker 3: like even though he's a little bit older, we think
Speaker 3: that we're the best chance of winning, and on that basis,
Speaker 3: we're not going to resign to Silva, and unfortunately to
Speaker 3: Selva made it pretty clear that he wasn't happy to
Speaker 3: play second fiddle to Happy. I think that's incredibly disappointing
Speaker 3: on its own, considering he's only a twenty year old
Speaker 3: local junior coming through.
Speaker 4: But that's for the Birds now. Unfortunately.
Speaker 3: The thing that I just don't understand is that why
Speaker 3: is he going now, Like like we are the only
Speaker 3: club in the NRL that would do this, like give
Speaker 3: away a perfectly good player who can play first grade
Speaker 3: like at the June at Dirty Deadlight. I don't know
Speaker 3: any other club that did it if you look at
Speaker 3: all the other outgoings from clubs, their fringe news cirpowers
Speaker 3: Cup players that the clubs was brilling to release. Look
Speaker 3: at Newcastle, I mean, like with it Capers, Paul, I
Speaker 3: mean he's leaving next year, and like we made inquiries
Speaker 3: about getting them like app before the June thiry deadline
Speaker 3: because we like, obviously he's coming next year, we want
Speaker 3: to get him early. But then Newcastle were just like,
Speaker 3: well no, because you know he helps us winning this year,
Speaker 3: so we're going to keep him. And I just don't
Speaker 3: understand why why we've done this. It's insane we've and
Speaker 3: now we've got trust and hope starting nine against the
Speaker 3: Roosters again, that like is absolutely must win if you
Speaker 3: don't already believe that the season is over.
Speaker 4: And it's just crazy, like to.
Speaker 3: Save like a little bit of money this year, like
Speaker 3: fair enough, released him next year, Like I trust the
Speaker 3: coaching staff to make that decision. If they don't think
Speaker 3: he's going to be like a long term benefit for
Speaker 3: the club or at least short term next season, that's
Speaker 3: fair enough. But just to release him for nothing when
Speaker 3: there's so much pressure on the club.
Speaker 4: And then what really annoyed me.
Speaker 3: Was the quotes about how from Richison about how you know,
Speaker 3: like it was a good thing because they were honest
Speaker 3: with like talent, honest with his family, like did right
Speaker 3: by him.
Speaker 4: Well that's great for Talent, you know.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that he's feeling really good about the situation
Speaker 3: now because he got exactly what he wants. But now
Speaker 3: the club is in trouble and Richardson's employed to represent
Speaker 3: the best interest of the club and that includes in
Speaker 3: the short term. And I think just like I'm just
Speaker 3: piggy back on Steve's point as well, where every year
Speaker 3: we just seem to release players just to free up
Speaker 3: salary cap room, and I understand it. This is like
Speaker 3: a bad contract, like it's an old player like who
Speaker 3: is probably not performing on the period.
Speaker 4: But we have genuine need for him.
Speaker 3: And not only that, we've given him to a Western
Speaker 3: City rival in the Paramatta Eels, and we've given Galvin
Speaker 3: to the Bulldogs. And as Steve said, I understand why
Speaker 3: the club would want to get Galvin out as soon
Speaker 3: as possible, so I don't hold a grudge against him
Speaker 3: for that, but talent there didn't seem to be a
Speaker 3: problem with at least keeping him till the end of
Speaker 3: the year. I just don't understand, and like it just
Speaker 3: seems like we're here to like to help other clubs
Speaker 3: at this point. And I made the joke on and
Speaker 3: the group chart, like maybe the penwidth for what define
Speaker 3: her brothers? Like why not just give it to him
Speaker 3: because we're just in the business of helping out other teams,
Speaker 3: because Paramatta are going to be in the same possession
Speaker 3: for us, potentially fading for the Wooden Spoon.
Speaker 4: So I just don't understand why we would give them
Speaker 4: a leg up.
Speaker 5: But literally nothing, well is there any is there any
Speaker 5: tape left. That's that's a rant and a half deck long.
Speaker 5: I've forgotten what I was going to say. No, I haven't,
Speaker 5: just on your point about giving him up for nothing.
Speaker 5: And I agree, mate, And and I agree with I
Speaker 5: empathize with you that the level of frustration coming through
Speaker 5: your voice because we were all the same the other
Speaker 5: night in the pod. I think we had a chance
Speaker 5: on that pod to sort of get that frustration out,
Speaker 5: and you haven't as yet. So I do agree with
Speaker 5: you one hundred percent. The only thing I can say
Speaker 5: is that it just can't be for nothing. There must
Speaker 5: be some we don't know and we're not privy to.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: And I don't know whether this is the club's inability
Speaker 5: to manage young talent properly, but perhaps his attitude of
Speaker 5: if you're going to resign happy, I'm going to walk
Speaker 5: Coming from a bloke who's played I don't know how
Speaker 5: many first grade games he's played, not many, With the
Speaker 5: experience that he's got, maybe that attitude permeates through everything
Speaker 5: he does and maybe the way he's around the group,
Speaker 5: and it would seem to be more damaging if he
Speaker 5: stays than if they let him go. Now I'm just
Speaker 5: throwing things up here. I don't know. I'm just throwing
Speaker 5: up as a possible plausible explanation because I don't understand.
Speaker 5: I don't believe that we could give him away for nothing.
Speaker 5: There must have been something.
Speaker 3: I mean, I completely I completely accept the point that
Speaker 3: if he's living, he's a young player, there's no point
Speaker 3: keeping him next year to develop him for another club. Therefore,
Speaker 3: he's done a lot of money and we should release him.
Speaker 4: But I just can't.
Speaker 3: Understand why we're getting rid of him like right now,
Speaker 3: Like why he had to go right before June thirty
Speaker 3: with no material benefit to us, because like, realistically most
Speaker 3: of his sally would have been paid anyway. So I
Speaker 3: challenge that, like if we actually save that much money
Speaker 3: on the cap. And then the second point is this
Speaker 3: is just a prime example for the other young players
Speaker 3: that you know, if you want to leave, then like
Speaker 3: the Tigers will just accommodate you. Like I know that
Speaker 3: it's true that there's nothing, like our contract doesn't mean
Speaker 3: much these days in the NRL, and that's true across
Speaker 3: the board in every NROL team. But I do think
Speaker 3: the better clubs have a do a better job of
Speaker 3: missaging these kind of situations. So now that I don't know,
Speaker 3: like say someone like Macasini that the young center coming through,
Speaker 3: like if he just blatches it next year in five
Speaker 3: grade and then he's just like, well I see myself
Speaker 3: at a like a higher club, then you know he's
Speaker 3: got the blueprint to like just get out because he's
Speaker 3: he's learned that behavior from the other young players coming
Speaker 3: through that he no doubt has connections with. So it's
Speaker 3: just it's just bad precedent all the way around, no
Speaker 3: matter how you look at it.
Speaker 2: And Steve sort of tricky one because it's it's very
Speaker 2: easy to lump on and and you know, group them together.
Speaker 2: Galvin and the Silver both gone for nothing. The West
Speaker 2: Sydney Rivals, I think the fan base. I don't want
Speaker 2: to speak for everyone, but generally there was you know,
Speaker 2: half a pass for Shane Richardson in regards to the
Speaker 2: Galvin situation because it was so toxic and it was
Speaker 2: created by their camp, and perhaps he was hamstrung legally,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure there were things behind the scenes that
Speaker 2: he can't say that would maybe embarrass the club or
Speaker 2: embarrassed Benji or embarrass someone that he just can't say.
