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Speaker 2: West Tiger's Podcast Episode number four hundred and eight. This
Speaker 2: is a bye week nditioned very special guest tonight. I'll
Speaker 2: introduce him in a minute. He's from another West Tigers
Speaker 2: themed podcast. But I'm joined firstly by Steve and Joel. Joel,
Speaker 2: it was rumors you had disappeared.
Speaker 1: Work commitments, that's all. I hadn't run out of puff,
Speaker 1: hadn't given up on the team, just couldn't be here.
Speaker 1: But I'm energized and ready to game.
Speaker 2: And Steve no Gary tonight, so I'm hoping you're going
Speaker 2: to step up to the plate. We're going to discuss
Speaker 2: a potential Round one team for twenty twenty six. We've
Speaker 2: got a bit of a marathon edition to buy a
Speaker 2: cell hold, and we're going to lay into Richo's latest
Speaker 2: podcast and what you thought about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well there's no Gary, there's no Tigers this weekend.
Speaker 3: There's only two and a half days of Test cricket.
Speaker 3: It's been pretty average weekend.
Speaker 2: Really, cricket was a little bit disappointing Astrala down to
Speaker 2: South Africa. But our special guest joined by Rob Bashara
Speaker 2: of the West Tigers Life Podcast. First off, thank you
Speaker 2: Rob for coming on here tonight. Are you're going to
Speaker 2: flip the favor on Tuesday Night? But first off, mate,
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about the West Tiger's Life
Speaker 2: podcast that you enjoy. You and Josh, I should say,
Speaker 2: have been at it for a few years.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you all for inviting me on your podcast
Speaker 4: on a regular listener. Having doing a midweek podcast and
Speaker 4: a Sunday podcast. I generally don't listen to both of
Speaker 4: your podcasts so after I've done ours, because I don't
Speaker 4: want any of that sort of subconsciously being in my memory.
Speaker 4: The West Life podcast is going really well. We've got
Speaker 4: about nineteen hundred subscribers. We get quite a decent audience.
Speaker 4: Now we're trying to seer everyone towards YouTube. I got
Speaker 4: invited on that by Josh Barnett, that's his baby. I've
Speaker 4: been doing that. I'm not sure now four or five years. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but we're trying to see everyone to YouTube. The last
Speaker 4: sort of three or four weeks have been really good.
Speaker 4: We're getting sixteen hundred to twenty seven hundred views depending
Speaker 4: on who's signer. We had Michael Chambers on a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago, which went quite well. But yeah, look,
Speaker 4: I mean I think just you know, in terms of
Speaker 4: West Tiger stuff, I just think it's really good that
Speaker 4: everyone's trying to put some.
Speaker 5: Content out there.
Speaker 4: So the more content we get and the better quality
Speaker 4: it is, that's kind of my goal.
Speaker 5: I love having a.
Speaker 4: Gas bag, as you're well aware, ady, But yeah, I
Speaker 4: think these sort of cross collapse should be a little
Speaker 4: bit more often. I was very competitive with all this
Speaker 4: stuff that I've kind of let that go, mostly because
Speaker 4: you guys are actually really kind to meet the start
Speaker 4: of the year getting involved with West Tigers in unit.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm just happy to be here and looking
Speaker 4: forward to talking to Steve and Joel and I know
Speaker 4: Gary will be missing this so badly. He would have
Speaker 4: loved to have been here tonight, but we'll catch up
Speaker 4: and have a chat on Tuesday night at the Orange
Speaker 4: Grove Hotel.
Speaker 2: Well, they give us plenty to talk about the West Tigers.
Speaker 2: Rob and Gary wouldn't admit it, but I've definitely learned
Speaker 2: a few things listening to coach Adele this year. I
Speaker 2: really enjoyed that. And you've only started that this year,
Speaker 2: but that's been Sunday Night version.
Speaker 5: And yeah it has.
Speaker 4: And look, i can't speak for you guys, but for me,
Speaker 4: I'm just when it comes to rugby league, I'm all
Speaker 4: meet I want to talk about the game.
Speaker 5: I want to talk about the controversies.
Speaker 4: I'm really not a person that cares, you know, what
Speaker 4: a certain players favorite colories or what they eat for
Speaker 4: dinner or stuff like that. I love talking rugby league,
Speaker 4: whether it's my own team or other teams.
Speaker 5: So yeah, the.
Speaker 4: Adel POD's really good. He gives it the coaches perspective.
Speaker 4: I'm purely a fan. I'd like to think I'm an expert,
Speaker 4: but I'm definitely not. I'm just a very passionate fan.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it kind of works.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: Again, I'm not really good at the hosting stuff.
Speaker 4: I'm still getting used to that, but you know, it
Speaker 4: seems to work, and we wing it and everyone seems
Speaker 4: to love it.
Speaker 5: So We're very pleased with how that's going.
Speaker 2: Final question mate, before we rip into the podcast itself.
Speaker 2: Your favorite moment supporting the Tigers is a Grand Final.
Speaker 2: Have you got a particular game or memory or season.
Speaker 5: Definitely the two thousand and five preliminary final against George.
Speaker 4: I was there. Limited tickets, got my whole family their
Speaker 4: grandstand seats. I get I won't be like this tonight,
Speaker 4: but if I think about it when I'm on my own,
Speaker 4: I actually get a little bit choked up about it.
Speaker 4: I think favorite moment it was just the boys running
Speaker 4: out to warm up that night on the field and
Speaker 4: we were meant to be outnumbered, and that raw still
Speaker 4: gives me goosebumb citis.
Speaker 5: It's just one of the greatest moments ever.
Speaker 4: And then obviously for Benji to score nice and early
Speaker 4: in the game and get the ball rolling.
Speaker 5: We weren't we weren't meant to be hope in hell
Speaker 5: that day.
Speaker 4: It was all red and white themed, you know, Sydney
Speaker 4: Swan's were meant to beat the West Coast Eagles and
Speaker 4: sayings were meant to beat us, and I got a
Speaker 4: little bit of a soft spot for the Swans.
Speaker 5: But with all that red and white crap going on.
Speaker 4: I was actually cheering West Coast Eagules, but yeah, it
Speaker 4: was probably the best night as the West Tigers suployer
Speaker 4: I've ever had.
Speaker 2: You were a big part of that West Tigers unit
Speaker 2: where we did a few podcasts earlier this year to
Speaker 2: try and fast track some of that board up people
Speaker 2: that's happened. But I think Rob mentioned it. The podcast
Speaker 2: game is a little bit different to the mainstream media
Speaker 2: or sports game where you're seen his rivals or whatnot.
Speaker 2: And you know, I watch a bit of Den and
Speaker 2: Kemp or James Graham or Maddie John's and a all
Speaker 2: hallow sport and they all seem to appear a little
Speaker 2: bit on each other's platforms and try and help each
Speaker 2: other out.
Speaker 1: Well, when we're all sitting at Campbelltown, or all sitting
Speaker 1: at Leichhard, or all watching the West Tigers in some form,
Speaker 1: we're all on the same page, we're all doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. We all have our hearts in the same place.
Speaker 1: So why not, I mean, more perspectives, more voices. I
Speaker 1: think it all adds to the mix. And you know
Speaker 1: that's why we have We've had a few other people
Speaker 1: on recently, like Jordan, you know, just to hear some
Speaker 1: different perspectives as well. But you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: just a testament, I suppose, if I'm being in my
Speaker 1: most optimistic, a testament to the West Tigers that the
Speaker 1: West Tigers has such a huge fan base of people
Speaker 1: that aren't just casual fans but live and breathe the
Speaker 1: brand and there's got to be something in that and
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of it's a Stockholm syndrome and
Speaker 1: we've come this far and we can't give up. But yeah, look,
Speaker 1: it's just it's going to be sweet one day. I
Speaker 1: can't say when that will be, but one day it
Speaker 1: will be.
Speaker 2: Dave, have you got any other sports podcasts you like
Speaker 2: to tune into? I know Gary likes to listen back
Speaker 2: to his own voice and our own podcast, but you've
Speaker 2: got any outside of that, matey.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed listening to ours when Gary is not on,
Speaker 3: so I think two of those in the last three
Speaker 3: or four years. Yeah, I listened to I used to
Speaker 3: listen to, you know, the Gus Good one. I enjoyed that,
Speaker 3: but I'm off that now. Enough his efforts in the
Speaker 3: last couple of weeks, I don't I like the how
Speaker 3: he games of I think that's that's a really good podcast.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I do listen to the West Life podcast West Tiger's
Speaker 3: Life podcast from time to time, but apart from that's
Speaker 3: that's probably about it.
Speaker 2: I reckon, do you do? You dabble in other sports
Speaker 2: so you stick to sort of the leak side of
Speaker 2: the podcast game.