Speaker 2: But this one, for me, he's not getting as much
Speaker 2: leeway with because the quotes are there. It gives us
Speaker 2: a little bit of extra money in our cap. Not
Speaker 2: only do we save a bit of money this year,
Speaker 2: but what is like we didn't get it? Someone come
Speaker 2: through the door for June thirty. We had a couple
Speaker 2: of players sneakily added to the player profiles who I
Speaker 2: assumed have gone up to top thirty contracts because you
Speaker 2: have to fill your thirty on a Monday morning. Maybe
Speaker 2: they're trying to upgrade a couple of players for this
Speaker 2: year who've got the shits. I don't know, but for me,
Speaker 2: that was a little bit wishy washy that reason from Richo.
Speaker 2: It just didn't seem to hit. Yeah, I'm not a
Speaker 2: salary cap expert. None of us are.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, that's for sure. I think Joel made
Speaker 5: this point before. He said the other night in the
Speaker 5: pother the thing that was upset him the most was
Speaker 5: not what happened, but the way it happened and the
Speaker 5: lack of communication, and maybe the fan base does need
Speaker 5: to be communicated to more openly and transparently. Richo has
Speaker 5: said to us in the past that he wants to
Speaker 5: be honest and transparent and open and he you know,
Speaker 5: he talked about membership numbers and how you know it
Speaker 5: wasn't as honest as it could have been, and he
Speaker 5: wanted to be more honest about it. Well, maybe we
Speaker 5: do need not saying he's been dishonest at all, but
Speaker 5: maybe he does need to be more transparent and more
Speaker 5: open with the fan base. And I think you're right, mate.
Speaker 5: The fan base have given him and the club a
Speaker 5: lot of slack. We always do. We always give the
Speaker 5: club a lot of slack and support. We bounce back
Speaker 5: pretty well. But as I said the other night, it
Speaker 5: just doesn't take much for the fan base to turn
Speaker 5: because it's just been disappointment after disappointment. But I do
Speaker 5: want to I do want to flip the narrative just
Speaker 5: a little bit. And again we've spoken about this before,
Speaker 5: not this year so much, and I agree we all
Speaker 5: have a right to be angry and dirty with what's
Speaker 5: happened with Galvin and the Silver and I'll go back
Speaker 5: to Stefano as well, but I'm going to bring up
Speaker 5: the point of again, at what point do we as
Speaker 5: a club take a responsibility for the fact that all
Speaker 5: these people want to walk out the door. At what
Speaker 5: point do we say we need to develop a culture
Speaker 5: of winning and win more football games than we do,
Speaker 5: and a culture and an environment where these young kids
Speaker 5: believe that they're in the best place or one of
Speaker 5: the best places in the NRL to develop their game
Speaker 5: and to succeed. Because we've been losing for far too long,
Speaker 5: and we've been losing talent for far too long, sometimes
Speaker 5: generational talent. And you talk about developing players, we develop
Speaker 5: them and if they're any good, they go. And there's
Speaker 5: a history of that. You cannot deny that. It's a fact.
Speaker 5: We bring players in and historically the vast majority of
Speaker 5: them underachieve. Now I think that's changing. I think the
Speaker 5: people we've brought in this year for the most part
Speaker 5: of doing great playing great football. But if we keep losing,
Speaker 5: what we see it happen again with these recruits with more
Speaker 5: in this year, are going to start looking at greener
Speaker 5: past us else elsewhere. We'll ask you, guys, do we
Speaker 5: need to take more responsibility for the way our rostera looks?
Speaker 4: I mean absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think just as like a kind of macro point,
Speaker 3: I think that now that we've had a few, you know,
Speaker 3: tough games and a few injuries. Just how the lack
Speaker 3: of depth is just completely exposed that we just don't
Speaker 3: really have enough first grade players in the top thirty
Speaker 3: squad to compete. I think it shows that, you know,
Speaker 3: absolutely the squad needs to be better, and that falls
Speaker 3: on the management of the club, but just on talent himself.
Speaker 3: I mean, he would have been at the club since
Speaker 3: he was thirteen years old in terms of some sort
Speaker 3: of like development pathway, So he's been with the Tigers
Speaker 3: for a really long time. And it's kind of scary
Speaker 3: to me that someone who's been in the pathways from
Speaker 3: Campbelltown could just so easily leave, like pretty much like
Speaker 3: the saga, like it was bubbling away in the background
Speaker 3: for a while, but like just how quickly it happened
Speaker 3: where he's just well, I'm gone now because I've got
Speaker 3: a better opportunity and what Like Chamis talks about how
Speaker 3: local juniors you bring through local juniors in that one
Speaker 3: premierships and a big reason for that is that local
Speaker 3: juniors come through, they have a connection and add infinity
Speaker 3: with the club where they're willing to stay and takes
Speaker 3: slight unders like look at the Permier system. Look at
Speaker 3: Manly back in the day as well with their players Brett,
Speaker 3: the Stuart brothers. But with our players it's kind of
Speaker 3: the opposite, where like they come through because it's in
Speaker 3: their best interest with Galvin with the Silva, but then
Speaker 3: as soon as they hit first grade at that young age,
Speaker 3: it just seems that there's just no kind of like
Speaker 3: willingness or like desire to like turn the club around.
Speaker 3: Like as a very individualistic point of view, and I'm
Speaker 3: not in their heads, i don't know their perspectives. I'm
Speaker 3: not going to come down to critically on them, but
Speaker 3: it's just really alarming Steve. And it's just to your
Speaker 3: point that we have to look at our pathways and
Speaker 3: like how we brought these players through and ask why
Speaker 3: do they feel this way? Like why are they so
Speaker 3: willing to jump ship at the first opportunity, Like why
Speaker 3: don't they want to turn this club around? Why don't
Speaker 3: they see themselves long term with this club? And I
Speaker 3: think we probably know a lot of the answers, but
Speaker 3: I think it goes a lot deeper and probably like
Speaker 3: it requires the kind of access that we don't have
Speaker 3: as to why the Selva we're so eager to leave
Speaker 3: like immediately it turned out.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I think you're right. I think we probably
Speaker 5: do now. A lot of the answer, a lot to
Speaker 5: a lot of it is success on the football field,
Speaker 5: right and corecting a successful club. That's the answer. But
Speaker 5: I think if you want to talk about macro, the
Speaker 5: macro sort of it is our society, right, It's the
Speaker 5: society we live in, and I think there are less
Speaker 5: and less young people willing to work hard to turn
Speaker 5: something go around and chain because we live in a
Speaker 5: society in an era where you can get so much
Speaker 5: instantly without a lot of effort, right. And I'm not
Speaker 5: saying people don't put effort, and people do, but you
Speaker 5: can achieve and get what you want quickly in this world,
Speaker 5: whereas maybe twenty years ago that wasn't the case and
Speaker 5: people had a mindset of heads down, bums up, work
Speaker 5: hard to achieve. I think we're losing that mindset and
Speaker 5: therefore if a better option presents itself, they take it. Now.
Speaker 5: You know, someone my age, I find that really hard
Speaker 5: to grasp. Someone your ace declone probably finds it easier.
Speaker 5: Someone ten years younger than you would find it easier. Still,
Speaker 5: I reckon that's probably a bit philosophical for our godd.
Speaker 3: But if you look at where talents when like he
Speaker 3: went to the Eels though, like it's not like they're
Speaker 3: a sure thing to be a top four team within the.
Speaker 4: Next That's true for years and the Recid as well.
Speaker 2: He got a good offer.
Speaker 3: But like, I just it's crazy because with Galvin, like
Speaker 3: he ultimately it made like as much as I hated
Speaker 3: the situation, it made sense because like the bill Dogs
Speaker 3: coming first, you know, like Surroud is a great coach.
Speaker 3: I think Jason Rows has proved itself to be a
Speaker 3: great like a good coach as well, maybe not great yet,
Speaker 3: but like it just doesn't seem like it's a better
Speaker 3: situation for him. So maybe you're right, and maybe it
Speaker 3: was just money. But yeah, I'm happy to hear Steve's
Speaker 3: philosophical points on a Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: I will say, Steve might be a little bit of
Speaker 2: a rent I'm going on. But you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 2: young people a little bit different. I think that's that's
Speaker 2: fair and that's common knowledge across all walks of life
Speaker 2: at the moment. But you mentioned, you know, should we
Speaker 2: look at our environment and what we doing for young players?
Speaker 2: The short answer is yes. And obviously winning and success
Speaker 2: and the brand helps, but how do clubs start winning,
Speaker 2: like look at the Melbourne Storm. I know they're the outlier,
Speaker 2: they're not the norm. But you've got Tyrone Wishart there,
Speaker 2: You've got Jonah Pezant, You've got Harry Grant. I reckon.
Speaker 2: All those guys are in their early twenties that could
Speaker 2: have been playing first grade at Week of Clubs three
Speaker 2: or four years ago and could have wanted everything. But
Speaker 2: the standard of excellence there makes them think differently. And
Speaker 2: obviously they've got Craig Bellamy. They've been winning for twenty years,
Speaker 2: so they've got a huge advantage in that regard. But
Speaker 2: how did they create this? You know, I listened to Stefano,
Speaker 2: who I hate. I can't stand him. I think he's
Speaker 2: been average this year. He couldn't even make his flight
Speaker 2: for Origin, so well done. But one quote he said
Speaker 2: was the difference between the two clubs. And I don't
Speaker 2: think he was trying to pile on us here was
Speaker 2: he was amazed by the amount of selfless players at
Speaker 2: the Melbourne Storm. Now that is not for me, something
Speaker 2: that is that is something that is ingrained in them
Speaker 2: when they go there through the environment that they have.
Speaker 2: And I don't know how we get that, whether we
Speaker 2: have to ask some of our coaches to spend a
Speaker 2: few months at the Melbourne Storm or something. But it's
Speaker 2: clear that in the top, top clubs they can withstand
Speaker 2: some of these pressure from younger players or keep them.
Speaker 2: We can't.
Speaker 5: Well, what they've created stems, what they've created over a generation, right,
Speaker 5: stems from some outstanding decision making over those years, all
Speaker 5: the way back to choosing someone like Craig Bellamy, you know,
Speaker 5: and then they get the right players into the club,
Speaker 5: you know, Like I don't like pump them up too
Speaker 5: much because they did get all those players in the
Speaker 5: club for four years because they cheated. Let's not forget that.
Speaker 5: They seem to want to forget that, but let's not
Speaker 5: forget the fact they cheated massively for four years. But
Speaker 5: apart from that, they've just made the right decisions time
Speaker 5: and time again with the right people and the right jobs,
Speaker 5: with the right attitude. And that's how you create that culture.
Speaker 5: And you're right, you know, people come in and if
Speaker 5: you are a little bit self centered and a little
Speaker 5: bit selfish and a little bit about yourself, then everyone
Speaker 5: else around. When everyone else around you is not, then
Speaker 5: you've got to change or leave. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 5: And they've created that that the majority think that way.
Speaker 5: I saw this greatthing. I think I've said this before
Speaker 5: on their wall in the Gymish, you know, like talent
Speaker 5: gets you, Talent gets you into this room. Hard work
Speaker 5: keeps you here, you know. And that's their mindset right,
Speaker 5: that everyone works hard. Doesn't matter how talented you are.
Speaker 5: You work hard, you know. And that's going to roll
Speaker 5: off on blokes like Stefano, but it is and he'll
Speaker 5: get better because of it. We don't seem to be
Speaker 5: able to make those decisions. I haven't been able to historically.
Speaker 1: We hope you're enjoying this edition of the West Tiger's podcast.
Speaker 1: Don't forget If you agree or disagree, we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear your comments and thoughts on the West Tigers Podcast Forum.
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Speaker 1: podcast dot com dot auslash forum. We hope to see
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Speaker 2: Last one on Richo Deckland, does he need to say
Speaker 2: more to the members because he's been very bullish about
Speaker 2: members first, and Joel made a good point on Sunday Night.
Speaker 2: He said, the goodwill of some of the fans, the
Speaker 2: rusted on ones, even the diehards, the tide's starting to
Speaker 2: turn back to that really toxic negative talk from a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, where I think Steve made the
Speaker 2: point Sunday night. Look, our memberships don't automatically cancel and
Speaker 2: we get refunds. With eight rounds to go, we still
Speaker 2: have to go to games or support the team, So why.
Speaker 4: Not?
Speaker 2: Why are you giving up on the season? But can you,
Speaker 2: maybe richer explain to us a little bit more in
Speaker 2: detail what the grand plan is without giving up your
Speaker 2: races or what your cards are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's that balance, Like at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, you could put lipstick on a peg,
Speaker 3: but it's still a pig at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: So with the Disselver situation, like it's just bad. In
Speaker 3: the Galvin situation, it's just bad. So you can try
Speaker 3: and spend it however you want, You can communicate to
Speaker 3: the members however you want, But the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it's an elf for the club, And I kind of
Speaker 3: understand how you wouldn't want to jump at every single
Speaker 3: obstacle to talk to the media or talk to the
Speaker 3: fans when something bad goes wrong, because then you'd be
Speaker 3: talking to the fans every single week.
Speaker 2: That's what lay in exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I made it worse because like people just kind
Speaker 3: of trying to what you're saying it in the day
Speaker 3: or they don't believe you and you you.
Speaker 4: Lose credibility in their eyes. So I can understand that.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, I can also understand job
Speaker 3: put Joe's point of view, where like what as the
Speaker 3: strategic decision? Are we still our development club if we've
Speaker 3: lost all these.
Speaker 4: Young local juniors?
Speaker 3: The Magpies didn't have great seasons in ISSUESO how MAT's
Speaker 3: s year, Like what are we doing with that?
Speaker 4: Like what's the home ground situation?
Speaker 3: Like for like after that kind of thing with Campbelltown
Speaker 3: can Soil, Like what's happening there?
Speaker 4: So I would I do kind of see.
Speaker 3: Where guys like Neck and Joel are coming from, maybe
Speaker 3: asking from registering for a little bit more. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I'm not that critical of them because
Speaker 3: I think the more he says, the kind of lets
Speaker 3: people listen, if that makes sense, Well.