Speaker 5: I love. I love a lot of sports.
Speaker 4: I'm not actually big on podcasts, so the only other,
Speaker 4: for example, rugby league podcast I've listened to this year
Speaker 4: would be Terrell May on The By podcast with James Graham.
Speaker 4: Richo on that same podcast. Look, anything rich goes on
Speaker 4: I want to hear, not because I'm just a West
Speaker 4: Siger supporter, but I kind of like live on every
Speaker 4: word he says, because we really need some hope and reassurance,
Speaker 4: even the nine minutes spiel that you're talking about later,
Speaker 4: Like he just has to get out there and say stuff,
Speaker 4: because when you're kept in the dark, you know, you
Speaker 4: start getting doubts in your head. So I think us fans,
Speaker 4: given that we've had fourteen years with our finals, we
Speaker 4: need plenty of reassurance and hope.
Speaker 2: We'll go round the table on this one bit of
Speaker 2: a West Tiger's themed segment, Joel one word to describe
Speaker 2: our season so far.
Speaker 1: I've actually gone for numbers. I've gone for one third,
Speaker 1: So I'm happy to say probably a third of what
Speaker 1: we've put out there on the field this year I'm
Speaker 1: pretty happy with and it gives us hope. A third's
Speaker 1: we've been pretty darn good, pretty competitive, But of course
Speaker 1: that leaves two thirds, which is still a little bit flat,
Speaker 1: still a little bit reminis of where we've been the
Speaker 1: last few years. So yeah, I've gone a third something different.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say promising, Eddie, because I think we
Speaker 3: started the season quite well. Then we fell in a
Speaker 3: bit of a hole and I was really worried that
Speaker 3: we were regressing to the Tigers of old and that
Speaker 3: was going to be a theme for the rest of
Speaker 3: the year. But then I thought we hit back pretty
Speaker 3: well against Penrith, Like we didn't get the chocolates, but
Speaker 3: we played that brand of footy we've been playing earlier
Speaker 3: in the year, which sort of told me that the
Speaker 3: drop was really around the whole Galvin situation. So you
Speaker 3: take that out and I think what we're seeing is
Speaker 3: pretty promising. We all knew it was going to be
Speaker 3: a slow burn. I think we're getting there.
Speaker 4: Your word, rob Eddie, my words underachieved. And I say
Speaker 4: that with the benefit of hindsight, we could easily have
Speaker 4: won round four, Round one against the Knights, Round four
Speaker 4: against the Warriors, Round five against Power, and round eleven
Speaker 4: against sous. So given all that, I think we should
Speaker 4: be higher on the table with out draw. But obviously,
Speaker 4: if you sort of looked at where we were at
Speaker 4: the end of last year and having three spoons in
Speaker 4: a row, you wouldn't say underachieved. But I think looking
Speaker 4: back now, we should be higher up on the ladder.
Speaker 4: I think our best team is quite a good scene.
Speaker 4: Although we're probably a couple of first graders short that
Speaker 4: you know, we'll probably talk about later, but I'm really
Speaker 4: happy with how we've played and the fact of how
Speaker 4: we're competitive we are.
Speaker 3: You know, we're talking about this the other day. You know,
Speaker 3: if Galvin holds that ball over line and we get
Speaker 3: a penalty on that hip drop and score a try,
Speaker 3: then we're one game out of the top four. It's amazing,
Speaker 3: right it is.
Speaker 4: And look I mentioned it on I think with Adele
Speaker 4: last Sunday night on our podcast. I actually was flattered
Speaker 4: that ivan clear he said in his halftime talk or
Speaker 4: what they mentioned on TV with Jake Duke. But the
Speaker 4: Tigers aren't going to go away in the second half.
Speaker 4: And I think we've earned the respect of a lot
Speaker 4: of other teams, Like they probably think they're going to
Speaker 4: beat us, but they know they're going to have to
Speaker 4: really play to their full strength to get over the
Speaker 4: line with us. And I think we're just lacking that
Speaker 4: little bit of polish, a little bit of class in
Speaker 4: some cases, a little bit of tactical awareness on the
Speaker 4: team in terms of decisions we make and game style.
Speaker 4: But look overall, I mean to say we'd have five
Speaker 4: wins now, I mean that's more than the wins we
Speaker 4: had combined.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, so we
Speaker 5: should be happy with it.
Speaker 4: But as I say, I'm only saying that with the
Speaker 4: review mirror on because I think we should have won
Speaker 4: definitely those four games, and perhaps we maybe should have
Speaker 4: lost us and George given away. They fought back in
Speaker 4: the second half, but you can't win every close game.
Speaker 4: I think we've been the better team in those games
Speaker 4: that we lost.
Speaker 2: I think eleven of the thirteen games were right in
Speaker 2: and like you said, Rob, there's definitely two or three
Speaker 2: of them that got away. Joel. Just on the theme
Speaker 2: of mid season awards. I know me and Gary probably
Speaker 2: gave a few out two weeks ago during our other
Speaker 2: buy But I'll get you guys thoughts on this. You're
Speaker 2: our best players so far.
Speaker 1: That's a hard isn't it. I mean, Terrell May has
Speaker 1: been consistent, Aruver's been consistent, Buller has been really classy
Speaker 1: at times. Yeah, and then you've got Happy in the
Speaker 1: mix as well. So hard to sort of find a
Speaker 1: winner out of those four staff that tower. I suppose
Speaker 1: maybe for his last six weeks where he's just consistently
Speaker 1: beaten that first man. So yeah, there's a few there.
Speaker 1: I don't know who's If you guys have one that
Speaker 1: stands out, maybe Terrell Bayer knows maybe.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I've gone with Terrell May, just that the minutes he's
Speaker 3: pumped out through the season, the consistency of his performance,
Speaker 3: like he hasn't you know, he hasn't gone through and
Speaker 3: pumped through the line and set up tries left right,
Speaker 3: and so no, that's not his go. But his minutes
Speaker 3: are incredible. He's meters are amazing. He hardly misses a tackle.
Speaker 3: He just does his job so well. And also I
Speaker 3: remember the I remember Benji saying that he's so good
Speaker 3: around the team, and a story I got told about
Speaker 3: him was a lot of the hunger forwards. I really
Speaker 3: clinging to him at trainer and he's doing all the
Speaker 3: extras and you'll say to the guys, come on, you
Speaker 3: come out and do the extras with me, and he's
Speaker 3: bringing them along and giving them a level of professionalism
Speaker 3: that maybe they haven't seen before.
Speaker 2: Rob. I don't want to preempt what you're going to say,
Speaker 2: but you, when I actually sent you the rundown for
Speaker 2: this podcast, you said, can you add in most important
Speaker 2: player as well as best player? So I'm going to
Speaker 2: guess they're going to be two different answers for you.
Speaker 4: They certainly are, and I can one hundred percent agree
Speaker 4: with Joel and Steves. So why they would choose Terrel
Speaker 4: May given the minutes and the quality that he's given
Speaker 4: us this year, I've gone for Jerene Buller. I think
Speaker 4: he's the point of difference in our team. He's the
Speaker 4: X factor. He's the guy that can make something happen
Speaker 4: where others can't.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I went in terms of the most important
Speaker 5: Terrell May.
Speaker 4: And the reason I say most important for Terrell May
Speaker 4: is it would take at least two middles to replace
Speaker 4: Terrel May, Like he's irreplaceable. And I actually don't think
Speaker 4: we could win a game without Sarah or May. That's
Speaker 4: the amount of work that he does for our team.
Speaker 4: So but yeah, I'm not going to argue and say
Speaker 4: that Will has been better than May May have been incredible.
Speaker 4: But to me, our most important players bore as Joel.
Speaker 2: You could look at most important player a few different ways.
Speaker 2: I think Rob was looking at the makeup of our
Speaker 2: squad at the moment. Like on the surface, I would
Speaker 2: probably say Jerome Lewi is our most important player just
Speaker 2: for what he brings culturally to the side. It's a
Speaker 2: difficult one.
Speaker 1: It is a difficult one. And you've got that factor
Speaker 1: of that leadership and that aura that Jerome Leui brings,
Speaker 1: and when you take him out of our team, we
Speaker 1: do tend to, you know, just lose that little bit
Speaker 1: of shine and that little bit of confidence. I feel
Speaker 1: more confident as a fan when he's playing, so certainly
Speaker 1: very important, but you know, not to under underestimate the
Speaker 1: importance of Appy corus Our as well. We've gone some
Speaker 1: you know, through some years with some good first grade hookers,
Speaker 1: but he is a step above what he delivers often
Speaker 1: gets sort of unseen.
Speaker 2: Steve the most important players as someone different for you
Speaker 2: at the same er, no, pretty.