Speaker 5: I think he needs to be a little bit upfront,
Speaker 5: you know, about what's happening currently. I absolutely don't think
Speaker 5: he needs to address the question of how we are
Speaker 5: development club or not. Of course we are. And this
Speaker 5: has been the problem with the club in the past,
Speaker 5: is that we just seem to flip and flop from
Speaker 5: one from one strategy to the next so quickly. We've
Speaker 5: got a strategic plan that was well put together and
Speaker 5: was publicized and it's there for everyone to see. And
Speaker 5: we are a development club and that's the line of
Speaker 5: the sand that we need to keep going down. We
Speaker 5: need to forward to that path. We need to keep
Speaker 5: going down that path. Now, if we're not doing well
Speaker 5: that well, then we need to do it better. We
Speaker 5: need to do it at a standard of excellence, right,
Speaker 5: not a standard of Joe average. But that is the strategy,
Speaker 5: That is the strategic direction of the club, and that
Speaker 5: needs to stay in place. There's no need for that
Speaker 5: to be questioned or change. The only question is are
Speaker 5: we doing it as well as we can?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. It's just it's a tough one.
Speaker 3: So you can't like because it's been like three years since,
Speaker 3: like Tan Shines came out with that speech, about how
Speaker 3: we're a development club, and I accept Eddie's point as
Speaker 3: well that it's kind of it can be seen as
Speaker 3: kind of a nothing comment because at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, like all clubs recruit and they develop as well.
Speaker 4: But I don't know, I just think we've kind of
Speaker 4: lost their.
Speaker 3: Way a little bit this season with Galvin being gone,
Speaker 3: like to Selvin being gone. If you look at most
Speaker 3: players playing against the Bruses this weekend, I don't think
Speaker 3: any of them are local juniors except maybe alex Seyfarth.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's not the strategy. It's not the strategy
Speaker 5: that's wrong, Declan, it's the execution of the strategy.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I think we've lost a way though, and I think
Speaker 3: that's where I would like him to clarify, if that
Speaker 3: makes sense, and like where potentially we went wrong, because
Speaker 3: like we have jump ship a lot, but like the
Speaker 3: success in the juniors and that kind of pathway from
Speaker 3: like flip from like Matt's to SG ball to fly
Speaker 3: the Cup to first grade, there's clearly something not working
Speaker 3: in that development process because I think at the moment
Speaker 3: we'll bring players we're too young they are, and when
Speaker 3: they show any kind of promise the contract for how
Speaker 3: it gets resin and then when they have a better
Speaker 3: option to just leave. And I just I'm wondering if
Speaker 3: we are kind of throwing these players and without opportunity
Speaker 3: too young. I just seen kind of how Galvin and
Speaker 3: just Selver manage the contract situations.
Speaker 2: Just back to the Chambers article for a minute, Steve,
Speaker 2: before we preview the game. Benji Marshall and Shane Richardson,
Speaker 2: we've we've touched on the last few podcasts whether they
Speaker 2: maybe need more manpower around, perhaps a general manager of
Speaker 2: football or different assistant coaches. But the dynamic between them,
Speaker 2: to me at least, seems like they're still very much
Speaker 2: aligned and they're trying one hundred percent in the best
Speaker 2: interest of the club to make the best decision. Like
Speaker 2: you said, it's the execution of it. But things in
Speaker 2: the Chammas article like you know Appy or Appy in
Speaker 2: Jerome are really tight with Benji, Like that's not a revelation,
Speaker 2: of course, you should be the tightest with your two captains,
Speaker 2: Like it's emerging for stuff there.
Speaker 5: Absolutely that's a leadership group, right and the young players
Speaker 5: have got to suck that up. But I would have
Speaker 5: more sympathy, though I didn't really because I thought it
Speaker 5: was a winge. But I'd have more sympathy for the
Speaker 5: comments made by Clamor and Bateman last year when they
Speaker 5: were saying if there was validity to them saying, hang on,
Speaker 5: we've played one hundred games the first grade. Here, no
Speaker 5: one's listening to us, and this young bloke who's eight
Speaker 5: and he's been listening to I reckon, there's more validity
Speaker 5: in that. But if Benji's havn't closed door meetings with
Speaker 5: Appy and Jerome Luai, then to the people that aren't
Speaker 5: in that room, tough because they'ven't the right to be
Speaker 5: in that room.
Speaker 2: What do you think. I won't ask you for predictions
Speaker 2: for a few deckline, but say, you know, we lost
Speaker 2: every game for the rest of the season. Should that
Speaker 2: be the end of Benji? Or should Benji be under
Speaker 2: no pressure heading into twenty twenty six? Given you know
Speaker 2: how Tidy is to a lot of this.
Speaker 3: Stuff, I think that for me, I would be sticking
Speaker 3: with him for next season, just essentially for the reasons
Speaker 3: you just said, because he is so tied to the roster,
Speaker 3: and if you sack Benji, I think you have to
Speaker 3: reasonably come to Gretz with the fact that if you
Speaker 3: sack him, then players like Loui and players like Terrell
Speaker 3: will realistically be evaluating their options. Not to say that
Speaker 3: they will leave, but I think that becomes a reasonable prospect.
Speaker 3: And then the other part of it is if you
Speaker 3: sack Benji, like who like who's going to come in
Speaker 3: and like you look at them and say, like, a O,
Speaker 3: there a dead set improvement, Like I could see them
Speaker 3: doing a really good job, because I don't see anyone
Speaker 3: at the moment, Like, like people were talking about Willie
Speaker 3: Peters and maybe I'm just ignorant, but I did sit
Speaker 3: don't know anything about him, and maybe he do a
Speaker 3: good job, but I'm not sure. Like the only person
Speaker 3: that I would be like, yeah, I could definitely see
Speaker 3: why they would do that is if they brought someone
Speaker 3: like Todd Paeron in, who like he has kind of
Speaker 3: that experience as a head coach, he's had success, but
Speaker 3: then he also has that connection to the club as well.
Speaker 4: But everyone else is on the market at the moment.
Speaker 3: I just think you'd kind of be at risk of
Speaker 3: repeating the kind of old mistakes of like hiring a
Speaker 3: Mic Potter or a Jason Taylor or Mega maguire, you know,
Speaker 3: guys who have baggage that they'd bring to the club,
Speaker 3: and then we'd be making mistakes that we've made in
Speaker 3: the past. So I would be definitely given Benji until
Speaker 3: next season to turn it around or like to see
Speaker 3: how it goes, because if we're still in the same
Speaker 3: position next season, then like it's probably worth the calculated
Speaker 3: rest that you lose some of these guys.
Speaker 4: But for now, I don't think it's worth the risk.
Speaker 2: One more on the attical steam. I promised before a
Speaker 2: move on, before you've hit me out of the head
Speaker 2: with a baseball bat. But and this is speculation. This
Speaker 2: is Jamma's speculation, so it's not necessarily true. But it's
Speaker 2: something I've spoken about a few times over a couple
Speaker 2: of years. I think he's got to be careful with
Speaker 2: how much he joins in training. Like I just say
Speaker 2: that from a point of view, I'm only an assistant
Speaker 2: coach a to create club. But I think there's a
Speaker 2: line between being an assistant coach and a head coach.
Speaker 2: And I know you have to be true to who
Speaker 2: you are. You can't change you know who you are.
Speaker 2: But I just get you know, if he's joining it
Speaker 2: at training and he's setting up tries and then you know,
Speaker 2: if he's following something like Adam doing and then there's
Speaker 2: a scuffle or there's a verbal altercation after that, that
Speaker 2: is not a line that a head coach, for me,
Speaker 2: is acceptable. And again I stress this is speculation out
Speaker 2: of an article, but I think that's something where he
Speaker 2: is learning on the run and there's insinuations there that
Speaker 2: he wants to be one of the boys. And he
Speaker 2: was one of the boys when he was a player. Bengually,
Speaker 2: he wasn't necessarily a leader for me. Maybe he did
Speaker 2: late in his career, but I think that's something that
Speaker 2: perhaps a senior experience assistant coach could talk to him
Speaker 2: about on the side, which I don't think he has
Speaker 2: there at the moment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's a pretty damning comment that's been
Speaker 5: thrown around that he just wants to be one of
Speaker 5: the boys. We don't know that everything when we listen
Speaker 5: to him in his press conferences. You know, I think
Speaker 5: he's set himself apart more so this year than he
Speaker 5: has last year. I think he's headed in the right direction.