Speaker 3: Much the same look. I agree with the Jerome Leway
Speaker 3: stuff like I've been quite critical of some of his
Speaker 3: attacking play throughout the season, but I still maintain he's
Speaker 3: been an outstanding purchase and he has bought a level
Speaker 3: of professionalism to our club, and he's a real leader
Speaker 3: and he brings people with him. But I wrote down
Speaker 3: happy as opposed to him is the most important. But
Speaker 3: when we do something, I agree. I agree that the
Speaker 3: Buller comments. I think I think Rob's pretty on the
Speaker 3: money there. But when we need spark, when we need
Speaker 3: when we're in when there's nothing happened on the field,
Speaker 3: it's often Happy that producers something in the middle there
Speaker 3: and gets us going forward. So you know, I think
Speaker 3: he's extremely important for us.
Speaker 1: Rob.
Speaker 2: From my era, this award was always called most of
Speaker 2: Proved And I'm a school teacher this year and I
Speaker 2: actually changed it to Rising Staff, as I always think
Speaker 2: the kids or whoever wins most improved, think, well, that
Speaker 2: means I'm shitout player and I'll cood here. So I'm
Speaker 2: going to go back to the old school dinosaur ways.
Speaker 2: Who's your most improved player this year?
Speaker 5: My most improved player is Stafford Tower.
Speaker 4: Stafford Tower used to give us one, perhaps two quality
Speaker 4: games a year in terms of his attack. Now he's
Speaker 4: absolutely dynamic. There's certainly some defensive issues he needs to
Speaker 4: sort out on that right edge. It could be the
Speaker 4: fact of certain players that are around him, but definitely
Speaker 4: he's been the most improved. And if I was to
Speaker 4: name my starting team for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: I probably wouldn't have had him in it center.
Speaker 4: So I think he's made at leaps and bounds. He's
Speaker 4: definitely our number one center, So for me, he's the
Speaker 4: most improved.
Speaker 2: Are you okay with that, Joel to that term Joel
Speaker 2: most improved? Or is it a bit sort of derogatory?
Speaker 1: I think it's fair enough. I think we've all sort
Speaker 1: of sense that staff had told I know, I gave
Speaker 1: him a wrap a couple of years ago saying that
Speaker 1: I saw a lot in him, but he's just never
Speaker 1: been able to consistently put games together, hamstring issues and
Speaker 1: other injuries. But as I said earlier, that ability to
Speaker 1: beat that first man is uncanny because he doesn't look
Speaker 1: like a powerful, game changing sort of center. But what
Speaker 1: he's been able to do lately is just so impressive.
Speaker 1: And the good thing that we're in. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know we're being very optimistic about a team that's still
Speaker 1: sort of scratching and clawing its way away from a
Speaker 1: wooden spoon or potentially the bottom of the finals, but
Speaker 1: you know, there's a few guys that could fit into
Speaker 1: that sort of most improved. Buller is an example of one.
Speaker 1: To Rome. I mean, bench prop at the Roosters wasn't
Speaker 1: really setting the world on fire, and look how far
Speaker 1: he's come along this year. So yeah, it's a good
Speaker 1: thing to see.
Speaker 2: Who's caught your eyes?
Speaker 3: DP. Well, I had Stafford Tower for the same reason
Speaker 3: that you guys have said, but I also had.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I just think he's work in the middle this year
Speaker 3: has gone up notch. His minutes have improved, his meters
Speaker 3: have improved, He's got a lot more punched and I've
Speaker 3: seen in the past. I think I think he's developing
Speaker 3: into an awesome middle forward. So I don't hav him
Speaker 3: up there as well.
Speaker 2: Let's do one more rob just glass half empty. This
Speaker 2: one biggest disappointment so far.
Speaker 4: It's a photo finish for me Eddie. I really expected.
Speaker 4: I wanted more out of Royce Hunt, and I will concede.
Speaker 4: He's had some good.
Speaker 5: Performances early in the year, as limited as his minutes were.
Speaker 5: Brent Aiden, Brent Aiden's just lost it for me.
Speaker 4: I would have had him as our first center picked,
Speaker 4: and I'm actually embarrassed to say that he seems to
Speaker 4: have lost his speed, and given what I've seen from
Speaker 4: him this year, he actually looks more suited on the
Speaker 4: wing than center, which is quite alarming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I probably agree. I don't know if Roys Hunt's
Speaker 1: carrying or has had some sort of injury, because he
Speaker 1: just sort of fell off the cliff quite quickly. There.
Speaker 1: He was doing quite well and then disappeared.
Speaker 3: Steve Joel I read today actually that he's had some
Speaker 3: US and rims. I don't know how accurate that is,
Speaker 3: but he has been playing busted according to what I
Speaker 3: saw on social.
Speaker 1: And echoing the thoughts about Brent Naden, and it's what
Speaker 1: we've also spoken about as well. The last few years
Speaker 1: is still there's still that liability every now and then,
Speaker 1: so I don't know if Naden's time in the NFL
Speaker 1: is going to be much longer. I think you'll do
Speaker 1: well in the Super League, that's probably I think he'd
Speaker 1: shine over there.
Speaker 2: So I'd love to fly you to England, Jil to
Speaker 2: do some William dealing. Rich I went over there.
Speaker 1: Exactly and just one for just one quickly for improved
Speaker 1: like Adam Dewey for his defense has to get a
Speaker 1: mentioned because he's he's really tightened up that part of
Speaker 1: his game.
Speaker 2: Lucky Gary's not on tonight, but I agree with that
Speaker 2: he has been solid defense at least. Steve your biggest
Speaker 2: disappointment before we move on to rich O's podcast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my mine's a bit left field. I'm going to
Speaker 3: say talent of silver, and it's not because he's on
Speaker 3: field efforts. I got a lot of time for talent
Speaker 3: as a football. I think he's going to be become an
Speaker 3: absolutely brilliant nine. I love the start of the season
Speaker 3: with Happy playing the bulk of the minutes and then
Speaker 3: tell him giving him a rest at twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: minutes a game. But what I really didn't like was
Speaker 3: that attitude that sort of came out that if if
Speaker 3: Appy resigns, if the club signs resigns, Happy, I'm off,
Speaker 3: I'm going to go and test the out market. I'd
Speaker 3: just like to draw his attention to Harry Grant, you know,
Speaker 3: who sat there and reserved great from Melbourne for a
Speaker 3: few years while he waited his time, while he ripened up,
Speaker 3: you know, and he's now one of the best players
Speaker 3: in the country, in the world in fact, because he
Speaker 3: sort of bided his time and learned from the best.
Speaker 3: And I'd just like to think, tell him de Silver
Speaker 3: could do that, you know, he could sit behind Appy,
Speaker 3: he could sit with Appy. And over the next couple
Speaker 3: of years, gradually they sort of swapped their roles Yah
Speaker 3: where tell him becomes the more dominant nine and Happy
Speaker 3: actually supports him, so that I'm a little disappointed in
Speaker 3: how that looks to be playing out.
Speaker 1: The bigger question I suppose in regards to that is
Speaker 1: do you want to carry a specialized hooker on the bench.
Speaker 1: Are we getting more towards sort of having that utility
Speaker 1: impact player Connor Watson type, maybe potentially Heath Mason coming
Speaker 1: on and playing that role and not carrying a hooker,
Speaker 1: and maybe that strategy is not the right strategy for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't like it. I got to say it. Like,
Speaker 3: I just think in the modern game, good service from
Speaker 3: dummy half is so important, right, good good quick ball,
Speaker 3: bringing your forwards onto the ball, getting momentum at the
Speaker 3: ruck is imperative to good attacking play. And I just
Speaker 3: think you bring fourteen on who's maybe not as quick
Speaker 3: and you know, not as accurate with their passing and
Speaker 3: stands and then delivers rather than just delivers from the ground,
Speaker 3: it slows it all down a little bit. So I
Speaker 3: actually like the idea. If you're nine is not going
Speaker 3: to play eighty minutes, then I like having another specialist
Speaker 3: nine sitting at fourteen. But that's just me.
Speaker 2: Before we move on, Rob, how would you like to
Speaker 2: see the app talent? It's not saga, but how do
Speaker 2: you think he should play out?
Speaker 3: Not yet?
Speaker 4: Look, I agree with both points at Steve and Jola
Speaker 4: mating in a perfect world. I love the proper utility
Speaker 4: at fourteen. I don't think we had one that's capable
Speaker 4: of that. I don't believe Heath can play dummy half,
Speaker 4: and I don't think he's got the defensive capabilities. If ever,
Speaker 4: we need to slot him in the harves as he's
Speaker 4: done the last couple of weeks. I'm more with Steve
Speaker 4: on playing twel on the bench. I actually want to
Speaker 4: preserve happy Corusou. I want more minutes out of him.