Speaker 5: I will say I think he's he's too forgiven of
Speaker 5: his players publicly anyway. But as far as that line
Speaker 5: in the sand, look, as long as that line is there,
Speaker 5: I think your behavior what you do is okay. Like like,
Speaker 5: if he gets involved in the ball runs and he
Speaker 5: tackles Atam, do it because Adam, do he step the
Speaker 5: wrong way or you know, maybe deserve to be tackled.
Speaker 5: If he can do that and get in and show
Speaker 5: him how to run plays and this and that, but
Speaker 5: he can still draw that line in the sand. He
Speaker 5: can still then pull the player in to his office
Speaker 5: the next day and give him a golf or tell
Speaker 5: him his sands aren't what they need to be, or
Speaker 5: tell him how he's been dropped to reserve grade. This
Speaker 5: is how he needs to improve, and do that honestly,
Speaker 5: respectfully and transparently. If he can do all that, then
Speaker 5: there's nothing wrong. The problem occurs is if he's playing
Speaker 5: tip with the guys before training and having a great
Speaker 5: laugh with him, and then because of that they don't
Speaker 5: take him seriously and he can't get them to listen
Speaker 5: to him and do what he says and respect his opinion,
Speaker 5: then there's a problem. And only those on the field
Speaker 5: with him know whether that's the case or not.
Speaker 3: That's just the problem I have with people like Charmers
Speaker 3: because a statement like that, it's just so broad it's
Speaker 3: impossible to respond because like what can be Benji possibly
Speaker 3: do to respond to that? I mean, it's what we said. Yes,
Speaker 3: he's got he's close to senior players, like every inner
Speaker 3: old coach would be, I mean, drinking Trent Robinson didn't
Speaker 3: have a really close relationship with Bod Corner and Jade
Speaker 3: Hargraves and Jake Friends, like of course he does, and
Speaker 3: that's why they're on the coaching staff or like hard
Speaker 3: Graves are still playing, but he probably will be when
Speaker 3: he retires.
Speaker 4: So it's just like rules for different people. Like it
Speaker 4: just seems and that like what I said.
Speaker 3: At the start of the pod, like there's plenty to
Speaker 3: criticize the club of it, Like for example, Loui goes
Speaker 3: out against Manly and then like the team plays with
Speaker 3: just no attacking structure like whatsoever, and like we lose
Speaker 3: a game, we look terrible, Like that is just an
Speaker 3: objective thing that he could criticize Benji for because you
Speaker 3: take one player out of the system and we just
Speaker 3: look like a spoon team. Immediately, and that's just not
Speaker 3: good enough because like there's plenty of teams that if
Speaker 3: you take a star player, they should at least be
Speaker 3: able to follow a structure or attack properly inside the
Speaker 3: twenty meters, but we just weren't able to. And I
Speaker 3: just it just annoys me so much that like the
Speaker 3: level of journalism is so low that there's plenty of
Speaker 3: like valid criticisms of the club that they could go with,
Speaker 3: but they go with these weird like oh, Benji wants
Speaker 3: to be one of the boys, but he's not. He's like,
Speaker 3: you know, doing jails and training. Like how weird is that?
Speaker 4: Like? But it's just like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: There's so much more that you could be saying that
Speaker 3: actually is nuanced, it makes sense, and there's probably more valid,
Speaker 3: but they just don't for some reason.
Speaker 2: Fair points, Decklan Steve, it suck. Before I move on
Speaker 2: to the RUSS game, it's such fine margins. Like I
Speaker 2: was thinking tonight, like if Galvin hadn't dropped the ball
Speaker 2: over the line against Sous and if Buller hadn't been
Speaker 2: held up by a legal tackle against Penrith, we would
Speaker 2: have seven wins. And you know who else has got
Speaker 2: seven wins this year, the russ and the Panthers. They're
Speaker 2: both on seven wins, and you know who's on eight wins,
Speaker 2: the team that spends you know, fifty million or something
Speaker 2: on them whatever on that scale of things, where West
Speaker 2: Tigers was seven eight the Broncos. So it's really fine
Speaker 2: margins and we're getting hammered at the moment, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: that is the reality. When you lose six games in
Speaker 2: a row and you're coming off three wooden spoons, it's
Speaker 2: easy to hammer them. And I think some of the
Speaker 2: stuff we're getting to have it for is probably fair enough,
Speaker 2: but cheers, it's fine margins. Like if we were on
Speaker 2: seven wins two of those five losses that were under
Speaker 2: six points, the talk this week would be a battle
Speaker 2: for the top eight with the Roosters.
Speaker 5: That's a great point, and I honestly don't know where
Speaker 5: on earth you would have heard that apart from me
Speaker 5: on the pod two weeks ago. We said the exact
Speaker 5: same thing. Drop ball over the line and a tackle
Speaker 5: one half a meter short the line and we're four
Speaker 5: points ahead. It is a season could have looked so differently.
Speaker 5: But again, we've got to take responsibility for it, and
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, we're showing that we
Speaker 5: don't know had a win, then we're gonna learn how
Speaker 5: to win.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm the Eddy of this podcast because
Speaker 3: I just like that. But I completely agree with all
Speaker 3: that stuff about close losses and then like if we
Speaker 3: just got like the bets of the ball or the
Speaker 3: call of a referee, and that's great, But for me
Speaker 3: that went all completely undone when we went to Brookville
Speaker 3: Lovo and just played absolutely terribly. Because yes, you know,
Speaker 3: like it's all well and good to lose closely to
Speaker 3: the good teams, but then when you play the bad
Speaker 3: teams and you play like your worst game of the
Speaker 3: season ever, for me, you just lose like all credibility that, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, if we were a little bit luckier, we'd
Speaker 3: be in the top eight or like pushing for the
Speaker 3: top eight, because no, these are the games that we
Speaker 3: always play every season, and we always lose and it's
Speaker 3: just not good enough. And yes, there was some reasons
Speaker 3: for that, like Buller going down, Drome going down. That's
Speaker 3: two spite really important spinning players, probably two over three
Speaker 3: best players.
Speaker 4: So I'm not necessarily not lost.
Speaker 3: It's more than man know, it was just that the
Speaker 3: pressure got to them and they just played terribly and
Speaker 3: ruined my Friday night as well, said.
Speaker 2: Who would have thought Steve, I'd be the positive one
Speaker 2: on the podcast. Maybe I'm just playing Devil's advocate in
Speaker 2: my role as hosts, but I do think that, you know,
Speaker 2: unfortunately the bad sides all have solid stories, like the
Speaker 2: Dragons have lost three games by a point, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: it's like declan SATs because you don't know how to
Speaker 2: win those close games, and a couple of those close
Speaker 2: games we're infuriating for me because I don't think South
Speaker 2: and North Queensland were going any good and I think
Speaker 2: we should have beaten them. But let's talk about the
Speaker 2: Rusters game two o'clock this Sunday at Alian Stadium. Steve,
Speaker 2: I'm meant to be going to this game because I
Speaker 2: have friends that are Rusters fans, and I feel like
Speaker 2: saying to him, look, I'd be happy to go to
Speaker 2: any Rugby League game except for the Rusters and versus
Speaker 2: the Tigers, because we have lost eighteen of our last
Speaker 2: nineteen against the Rusters thirty of thirty nine overall. Before
Speaker 2: we get into the teams, is there any reason for
Speaker 2: optimism this week. It's a much changed team. It's pretty
Speaker 2: much the bare bones.