Speaker 4: I'd love to see him know that he's going to
Speaker 4: be with us for a couple of years. And look,
Speaker 4: I know, I'm sure Gary's mentioned this on your pod previously.
Speaker 4: You've got to go back to when he was at Penrith.
Speaker 4: He was already getting reduced minutes at Penrith before he
Speaker 4: came to us. And while he's handling eighty, he loves
Speaker 4: our club and he loves Benji. He's doing everything you
Speaker 4: can for our club. I don't want to burn him out.
Speaker 4: You know we said this the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, he's easily been our best player in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: And no disrespect to talent. I think Appy he's.
Speaker 4: Like classes above talent talent will be a great player.
Speaker 5: I still think he's eighteen months away.
Speaker 4: He's definitely Even when he does make tackles, he doesn't
Speaker 4: get to market quickly. He's a little bit of a
Speaker 4: weakness there, so dummy half's targeted him as soon as
Speaker 4: he's fallen.
Speaker 5: Off a tackle. But he will be great.
Speaker 4: He's put on five or six kilos in the offseason
Speaker 4: and he's going to get better with every single season.
Speaker 4: And I've got no doubt he's going to be an
Speaker 4: eleague hooker. I mean, I don't really want to lose
Speaker 4: either of them, but he forced to pick, and I
Speaker 4: know rich O and benji're arguing over this. At the
Speaker 4: moment he forced to choose, I'd be choosing Happy because
Speaker 4: I know he gives us instant success. I think talent
Speaker 4: still got improvement anywhere Appy doesn't. He's there, He's the laitue. He's,
Speaker 4: in my opinion, the best hooker in the game.
Speaker 2: Richo certainly be one of the men making that decision.
Speaker 2: Rob He did drop in on their the club's official podcast,
Speaker 2: nine or ten minutes, probably the first time he's all
Speaker 2: definitely spoke, first time he's spoken publicly in two months.
Speaker 2: I think lots of West Tigers fans were getting a
Speaker 2: bit nancy, but I think his hands were tied. Were
Speaker 2: you reassured or worried by that nine or ten minutes
Speaker 2: That he spoke, what do you speak about?
Speaker 4: All I was worried about, Eddie was the Campbelltown Stadium issues.
Speaker 4: I think the repercussions of not getting government funding and
Speaker 4: actually not being based at Campbelltown bothers me significantly. And
Speaker 4: I'm a Balmain boy, but I believe our futures out there.
Speaker 4: I don't want a to facto home ground at Liverpool
Speaker 4: or Combank Stadium or what have you. I thought the
Speaker 4: nine minutes was quite padded up. I really didn't think
Speaker 4: he had much new to say or anything like that,
Speaker 4: and he did mention himself that he was hamstrung by
Speaker 4: legal issues and I don't think we'll ever find out
Speaker 4: fully what went on there Eddie. So while it was
Speaker 4: good to hear from him, I think it was probably
Speaker 4: timely that he did speak a couple of days ago,
Speaker 4: because you know, we're most likely looking at playing Canberra
Speaker 4: without Luai and who knows. I don't know if Terrell
Speaker 4: May is going to get called in now that kolumb
Speaker 4: Tonguey's not going to Perth, so I think we might
Speaker 4: be on the wrong end of the scoreline there, so
Speaker 4: better for him to come out with some positive stuff
Speaker 4: now after a potential poor scoreline Friday week.
Speaker 2: Joel, We certainly don't want to go back to the
Speaker 2: days of asked the boss and Tiger Town and the
Speaker 2: older CEO of getting his head everywhere. But do you
Speaker 2: think it was timely that rich I spoke.
Speaker 1: Oh, one hundred percent, it was. It was something that
Speaker 1: we needed to hear, and it's probably something with where
Speaker 1: this fan base is at that we need to hear
Speaker 1: on a semi regular basis. Probably the amount of time
Speaker 1: and given the amount of things that have been going
Speaker 1: on around the club, there was a bit of an
Speaker 1: information vacuum there. There's pendulum swung a little bit too far.
Speaker 1: Where in the old days we used to have almost
Speaker 1: daily updates from the club what was happening or not happening,
Speaker 1: or could happen or maybe happen, and we were sort
Speaker 1: of we got used to that as a fan base.
Speaker 1: So but you can't go to the amount of time
Speaker 1: that rich I went given what was going on without something.
Speaker 1: We were starting to get a little bit antsy as
Speaker 1: a fan group.
Speaker 2: Do you have any main takeaways? He was pretty well.
Speaker 2: He was very praiseworthy for Benji Marshall. He was critical
Speaker 2: of the referee it's a little subtle shot there.
Speaker 3: Anything else, I know, I think you know what he said,
Speaker 3: I think we could fully expect him to say. I
Speaker 3: think his comments on the referees were good, and I
Speaker 3: think the way he said it was really well. I
Speaker 3: agree that he's been a little bit slow to respond.
Speaker 3: I think we need to hear from him formally three
Speaker 3: or four times a year. But I think the biggest
Speaker 3: mistake that sort of happened was when he came out
Speaker 3: and he probably regrets this. I'd say when he came
Speaker 3: out and said we've got two or three signs over
Speaker 3: the line, and then it went quite for a period
Speaker 3: of time, and I think that got the fan base
Speaker 3: a little bit as But apart from that, I thought
Speaker 3: his comments around the team were fair. The way the
Speaker 3: team's performing, yeah, it was safe. What he said was
Speaker 3: safe and secure.
Speaker 6: But what you'd expect was, I don't want to go
Speaker 6: down the rabbit hole rob of talking too much about
Speaker 6: referees that I know you'd agree with this point that
Speaker 6: there is now an inherent or subconscious bias against the
Speaker 6: lower team.
Speaker 4: There definitely is, and it's something Adele mentioned with us
Speaker 4: much earlier in the year, and he basically said we
Speaker 4: need to earn that respect and we need to be
Speaker 4: better and overcome those poor decisions.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's fair.
Speaker 4: And look, I don't know where you guys stand on it,
Speaker 4: but you know we saw it again last night with
Speaker 4: a battling team. You know, with a try. You know
Speaker 4: it's a long which you know in every definition. To me,
Speaker 4: that's not a try. If the balls above the ground,
Speaker 4: you cannot grip it with your forum. I don't care
Speaker 4: if it's stuck to your forum. That's a knock on
Speaker 4: every day.
Speaker 5: Of the week.
Speaker 4: And the worst part for me is the NRL has
Speaker 4: come out today and backed up that decision.
Speaker 1: And I think what's clever that what Riche has done
Speaker 1: is that's exactly the right format to make that statement.
Speaker 1: You don't want the coach saying it in the heat
Speaker 1: of the heat of the moment in the press conference
Speaker 1: straight after the game, because the adrenaline's pumping and you're
Speaker 1: under the microscope and you obviously you know after the
Speaker 1: match you're talking specifically about the performance of one or
Speaker 1: maybe two individuals, the referee and the bunker. But Richo
Speaker 1: just just did across the board opinion piece, which is
Speaker 1: basically what we see in the game is and he said,
Speaker 1: I've seen it for quite a while, is it? You know,
Speaker 1: the better teams get the better the better judgments, and
Speaker 1: nobody can see you over that. That's just opinion. And
Speaker 1: if it ever got into a courtroom and you looked
Speaker 1: at the I'm sure if you looked at the data,
Speaker 1: you're able to crunch the data of whether there's any
Speaker 1: truth in that opinion. I think there probably would be.
Speaker 1: I mean, anecdotally, we know that we feel it because
Speaker 1: we seem to get it. But as Rob said, it
Speaker 1: happened to Newcastle, it happens every week. You know, every
Speaker 1: week you see it, the top eight teams seem to
Speaker 1: get the rubb of the green. That bit more, I.
Speaker 3: Think there's one hundred percent method to Richo's madness. Every
Speaker 3: single word he says has been fought through and planted.
Speaker 3: Nothing is said by him by chance, publicly anyway. And
Speaker 3: he just said that perfectly it needed to be said.
Speaker 3: They need to be shot across the bow, and he
Speaker 3: did it in the perfect way. I thought, every of
Speaker 3: this guy, does you know, I know, you know he's
Speaker 3: got the stadium thing to sort out, and I know
Speaker 3: people saying it needs to come a little bit more often.
Speaker 3: But everything this guy does is done professionally and from
Speaker 3: my perspective anyway, this makes me think the club is
Speaker 3: in such good hands having a guy for his experience leadings.
Speaker 2: One of our regular segments rob is buy sell a
Speaker 2: whole of to throw the first one to you. Jerome
Speaker 2: Lewai has been worth the supposed one point three million
Speaker 2: dollars per season. You're buying off selling that.
Speaker 4: This is one where I think whatever answer you say,
Speaker 4: you can get criticized for. I mean, if you're being objective,
Speaker 4: it's probably a hold. For me, I'm buying it, and
Speaker 4: I'd go further than that. If he's not worth the
Speaker 4: one point three this year, Eddie, he's worth a six
Speaker 4: point five for five years. He absolutely helps out cold.
Speaker 4: He's a natural leader. He's totally invested in the club,
Speaker 4: he's invested in the coach. And I know he's not
Speaker 4: getting the triasis or the tries on the field, but
Speaker 4: you can.
Speaker 5: Only see by his effort plays, whether it's.
Speaker 4: Him chasing Poler in round one and cutting an inside
Speaker 4: pass off or or chasing Alex Johnson in round eleven.
Speaker 4: You know when we baller through an intercept and here
Speaker 4: chasing down the line, and even when we beat Cronulla
Speaker 4: in extra time, the way he was reving up the
Speaker 4: players between full time and extra time. He's an absolute
Speaker 4: born leader. I know people say, yeah, well that's not
Speaker 4: worth one.
Speaker 5: Point three million dollars.
Speaker 4: Probably my best analogy to go even with her with that, Eddie,
Speaker 4: is to say, I think rich O is the best
Speaker 4: signing we've ever had, whether it's a player or administrator.
Speaker 5: And where are we now?
Speaker 4: Where four losses in a rouwn, we're going backwards and
Speaker 4: we're most likely going to end up near the bottom
Speaker 4: of the table. Just because you know you're not in
Speaker 4: the eight or you're not winning premierships doesn't mean you're
Speaker 4: not successful. Jerome's going to also attract players to the
Speaker 4: club and everyone can see the relationship he's got with
Speaker 4: the coach, and I think it's only better for us
Speaker 4: to have him with us. And I think, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm very hopeful of this when he partners with Latu
Speaker 4: FNU next year, who I hope stay sealthy. I am
Speaker 4: so excited about that combination, Eddie. I think he's a
Speaker 4: second season with us and a few better signings in
Speaker 4: certain positions. I think we can be a lot better.
Speaker 4: But I guess in my heart of hearts, I'm buying it.
Speaker 4: But you know that the objective thing to say would be.
Speaker 2: Hold, he might have just answered my next question, Robber,
Speaker 2: is here seven or a six? Derome?
Speaker 4: I think I'll be arguing with Gary about this quite
Speaker 4: a bit, Eddie, because I know he sees last two
Speaker 4: as a six. To me, Jerome's definitely a seven. And
Speaker 4: I see the way Latu straightens up the attack. He's
Speaker 4: very much Cioni katoa like. So for me, I'd be
Speaker 4: playing Jerome at six. But again it's a bloody expensive
Speaker 4: five eight at one point two one point three million dollars.
Speaker 4: But I mean, I think he offers a lot more
Speaker 4: than Dylan Brown. Dylan Brown to me, is one dimensional.
Speaker 4: He's just run, run, run, He hasn't got a passing game.
Speaker 4: He's a good defender, like you can almost play Dylan
Speaker 4: Brown as a center. So yeah, I think Jerome Leui
Speaker 4: at number six for me, Eddie.
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.
Speaker 1: It's free to join and you can contribute directly to
Speaker 1: the podcast on the forum. Just head to West Tiger's
Speaker 1: podcast dot com dot au slash forum. We hope to
Speaker 1: see you there soon.
Speaker 2: You buy and I selling at Jylon Jerome one point
Speaker 2: three year.
Speaker 1: What I would say is that I think that we've
Speaker 1: heard people come into the club over the years that
Speaker 1: have come with a view to providing leadership and have
Speaker 1: been beaten by the system or have given up in
Speaker 1: the process, whereas I don't see Jerome Leui doing that.
Speaker 1: That's the difference. It's one thing to come in and
Speaker 1: be a leader, it's another thing to maintain that leadership.
Speaker 1: And we need him to meet team that leadership and
Speaker 1: not give up because this is going to be an
Speaker 1: operation that takes more than one year. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: where we've made progress, but we're not being it So
Speaker 1: don't give up.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I went down to the Center of Excellence
Speaker 3: last week and that they were having their team photos
Speaker 3: and lucky for me, my membership allows me to get
Speaker 3: in to have a photo with the team. So I
Speaker 3: was there for a couple of hours in and around
Speaker 3: the team Men's and women's teams and the whole everywhere.
Speaker 3: Steve in the game, I can drop a name. But
Speaker 3: so there's a point to this if you just let
Speaker 3: me get to it right. Look at these blokes that
Speaker 3: have just lost four games in a round, just been
Speaker 3: through the Galvin garbage for last month, and the stress
Speaker 3: that that's caused the club. And I saw a bunch
Speaker 3: of blokes that were just sow together and so united
Speaker 3: and so happy to be in each other's company, and
Speaker 3: they just looked like a high functioning professional group of footballers.
Speaker 3: And I just sat back and I watched that, and
Speaker 3: I thought, this club has gone places. We are on
Speaker 3: the right track. This team is going to get there.
Speaker 3: And yeah it's not shown yet, like we're still bottom
Speaker 3: of the table, but what I saw was enough to
Speaker 3: know to tell me that this group's going to make it.
Speaker 3: And the jderme Luise and the Toron Mays, you know,
Speaker 3: and the Rito's put them all together and they're causing
Speaker 3: this to happen. These guys not just what they do
Speaker 3: in the eighty minutes, it's what they do seven days
Speaker 3: a week around the club. So you know, I've criticized
Speaker 3: some of his play on the field, and I think
Speaker 3: I'm within my rights to do that. But what he's
Speaker 3: brought to our club with others has been extraordinary, I think.
Speaker 2: And good to seeing Rob. I know I couldn't care
Speaker 2: less to be a two wins state of Origin, but
Speaker 2: I was just relieved one Mitchell Moses got injured. That
Speaker 2: was good news and too just for Jirave to get
Speaker 2: a call up because it's sort of not that I
Speaker 2: don't think he's forming anything to do with it, the
Speaker 2: fact that Moses was on fire and was in last
Speaker 2: year's series, but the fact now he's probably going to
Speaker 2: get to play in a winning series and play those
Speaker 2: last two Origin it just takes that sort of mood
Speaker 2: away from you know, if we do drift out of
Speaker 2: finals contention for him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm really happy that he got selected.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously he's the second choice, but you know
Speaker 4: we've had this stench the West Tigers players don't get
Speaker 4: picked for Origin or very rarely, so at least I
Speaker 4: can chief for New South Wales with a bit of
Speaker 4: passion this time, as opposed to going out for my
Speaker 4: son's birthday and not giving two hoots about the result.
Speaker 4: I think it's really important also that New South Wales
Speaker 4: win for Jerome's sake as well. We don't want him
Speaker 4: to be I that Jerome Lewid didn't play well with
Speaker 4: what's happened, He's come to the Tigers and regress. So
Speaker 4: I'm really happy that he played. But again, I want
Speaker 4: him to get the win and it's going to be
Speaker 4: interesting to see how he plays a succeed he going.
Speaker 5: Back to your previous question because you know certainly clear
Speaker 5: he can straighten the lineup. That's something Latu Feynu can do.
Speaker 4: So if he has a great game of six, I mean,
Speaker 4: it might answer all our questions for the future.
Speaker 2: Brandell I reckon in New South last, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: I'm going to skip over the second one Rob for
Speaker 2: a minute. It depends what's on a mood. I mean,
Speaker 2: I might come back to it, but I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to see which is a historical one. I've got
Speaker 2: a few historical ones thrown in. Brett Hodgson is the
Speaker 2: club's greatest ever fallback? You're buying or selling that?
Speaker 4: I'm selling that. I thought this. I thought this was
Speaker 4: the easiest question you threw up here. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: it's James Tedesco first, second and third I mean, I
Speaker 4: know Tedie wasn't a goalkicker or a general kicker, and
Speaker 4: certainly Brett Hodgson achieved more with the club. But I mean,
Speaker 4: I look at it this way. If you were picking
Speaker 4: a team to ensure the survival of the West Tigers
Speaker 4: franchise for one game only win or lose, who are
Speaker 4: you putting a.
Speaker 5: Fullback to Disco or Brett Hodgson? It's Tedesco every time.
Speaker 2: For me, Wow has thrown me a bit there, Rob Steve,
Speaker 2: You disagree or agree?