Speaker 5: Well, if I was to put my optimist hat on
Speaker 5: here there is if you look at and not so
Speaker 5: much you look at our to him where where we've
Speaker 5: been hit for six with with injuries and representation. That's
Speaker 5: the thing. But some of the roosters, the Roosters team,
Speaker 5: their back line is pretty.
Speaker 2: Strong, apparently twelve first graders. Twelve first graders out of
Speaker 2: the rooster's side apparently, like I know, you read their
Speaker 2: back line and it's still a lot better.
Speaker 5: Than our Desco and Tubo and I can't even say
Speaker 5: that Blake's name that the center is just doing with things.
Speaker 2: But I'll read their forward back. Sorry Steve to interrupt,
Speaker 2: this is their forward pack Nafar who white is good player.
Speaker 4: Or whatever.
Speaker 2: I've got no idea what his name is. Sorry. The
Speaker 2: hooker Macatoa never heard of him. Front row Egan Butcher
Speaker 2: back row Fockerty back row, never heard of him. Steep.
Speaker 2: I think he's a good young player. The lock but
Speaker 2: hasn't played much. And the bench doctor Clay journeyman McCarthy
Speaker 2: never heard of him, Losalou never heard of him, and
Speaker 2: Va and apologies for butchering about six of those names,
Speaker 2: but that is an absolute no name, like they are
Speaker 2: decimated in the forwards, but like it's there's a lot
Speaker 2: of talk about us having Leu Eye and happy and
Speaker 2: Buller out and it probably means a lot more when
Speaker 2: you're a bad side and you don't have much depth.
Speaker 2: But they are missing a stack, and.
Speaker 5: I think I think our full pack lines up a
Speaker 5: lot stronger than theirs, which which gives us the foundations
Speaker 5: of doing good things on Sunday. There's no reason that
Speaker 5: we can't win the ruck on the weekend if we
Speaker 5: go believing that we can do that. Now we've got
Speaker 5: to hold to Essco. We've got to hold tupu like
Speaker 5: for crying out that if he scores a try coming
Speaker 5: over the top of someone from a kick, I'm going
Speaker 5: to scream because we know we're weak at that. We've
Speaker 5: been wik at it for ten years, right, Can we
Speaker 5: please do something good training this week to stop him
Speaker 5: from scoring tries off kicks. But if we can do that,
Speaker 5: if we can win the rock and hold this go
Speaker 5: and get up on their halves, you know we're capable
Speaker 5: of reading this game. Even though we are depleted as well.
Speaker 2: Declan, what are your thoughts of the game. Can we win?
Speaker 4: Sorry, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I think that the Risters, even though they don't have
Speaker 3: a lot of players available, you just know that they
Speaker 3: will play to their capability and He'll get the best,
Speaker 3: like Robinson will get the best out of those young players.
Speaker 3: I think they've been doing it all season, Like there's
Speaker 3: so many guys in that team that I hadn't.
Speaker 4: Really heard of before this season.
Speaker 3: But the Risters are so good just developing these young
Speaker 3: players along and I think that lets will be. I
Speaker 3: think they'll play well. I'm a huge fan of the
Speaker 3: halfback Atala, He's a really good player. I don't really
Speaker 3: know a lot about the fore A pack, but I
Speaker 3: think that I thought that we had a huge advantage
Speaker 3: against mainly in the forwards last week and that just
Speaker 3: didn't eventuate anything.
Speaker 4: So who knows what they're going to bring.
Speaker 3: But also there's probably not much expectation on us as
Speaker 3: well because we did lose that gaming as finally, so
Speaker 3: maybe that will take some of the pressure off and
Speaker 3: we'll play better.
Speaker 4: But I'm not confident at all.
Speaker 2: Steve lots of changes to the West Tigers team let's
Speaker 2: go through the one to five and the changes to
Speaker 2: RuvA goes to fullback, Stains onto the wing, and Lukela
Speaker 2: Lilly to centners. What do you like out of that?
Speaker 5: Well, to at fullback, I think it's okay Stains. That
Speaker 5: was pretty critical of Stains early in the season. I've
Speaker 5: got to say he proved me wrong with the opportunities
Speaker 5: he's heading first grade. He's actually brought the ball back
Speaker 5: out of trouble quite well, so I think we'll get
Speaker 5: you know, I know we'll get a handle percent if
Speaker 5: it from Tower. I think it's a great football skelt
Speaker 5: and I think that is, you know, really advantageous for
Speaker 5: a springs the ball back hard that literally in the
Speaker 5: centers isn't unknown for me. Apparently he's played there a
Speaker 5: few times but nothing significant, So you know, we're weakened
Speaker 5: a little bit, but it's still it's still a decent
Speaker 5: back five.
Speaker 2: Your man Decklin, he's back at six where he belongs
Speaker 2: and dey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think someone saying in the group chat,
Speaker 3: I think we're just going so bad against Manly that
Speaker 3: when he moved to Sex he just looked like our
Speaker 3: best player, which kind of shows exactly why we were struggling.
Speaker 3: I don't know, It's just I think it's a it's
Speaker 3: a safe option because I think, you know, like he's
Speaker 3: probably got the highest floor in terms of the potential options,
Speaker 3: like you kind of know what you're gonna get from them,
Speaker 3: Like whether it actually leads to points, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: I'm also a little bit concerned as well, because you
Speaker 3: know that article from Channis that mentioned Adam Dewey Adam
Speaker 3: do he is now contractor to Isaac Moses, So as
Speaker 3: like as he leaking stuff, does that you know, like
Speaker 3: messed with the dynamic of the team.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I have very low expectations of it,
Speaker 4: but you know, I.
Speaker 3: Aloe that I do like Loly at center though, I
Speaker 3: think that's probably has like like a really good possession
Speaker 3: for him at the moment while he does try and
Speaker 3: develop his ability onto the high ball and it kind
Speaker 3: of brings out all the stuff he has good at.
Speaker 4: So I'll be interested to see how he goes in
Speaker 4: that respect. But yeah, just morale is very low at
Speaker 4: the moment.
Speaker 3: And in case you were wondering, and I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I just we're just at that point of the season.
Speaker 2: I think forward pack is pretty much in tax Steve
Speaker 2: except for obviously no happy and no talent of silver.
Speaker 2: So you know, welcome back to first grade Tristan Hope.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, he's just gotta play a simple, great game.