Speaker 3: No, I can't disagree. I'd like to disagree because I
Speaker 3: think we're all being really too nice to each other tonight,
Speaker 3: and it's obvious the first part we've all been together,
Speaker 3: so I'd love to disagree. I forgot all about him,
Speaker 3: to be honest, but you're right. You're right, he's, without
Speaker 3: doubt the premier FABA we've had.
Speaker 2: And Esco never had a season that Hodgen had in
Speaker 2: West Tiger's colors.
Speaker 5: That roub did he really like?
Speaker 2: The third that in five was unbelievable.
Speaker 5: I totally agree with you.
Speaker 4: I mean, leading points scorer and record you know, record
Speaker 4: goal kicks and scored a lot of tries and there's
Speaker 4: no doubt he achieved more in certain seasons than Tedesco
Speaker 4: ever did. But you just have to look at the
Speaker 4: players and what they offer a team. And can you
Speaker 4: imagine James Tedesco in that two thousand and five seam
Speaker 4: My god, my god. I mean, look, he left our
Speaker 4: club and I know he went to a stack team
Speaker 4: and he won supremierships back to back. He scored the
Speaker 4: match winning try in Origin Series a few years ago.
Speaker 4: He's played for Australia like he's he's done it all
Speaker 4: and that's no disrespect to.
Speaker 5: Bret Hodge and he's probably been overall.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, if you look at his achievement, he's won
Speaker 4: a premiership and James Odesco hasn't. James Sidesco didn't need
Speaker 4: to play finals. But if I'm giving you my honest answer,
Speaker 4: I don't even think it's close.
Speaker 3: It's probably how you frame the question. Who is the
Speaker 3: fullback that has given the most to the West Tigers.
Speaker 3: You'd say Brett Hodgson. But who's the best footballer that's
Speaker 3: played football for the club. You'd say to Esco.
Speaker 2: So I reckon deliberately sleive A's host. I've left it
Speaker 2: open ended because I wanted a bit of debate. Gol,
Speaker 2: You've probably got someone random like Mitch Brown or something.
Speaker 5: Have you love Mitch Brown?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: No, But I think we're probably all on the same
Speaker 1: page ultimately, because I think everybody in rugbya league would
Speaker 1: agree that Tedesco is a generational talent. Brett Hodgson's a
Speaker 1: really good first grade was a really good first grade fullback.
Speaker 1: But the question is Brett Hodgson is the club's greatest
Speaker 1: ever fallback. And given that he actually accomplished something here
Speaker 1: and Tedesco didn't really accomplish a lot, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: by buy a heir'd say Hodgson is the better player
Speaker 1: from our perspective, not the game's perspective.
Speaker 2: Rob, I'm going to combine B and D sort of
Speaker 2: the same sort of question. Has the rugby league media
Speaker 2: played a role in the West Tigers being a dysfunctional
Speaker 2: organization or still plays a role, Or you're buying that
Speaker 2: or you're selling it, or it's more on us both.
Speaker 4: I'm buying it because they do. But it's our fault beating.
Speaker 4: We're border on ourselves. We've had a lot of mismanagement,
Speaker 4: going back to Grant Mayor being CEO, Dustin Pasco.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I definitely think they do play a role.
Speaker 4: And as we all know, we're suckers for a media
Speaker 4: article on the West Tigers and they realize we bite
Speaker 4: a lot, so they love starring up the button putting
Speaker 4: the need of spin on our club.
Speaker 5: So they have played their role, but I think it's
Speaker 5: our fault beating.
Speaker 1: They've definitely tarnished the West Tigers reputation. But imagine what
Speaker 1: the club would be like, or what some of the
Speaker 1: levels of management through the years would have been like
Speaker 1: if we were blind to what was going on, if
Speaker 1: they were able to get away with stuff and it
Speaker 1: didn't end up in the Sydney Morning Herald like the
Speaker 1: Holman Barnes group stuff earlier in the year, and we
Speaker 1: were non toward we didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what it would have been like. So
Speaker 1: there's an argument either way. Definitely, if you asked, I
Speaker 1: think the person in the street about the West Tiger's brand,
Speaker 1: they'd probably turn their nose a little bit and say
Speaker 1: that's not a good strong brand. But if we didn't
Speaker 1: have the media bringing these stories to light, then we
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to actually keep people to check to
Speaker 1: actually keep on top of situations, as I said, such
Speaker 1: as that Holman Barnes thing earlier in the year which
Speaker 1: formulated West Tigers Unite, which formulated the petition and the action,
Speaker 1: and we called it out into the public and pretty
Speaker 1: much got exactly what we wanted.
Speaker 2: It's a bit of a catch twenty two Steve. I
Speaker 2: think I think I might have even been listening to
Speaker 2: at Rob's pod when they had Michael Chambers on and
Speaker 2: he sort of basically said it without saying it, like,
Speaker 2: no one really wants to read about Cronulla or Manly
Speaker 2: or Penrith, but if you're talking Bulldogs, Paramatta, south West Tigers,
Speaker 2: it's big news and it's big cliques and unfortunately we've
Speaker 2: just been bad for thirteen fourteen years, so they are
Speaker 2: going to write big, bad articles.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right. We are absolutely a power us
Speaker 3: in the competition. As far as the journalists to concern,
Speaker 3: they love us, and why wouldn't they. I agree, we've
Speaker 3: bought most of this on ourselves. Our dysfunctionality has been
Speaker 3: out there for all to sea and it's just been amplified.
Speaker 3: The thing that concerns me about the power of the media,
Speaker 3: these days and maybe it's forever. I don't know, but
Speaker 3: is they have such an impact on people's perceptions, and
Speaker 3: as I've said, stacks and sacks of times, people's perception
Speaker 3: becomes reality, right, And if you're trying to get good
Speaker 3: players to come to the club, and you're trying to
Speaker 3: grow your brand and get sponsorship and the like, when
Speaker 3: the perception is out there, the club's on the nose,
Speaker 3: you're just not going to get it out. Most of
Speaker 3: it is our fault, but it's been amplified by the
Speaker 3: media and makes it harder for us to rectify some
Speaker 3: of the problems that we've created.
Speaker 2: Rob I'm going to have to apologize to West Tiger's
Speaker 2: podcast listeners because I said I wouldn't mention his bloke again.
Speaker 2: I think I've mentioned him in four podcasts straight in
Speaker 2: a row, so I'm getting used to upsetting him. But
Speaker 2: the Lachland Galvin saga was mishandled by Shane Ridges, and
Speaker 2: you're buying or selling that.
Speaker 4: Controversial answer here, I'm actually going to say whole Because
Speaker 4: we don't know what happened behind the scenes, it's easy,
Speaker 4: with the benefit of hindsight to say yeah, which I
Speaker 4: should have publicize that Galvin would have played another eighteen months.
Speaker 4: But I think from a club perspective, he does need
Speaker 4: to know where those funds were going. It's not like
Speaker 4: we were throwing four hundred k at him.
Speaker 5: We're probably putting him on a million bucks a year.
Speaker 4: And I think you always have to go back to
Speaker 4: one fact with Lachlan GALVINETI, and that's the fact that
Speaker 4: he wanted out.
Speaker 5: It wouldn't have mattered what we did.
Speaker 4: And you know, I've mentioned on our podcast that I'd
Speaker 4: reached out to Gary and Joel about starting a petition
Speaker 4: against Gould back in early February because I was told
Speaker 4: he was going to Canterbury back then. Would have made
Speaker 4: no difference. He just would have gone to Paramatter. He
Speaker 4: just would have gone somewhere else. He did not want
Speaker 4: to stay with us. And the bottom line is, Eddie,
Speaker 4: he kept a dossier. You know you didn't You didn't
Speaker 4: train me hard enough in wrestle. You didn't do this,
Speaker 4: you didn't do that. He gave Benji a backhanded swipe
Speaker 4: when he was complimenting Surroundo a week and a half
Speaker 4: ago in his interview with Danny Widler.
Speaker 5: So how can we say that rich O handled it, PAULI.
Speaker 4: If he was always going to leave, If you believe
Speaker 4: there's something Richo could have done to keep him at
Speaker 4: the club, then you can say, yeah, he mishandled it,
Speaker 4: but he was leaving no matter what. What the problem is,
Speaker 4: as Steve alluded to, its ruined our last month and
Speaker 4: it destabilized our year. And when you're going into preseason
Speaker 4: camps talking about unity and harmony and never giving up,
Speaker 4: and we saw that in all those early matches, even
Speaker 4: the Broncos matches that just got ripped apart.
Speaker 5: You can't trust the bloke next to you if he's
Speaker 5: doing things like that.
Speaker 2: So is it unfair for me to say Rob though,
Speaker 2: like if you and guys in and around the club
Speaker 2: knew in January or February that he wanted out, shouldn't
Speaker 2: have someone in our club. Maybe in pre season thought
Speaker 2: we're going to go with Latu final What do you think?
Speaker 2: They just kept trying to maybe win some games and
Speaker 2: will turn him around, and then rich eventually went nut
Speaker 2: it's over.
Speaker 4: Well, I think we believe that we were building the
Speaker 4: club around it. We say Tod that publicly, we told
Speaker 4: him he was our future, that we were going to
Speaker 4: make him this ridiculous offer, and who would think that
Speaker 4: a nineteen year old is going to knock back a
Speaker 4: five year.
Speaker 5: Deal worth approximate in the million dollars a year on average.
Speaker 4: So look, we have been caught out in the past,
Speaker 4: whether it's been rich O, whether it's been justin Pasco
Speaker 4: in believing that Mitch Moses was going to ditch Paramatter
Speaker 4: and come to our club, and you know, and Lockey
Speaker 4: Galvin's going to say, so, we've put out all our
Speaker 4: eggs in one basket a couple of times and it's
Speaker 4: backfired on us. So I can understand if someone says, yeah,
Speaker 4: he mishandled it. But ultimately what makes me sleep at
Speaker 4: night a little bit better is I don't think rich
Speaker 4: I could have done anything more than he did. And
Speaker 4: let's look at another way. If you know, Galvin's playing
Speaker 4: the lights out Eddie and we're still rocking and rolling
Speaker 4: in July heading towards the eight, aren't your teammates thinking
Speaker 4: why haven't we signed this bloke up? Like they're going
Speaker 4: to be asking questions? It would have been found out
Speaker 4: eventually that he didn't want to be there. And trust me,
Speaker 4: rich One knew that Locke was going because I made
Speaker 4: it clear to other people that had contact.
Speaker 5: With him to let Rich I know, and Rich I
Speaker 5: knew all about it.
Speaker 2: Jell, just like probably I was probably specifically talking about
Speaker 2: just that initial press release. I don't want to do
Speaker 2: it to death because it's over, but anything, in hindsight,
Speaker 2: he could have done well.
Speaker 1: When you've got a guy that's packing his kit bag
Speaker 1: after a lost and saying I've got to get out
Speaker 1: of here, I've got to get out of his club
Speaker 1: and apparently asked for all of those releases before he
Speaker 1: even played first grade, I think it's a I don't
Speaker 1: think this is our failing. I don't know what more
Speaker 1: the club could have done better. I don't know why
Speaker 1: there needs to be some blame that's turned inward to
Speaker 1: the West Tigers. Can't it just be that Lochlan Galvin
Speaker 1: is a certain character and that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: Why does it have to be that we've done something
Speaker 1: wrong along the way. By all accounts, Benji was one
Speaker 1: hundred percent prioritizing Lachlan Galvin. It's what upset John Bateman
Speaker 1: because Bateman was saying that, you know, all Benji cares
Speaker 1: about is that you know, the youngsters and obviously I
Speaker 1: reckon he'd probably say Galvin. I think it's just a
Speaker 1: reflection on Galvin. I don't think it's a reflection on
Speaker 1: West Tigers. And as Rob said, a very very important
Speaker 1: thing at the start there he said, we don't have
Speaker 1: all the information and I can pretty much guarantee there's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of stuff that we don't know about
Speaker 1: what has gone on at the West Tigers in regards
Speaker 1: to Lochland Galvin over the last.
Speaker 2: Year or so, Steve your crystal ball. Benji Marshall will
Speaker 2: be the coach of West Tigers in the year twenty
Speaker 2: thirty by yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to buy it. I'm going to buy it.
Speaker 3: I am of the opinion that the playing group are
Speaker 3: right behind him, and you don't get the playing group
Speaker 3: behind you unless you're doing something right. I think he's
Speaker 3: starting to show the traits that he showed as a
Speaker 3: player as a coach. He was a champion player, and
Speaker 3: I think he that determination, that hard work, that self analysis,
Speaker 3: that desire to get better, that raising of standards, all
Speaker 3: that stuff that made him a great player is starting
Speaker 3: to drip through into his coaching and I think he's
Speaker 3: just going to get better and better. And I made
Speaker 3: the comment on the pot how much time do we
Speaker 3: have to give him to get better because we want
Speaker 3: success now? And I don't know. I don't know the
Speaker 3: answer to that, but I do think he's going to
Speaker 3: make it. And I'm getting more and more feedback that
Speaker 3: players just think the world of him, and that speaks
Speaker 3: a lot to me about what he's going to be
Speaker 3: like as he continues to develop. So as long as
Speaker 3: he's willing to stay, I think he very well could
Speaker 3: be here for a while.
Speaker 1: Let's hope he is, because if he is, we're obviously
Speaker 1: doing well. But I mean, like if this was the
Speaker 1: it probably doesn't exist. But the Gold Coast Titans podcast
Speaker 1: or the North Queens, Like, how many teams can fans
Speaker 1: could sit here today and confidently say that their coach
Speaker 1: will still be the coach in twenty thirty. Probably not many,
Speaker 1: Maybe Siraldo, maybe Webster at the Warriors. Maybe. I mean,
Speaker 1: Bellamy is sort of year to year and that's not
Speaker 1: getting any younger. You go through the list, you could
Speaker 1: sort of see that pretty much any coach could not
Speaker 1: be around in twenty thirty. So you know, Benji might
Speaker 1: actually be more skewed towards maybe being a greater chance
Speaker 1: than a lot of other coaches in the game.
Speaker 5: At this point.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty wild situation where he got thrown
Speaker 2: in rob and obviously it was previous admin. But I've
Speaker 2: sort of, you know, initially thinking it was no chance
Speaker 2: of working. I've sort of almost you know, I haven't
Speaker 2: done a backflip on it, but I'm more fifty five
Speaker 2: forty five that I think it can work now, given
Speaker 2: the roster that his assembly, you know, the wins he's
Speaker 2: having in recruitment room, and also, you know, some wins
Speaker 2: on the field.
Speaker 5: I was with you, Eddie, and I still felt like
Speaker 5: that at the start of the year. Given that.
Speaker 4: When I look back at all the great players in
Speaker 4: history who have become unbelievably good coaches, and I like
Speaker 4: racking my head over the last fifty years, the only
Speaker 4: person I can think of is Bob Fulton. I don't
Speaker 4: think any magnificent player has made it as a coach
Speaker 4: except for Bob Fulton.
Speaker 2: He's not a magnificent player, just a good player. Who's
Speaker 2: that Ricky Stewart, Yeah, but I.
Speaker 5: Mean, okay, okay, fair enough.
Speaker 4: He was probably well he revolutionized the halfback position, didn't
Speaker 4: he With his kicking game and being able to torpedo
Speaker 4: pass both ways and the length that he could pass
Speaker 4: the ball, we say, yeah, perhaps Ricky Stewart was an oversight.
Speaker 4: But that said Eddie, I think, except for this year,
Speaker 4: Ricky's like he've had that Grand Final in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4: I look at that Canberra list every year and I think,
Speaker 4: why aren't you playing finals? So this year they're finally
Speaker 4: living up to their potential. But back on Benji, I'm
Speaker 4: selling this, but I'm selling this for the good reasons.
Speaker 4: I'm not selling it because I think he's going to fail,
Speaker 4: given that he started preparing for the assistant coaches role
Speaker 4: in the latter half of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 5: By twenty thirty that would have been seven or eight years.
Speaker 4: And knowing Benji the way he professes, and I genuinely
Speaker 4: believe this that he's a family man and his kids
Speaker 4: are going to be older. I'm hoping by twenty thirty
Speaker 4: he's probably won a premiership. He's made a couple of
Speaker 4: finals with us, and you know what he's done his
Speaker 4: time in coaching. He just wants to go on and
Speaker 4: pursue other ventures and enjoy his life a little bit better.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he'd want to be a full
Speaker 4: time coach for that long, but if he's really really
Speaker 4: enjoying it, then sure he'll stay on. But I mean,
Speaker 4: his family is going to be bigger and have more needs,
Speaker 4: and I just don't think he needs to do it
Speaker 4: after twenty thirty.
Speaker 2: I'd certainly sign up for that. Rob with a couple
Speaker 2: of finals appearance in a Premiership. What do you think
Speaker 2: he's biggest weaknesses as a coach at the moment?
Speaker 4: Look Adele always reminds me of this every week, Eddie.
Speaker 4: I from what I see on the field, I believe
Speaker 4: it's attention to detail. I also believe there's some tactical stuff.