Speaker 5: Let's let's be honest. He's he's not a he's not
Speaker 5: a first grade player. He's reserve game player that can
Speaker 5: fill in when needed. I suppose would be the nicest
Speaker 5: way to describe him. He's just got to play very
Speaker 5: simple game. He's got to give good, clean fastball to
Speaker 5: his forwards. The thing that concerns me most with Hope
Speaker 5: at nine and also having Fayn Whu sort of still
Speaker 5: beginning his journey at seven, is just the organization who's
Speaker 5: going to be talking. I suppose it's going to come
Speaker 5: a lotdown to Dewey. I remember early in the year,
Speaker 5: I know it was a trial or I think it
Speaker 5: was a trial do he played five eight and I
Speaker 5: think Galvin was playing half back, and they played out
Speaker 5: of their skins and Dewey you could see that Dewey
Speaker 5: was just helping Galvin, sort of mentoring him on the
Speaker 5: run on the field, and it brought out the best
Speaker 5: in both of them. So I'm hoping that they're going
Speaker 5: to have eighty minutes together that Dewey and Faynu can
Speaker 5: sort of click like that. I think Feynu will have
Speaker 5: to run a lot, you know, use a lot his
Speaker 5: individual skill, you know, to create opportunities for us. He
Speaker 5: was to wait and see what.
Speaker 2: Happens Benny Elias Deckler. I'm not gonna let him get
Speaker 2: away with this, he said. And I'm digressing here, but
Speaker 2: he said, Talent de Silver is already the sixth best
Speaker 2: hooker in the game. I thought, what a load of dribble. Like, honestly,
Speaker 2: I think Talent's going to be a really good player.
Speaker 2: But he said his defense has been spot on. Like
Speaker 2: he just obviously doesn't watch the games. He's just clickbait,
Speaker 2: isn't he.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would like to see Benny Elias's
Speaker 3: list so that we could probably examine it a little
Speaker 3: bit closer. But yeah, it's just a strange, Like I
Speaker 3: think we're the only club where we just get a
Speaker 3: lot of heat from the X players, Like I know
Speaker 3: the Broncos went through it as well when they were
Speaker 3: doing badly. But it's just a particular kind of cross
Speaker 3: the Tigers have to bear and obviously Elias. You know,
Speaker 3: he's like paid for his opinion, and like the more
Speaker 3: he says crazy stuff like that, the kind of more
Speaker 3: attention he gets, which is ultimately good for.
Speaker 4: His like media reputation.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just disagree with that, like wholeheartedly, because
Speaker 3: he's not even like the most minutes that Talent played
Speaker 3: that season correlated in our highest losses with the storm
Speaker 3: and then also like mainly and I'm not saying that's
Speaker 3: Talent's fault, but like he definitely has a lot to
Speaker 3: work on before you'd even con said him as a fast,
Speaker 3: greed starting hookut. So yeah, I'm not sure what he
Speaker 3: was talking about there.
Speaker 2: I was, I was obviously a great player be any last,
Speaker 2: but I don't I don't think he's even a fan
Speaker 2: of the club, Steve, I'm sorry, And he's not an
Speaker 2: ex player of the club. He's an ex player at Balmain,
Speaker 2: and the way he talks, I just think it's pathetic
Speaker 2: some of those ex players he called him ex players.
Speaker 5: But well, he got his chance in a last year,
Speaker 5: didn't He should have came back into the fold and
Speaker 5: was supposed to be on a be incredibly supportive but
Speaker 5: it didn't last long.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't the bench, Steve. We've got Charlie Murray,
Speaker 2: Alex Safer, and Tony Suka. I'll be a little bit
Speaker 2: surprised if Benji doesn't push back to starting. I didn't
Speaker 2: think that worked last week with Paul starting because she
Speaker 2: only been going great guards that first fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think Fane who should start. I think
Speaker 5: he's one of our most improvement and also most consistent
Speaker 5: players all year, so definitely would start in pole. Coming
Speaker 5: off the bench would will be good. I think Sea
Speaker 5: Father this is the best spot for him if he's
Speaker 5: going to be in the seventeen, is to come off
Speaker 5: the bench and play in the middle. He's not going
Speaker 5: to bring a whole lot of impact, but he will
Speaker 5: he will do a job. I think our our four
Speaker 5: interchange players sort of match up pretty favorably with their
Speaker 5: in turn. I don't think they're going to have any
Speaker 5: more impact when they come on for their team twill
Speaker 5: what ours are going to It'll come down to how
Speaker 5: well Murray and Suka play. I think I think we
Speaker 5: know what we're going to get from Fanu and Seafa.
Speaker 5: It's whether Murray and Sugar can hold their own when
Speaker 5: they come on and play.
Speaker 2: Jack Bird on the edge declan, I mean it's it's
Speaker 2: hard for Benji because if he if he drops Bird
Speaker 2: back to the bench, they'll say, well, he's had three
Speaker 2: back rounds in three weeks. But I kind of I
Speaker 2: think at some point this year maybe tiny Suka might
Speaker 2: get a girl on that age.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just I'm just not a fan of Bird
Speaker 4: starting in the back row.
Speaker 3: I can I can see the theory, like why you'd
Speaker 3: think that, but I think he just doesn't really have
Speaker 3: the physicality that those back rowers require, especially the way
Speaker 3: we're playing, where like like the back row needs to
Speaker 3: be able to like have a head up, and I
Speaker 3: just don't think Birds carry is where it needs to
Speaker 3: be to be starting in the four pack. And I
Speaker 3: actually think Soukar has like greatly like surpassed my expectations
Speaker 3: of how you play this season, and I thought we've
Speaker 3: played quite well. So I just don't see why, like
Speaker 3: if like we're struggling with injury, then I don't see
Speaker 3: why they wouldn't play them. But yeah, I'm sure there's
Speaker 3: maybe like a technical reason. Maybe it's the wrong side
Speaker 3: of the field that he's used to play and then
Speaker 3: they're a little bit worried about that, and plus Bird
Speaker 3: has that bit of experience. But yeah, I would be
Speaker 3: starting to car because I don't think that Bird's got
Speaker 3: the kind of attributes that are required to start for
Speaker 3: a pack at the moment.
Speaker 2: Hi, boys, Well, stranger things have happened. I got on
Speaker 2: Sunday night. I said, I convinced this would be fifty
Speaker 2: or sixty. I've changed my mind on this. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying we're going to win, but I think this will
Speaker 2: be a battle this game. Steve.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just want to ask you, guys. The only thing.
Speaker 5: I mean, you look at having bringing Murray in in
Speaker 5: the seveneen and we've got I supposedly because doing okay,
Speaker 5: But why is Kitler literly not getting a run? I'm
Speaker 5: not getting a chance. So he just says like he's
Speaker 5: in the he's in the twenty one.
Speaker 2: It's only only something you could answer, Steve. I assume
Speaker 2: if you're in the four Walls of Concord, because my
Speaker 2: mate who watches State Cup said, you know the games
Speaker 2: he has played, he always provides an impact. But it
Speaker 2: just seems like Declan's not a player that Benji trusts
Speaker 2: at the.
Speaker 4: Moment, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean even when he was on the bench four US,
Speaker 3: he didn't get any game tame.
Speaker 4: So there's got to be something to it.
Speaker 3: I've heard some like max reviews and about cat and cut,
Speaker 3: like I think he had a really good like three
Speaker 3: four weeks, but then he's kind of backed it up
Speaker 3: with two like kind of perr again.
Speaker 4: But I obviously this my own eyes.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna like comment on that, but yeah, it's
Speaker 3: changed because when I saw him in the Billdogs trial,
Speaker 3: when he started, he.
Speaker 4: Played really well.
Speaker 3: I thought that he was going to Definitely I didn't
Speaker 3: pay it, but yeah, there must be something that the
Speaker 3: court and stuff hasn't happy with.
Speaker 2: I didn't see reserve grade Steve, but apparently Royce Hant
Speaker 2: had a good game, so I was kind of looking
Speaker 2: at the bench thing maybe we could do with him.
Speaker 2: But again I go back to trust and good will
Speaker 2: and maybe how players train, and I can only assume
Speaker 2: he's still in the bad books.
Speaker 5: Well, it must must be about standards, like Benji has
Speaker 5: said that all year, you've got to make the standards.
Speaker 5: If you don't make the stands, you're not playing. But gee,
Speaker 5: we could do with we could do with his impact
Speaker 5: at the moment, that's for sure. And I was sorting
Speaker 5: to GARRYO went out to the reserve grade game on
Speaker 5: the weekend and he said Hunt had a great, great
Speaker 5: game in reserve grade and played some decent minutes. So yeah,
Speaker 5: it's a pretty because we could do with him this weekend.
Speaker 2: Quiz time, boys, It's a multiple choice question one, what
Speaker 2: is our longest winning streak against the Roosters? Decline? Is
Speaker 2: it A one? B two, C three or D four?
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go or be optimistic, Steve.
Speaker 6: I was reading the team sheet mates, so I didn't
Speaker 6: even hear the question. So I'll say, see, we'll see
Speaker 6: he's correct, Steve. It's the old theory of multiple choice,
Speaker 6: isn't it went in doubt? Go see that was my
Speaker 6: theory in high school. Passed me a lot of exams.
Speaker 5: So well, some one nil.
Speaker 2: We had a time Steve. Question two true or false?
Speaker 2: The last time West Tigers had a halftime lead against
Speaker 2: the Roosters was in a season we made the top eight.
Speaker 2: Declan both true it is false. And I was at
Speaker 2: this game in twenty eighteen. We led two nil at halftime.
Speaker 2: That was the Round one game where Tuoy Lola here
Speaker 2: kicked the penalty goal before halftime. He also kicked the
Speaker 2: sideline conversion the winners that game, eight to six. That
Speaker 2: was in James Tedesco's first game for the Roosters, so
Speaker 2: that was one of the rare very memorable moments.
Speaker 5: Is that all written down? Is that all written down?
Speaker 5: Is that your memory?
Speaker 2: Old memory? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: People say I always bring up the bad time, Steve,
Speaker 2: but I like to bring up good as well. Question
Speaker 2: three against which two clubs did Jason Lowry Remember he
Speaker 2: probably weren't a live deck and he was bald headed
Speaker 2: Kiwi front rower back in the early two thousands, late nineties.
Speaker 2: Against which two clubs did Jason Lowry score his two
Speaker 2: and only rugby league tries against?
Speaker 4: Hint?
Speaker 2: Both were scored during his West Tigers career. One of
Speaker 2: them was in the year two thousand. One of them
Speaker 2: was in the year two thousand and one. I'll give
Speaker 2: you guys a clue. One of them was against a
Speaker 2: team that no longer exists. Half of their body still exists,
Speaker 2: but it's a different name, Other Merger Northern Northern Eagles declan,
Speaker 2: I remember it his first try and this is written
Speaker 2: down Steve round ten to two thousand was out at
Speaker 2: Gosford and his second try. I was at this game
Speaker 2: round three to two thousand and one at Campbelltown. It
Speaker 2: was against the New Zealand Warriors. Game one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty one hundred and forty two tries, one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty two games Declan scored before he scored his first try.
Speaker 2: So that's more than twelve, isn't it. Oh no, maybe
Speaker 2: I think Thick Twele got his first one. Maybe with
Speaker 2: one hundred games in not that, don't care. Question four,
Speaker 2: nearest to the pin as of the end of last season?
Speaker 2: What is the average ladder position? Our average ladder position
Speaker 2: at the completion of the regular season. I mean, you'd
Speaker 2: think this would be horrible. I'm giving giving a little
Speaker 2: clue here, but there were a lot of Tim Sheen's
Speaker 2: years where this side I'd love to run just below
Speaker 2: mid table. So average ladder position declar was eleven.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll say two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Declan was spot on. He took your money there, Steve,
Speaker 2: he's got eleventh. I was going to say, yeah, who
Speaker 2: am I? And I'll give you a clue. Boys, nowe A,
Speaker 2: you're going to get this. That's the clue you're going
Speaker 2: to get, so I'll read it out anyway for our listeners.
Speaker 2: I was born in Auckland in nineteen eighty two. I
Speaker 2: debuted for the Broncos in the year before our clubs
Speaker 2: made them premiership, so that would be two thousand and four.
Speaker 2: I played twenty five games there, scoring fifteen tries. In
Speaker 2: three years. I signed with our two thousand and six
Speaker 2: World Club Challenge opponents I think that was Bradford for
Speaker 2: two years. Returned in the Orld in mid two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine with our West Tigers. I failed to make
Speaker 2: any appearances that season. I was touted as our tan
Speaker 2: Yella Tuiaki replacement prior to the Lotti Takiri signing. I
Speaker 2: retired at the end of twenty ten, again playing no
Speaker 2: NRL games due to constant injuries. My name is Tame
Speaker 2: twuo Po and Steve. I can't even though I've got
Speaker 2: a good memory, I don't remember Tame two po no
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 5: I got nothing.
Speaker 2: Declan, what are you doing for the game this week?
Speaker 2: If you like me? Have you sort of quit going
Speaker 2: to games even though I'm going this week? I shouldn't
Speaker 2: say that, but are you enthusiastic to go to any
Speaker 2: games before the end of the season.
Speaker 5: Look, not really.
Speaker 3: I think I behaved and bed the coach. It seems
Speaker 3: like more of ature, I mean, really negative. That's the podcast.
Speaker 3: I really should try and.
Speaker 4: Be more positive. But yeah, I think it's exactly what
Speaker 4: you said. It's just the Risters.
Speaker 3: They just a lot of teams be us like throughout
Speaker 3: these years, but the Risters they just really be ours,
Speaker 3: don't they like they just absolutely have the word over
Speaker 3: is more than an other team. But you know, we
Speaker 3: have to be positive and yeah, it's actually a really
Speaker 3: good grained.
Speaker 4: As well or no.
Speaker 3: Question, I answered, No, I will not be watching it
Speaker 3: will be obviously I'll just be having my eyes closed
Speaker 3: and probably turn it off for half tame.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I'll still try and watch.
Speaker 2: Steve, you are quite vociferous Sunday about and rightly so.
Speaker 2: You know, memberships don't get canceled three quarters of the
Speaker 2: way through the season. How many games you reckon you're
Speaker 2: going to go to until the end of the year.
Speaker 2: We do have two of our three like ut which
Speaker 2: is something I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I'll go to all our home games for sure.
Speaker 5: I'm not decided about this. Sunday. Yet this I just
Speaker 5: I just don't want to end up out of the
Speaker 5: ground and just angry at twenty minutes into the game
Speaker 5: and fuming because we're so poor. But I think I
Speaker 5: think i'll probably end. I'll do what I usually do.
Speaker 5: I'll say I'm not going. I'm not going to go.
Speaker 5: I am not going to go. Then Sunday more, when
Speaker 5: I get up, I'll put my gear on and I go.
Speaker 5: So we'll see.
Speaker 2: All right, boys, thank you for tonight, and Declan, I
Speaker 2: think you are. That's what happens when you're not on
Speaker 2: a podcast for a few weeks. You've picked up all
Speaker 2: that anger and you let it out tonight. So I
Speaker 2: thought you were our man of the match tonight. I
Speaker 2: thought you were outstanding.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: That said a lot of two of us, all
Speaker 2: Right, see boys, sid SPI