Speaker 4: I mentioned the fact that how we handled a penalty
Speaker 4: when we were down fourteen nil against the Cowboys the
Speaker 4: other week just shows me that they don't discuss how
Speaker 4: you play certain moments in games. And I'm not going
Speaker 4: to blame the players for their decision to take a
Speaker 4: tap when they should have gone for goal, or they
Speaker 4: should have dropped the ball ten times before kicking for
Speaker 4: touch and killing as much PLoP as they could before
Speaker 4: Luis gets on. But when you see us run certain plays,
Speaker 4: you can tell they haven't practiced it enough. I mean,
Speaker 4: if they are, it's not showing on the field. So
Speaker 4: again I'm not there to see what they do. I
Speaker 4: think Benji's more that Wayne Bennett type of coach. I
Speaker 4: love you play for me, and he does get the
Speaker 4: best out of players, which is the most important thing.
Speaker 4: I just think he needs, you know, an attacking coach
Speaker 4: that can really be a bit more ex's and o's
Speaker 4: get the team in certain.
Speaker 5: Positions on the field.
Speaker 4: And how many times have all of us said Eddie Weather,
Speaker 4: I've heard you guys say it as well, and definitely
Speaker 4: heard Steeve say it a lot, how clunky we look
Speaker 4: when we run a back line shape.
Speaker 5: Like we've said that for so long now.
Speaker 4: If you're looking clunky, it's not because you can't do it,
Speaker 4: it's because you're just not practicing it enough or it's
Speaker 4: not important.
Speaker 5: And I understand Benji had.
Speaker 4: To sort our defense out and our resolve, and he's
Speaker 4: improved in so many ways. And we are so competitive now,
Speaker 4: and there there are so many ticks and even though
Speaker 4: we're in my opinion, two hundred percent better than we
Speaker 4: were last year, it's probably not going to show in
Speaker 4: the finals appear, and so how do you quantify? But again,
Speaker 4: we're not there to see what they're practicing. But at
Speaker 4: the same time, I don't think the players are dumb
Speaker 4: and they can't be taught how to run certain players
Speaker 4: or do certain things. But yeah, sometimes we just don't
Speaker 4: look like an intelligent football team.
Speaker 5: With all that.
Speaker 3: Rob I've been banging on about that for years, But
Speaker 3: I reckon the number one thing he needs to change,
Speaker 3: it's a bit of a mindset thing. Is he needs
Speaker 3: to put people around him that are going to complement
Speaker 3: his deficiencies, not put his mates around him that he's
Speaker 3: comfortable with. And that's how he's going to get better.
Speaker 3: He needs people that are going to challenge him, are
Speaker 3: going to sit around the coach's table and challenge his
Speaker 3: thinking and bring to the table what he's not able
Speaker 3: to bring to the table. Whereas I think, up until now,
Speaker 3: he's wanted to go with people that are going to
Speaker 3: support him and back him and back his decision and
Speaker 3: not challenge him. And that's probably the worst thing a
Speaker 3: leader can do.
Speaker 5: I reckon agree totally.
Speaker 2: A couple of historical ones to finish by cell whole boys.
Speaker 2: Rob is West Tiger's best ever side. If we look
Speaker 2: at to name one Robbie Farrabee your captain by yourself.
Speaker 5: This could cause dramas with the Pharaoh family.
Speaker 4: For me, Robbie and I were very close to a
Speaker 4: couple of years ago, but we've seen to have gone
Speaker 4: in different directions through no fault of each other. I
Speaker 4: can't put anyone but Scott Prince's captain. I mean just
Speaker 4: for the fact that he won the comp You have
Speaker 4: to remember that Mark O'Neill was the captain that year
Speaker 4: till he got injured, and you know even Tim Sheen's
Speaker 4: at the time for we're doing better under Prince.
Speaker 5: And look, Prince was our playmaker.
Speaker 4: He's the number one guy, and you know he did
Speaker 4: the kicking game, He organized everything, he created everything.
Speaker 5: So for me to be Scott Prince.
Speaker 4: But that said, I am not detracting from how much
Speaker 4: Robbie loves the club, how passionate he was, how we
Speaker 4: bleed it, and also how smart he was.
Speaker 5: He was very good with the referees. He got his
Speaker 5: way with that. But if you just forced me to
Speaker 5: pick the best one, I'd go with Scott Prince.
Speaker 4: But no doubt anyone that puts Robbie Farrell's captain of
Speaker 4: our best ever seem I've got no argument with that either.
Speaker 1: Hard to argue with Scott Prince given what was achieved.
Speaker 1: You know, Robbie's right up there a few other guys
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: He did leave us high and dry, though, Joel Bloody Prince.
Speaker 2: You know, I did say that if he stuck around
Speaker 2: his wife.
Speaker 1: Was homesick, and if your wife is homesick, what are
Speaker 1: you going to do a rugby league career. It's such
Speaker 1: a lone thing podcast that.
Speaker 2: He was on. I don't know what it was, but
Speaker 2: he said, and this was post retirement, he said, the
Speaker 2: biggest regret of my career was not sticking at the
Speaker 2: Tigers a bit longer than I thought. Yeah, let's know,
Speaker 2: scotta felt worse.
Speaker 4: Rop I'm just just going to say, if you remember
Speaker 4: at the end of two thousand and five, Tim Sheen said,
Speaker 4: if we don't re sign Scott Prince, I will resign
Speaker 4: as coach. But that's how important he believed it was.
Speaker 4: But Joel is one hundred percent right. It was all
Speaker 4: about family. I mean, I had nothing to do with
Speaker 4: him not wanting to be at the Tigers and I
Speaker 4: got to a mid I was quite upset in two
Speaker 4: thousand and seven when he ran out to captain the
Speaker 4: Titans in two thousand and seven that our crowd of
Speaker 4: Campbell's how could boo him?
Speaker 5: I was discussed that this guy.
Speaker 4: Gave us our one moment of glory and we had
Speaker 4: fans booing him, And it just makes you realize how
Speaker 4: fickle fans can be and why they take the money
Speaker 4: and why they do what they do sometimes.
Speaker 2: Steveh your captain, who would your captain be?
Speaker 3: I've got nothing to add at all, Scott Prince for me,
Speaker 3: but I'm hoping that in a couple of years time
Speaker 3: we say happy or Jerome, Happy or Jerome, we'll see
Speaker 3: last one.
Speaker 2: Rob Leam Fulton was the most underrated player in West
Speaker 2: Tiger's history. Bye, I'm selling.
Speaker 4: I'm going to sell that, Betty, and I'm not discrediting
Speaker 4: from what he brought to the group culturally and the
Speaker 4: Joseph that he was and how much he loved that.
Speaker 5: You've got to remember, at the end of two thousand.
Speaker 4: And eight we did release him for a year to
Speaker 4: help Cuttersfield to play a bit of footy there. If
Speaker 4: he was that important, we would have kept him and
Speaker 4: not let him go, and he did come back a
Speaker 4: lot bigger and a lot better player.
Speaker 5: I believe post that English trip. But no, I'm definitely
Speaker 5: going to sell that.
Speaker 2: Who you've got though, probably have you got a name
Speaker 2: I wrote down just you know, when I was preparing
Speaker 2: for the show, I wrote down names like Chris hiying To.
Speaker 2: I wrote down bo Ryan, which might be an unpopular one,
Speaker 2: Paul Foannawera. I actually wrote down Robert Louis. I know
Speaker 2: he terrible things off the field, but the two years
Speaker 2: he was in I think we made top four. If
Speaker 2: you've got a most underrated player in our.
Speaker 4: History, is Bryce Gibbs? Underrated to you? Eddie is a
Speaker 4: bigger name because to me, I know he gave away
Speaker 4: a lot of penalties. That guy loved the club. He
Speaker 4: absolutely loved the club. So if I had to give
Speaker 4: you a name, that would be one. I thought Mitch Brown.
Speaker 4: Do you mentioned Mitch Brown? I thought he was great
Speaker 4: for us whenever he played, and I often wondered why
Speaker 4: he was on the bench and not getting a starting
Speaker 4: gig on the wing or sender. He had a lot
Speaker 4: of speed, he was a good tackler. I thought whenever
Speaker 4: he played first grade. He produced for us.
Speaker 1: I've got one. He's off my Christmas card list at
Speaker 1: the moment, but successful with US across our three final series.
Speaker 1: A guy that was consistently.
Speaker 2: Displayed bit Henry Dollar. I'm going to turn the place.
Speaker 1: Off, consistently different to what other forwards were providing, and
Speaker 1: that's Todd Payton. Like the amount that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that Todd Payton did for US is phenomenal and it's
Speaker 1: so sad to see him not here with the club.
Speaker 2: I reckon coature West Tigers in the future. Todd Peyton
Speaker 2: might be two years hopefully it's ten years time, but
Speaker 2: I reckon he will. Let's not do that last one
Speaker 2: because we can combine it with this one, Steve West
Speaker 2: Tiger's side, Round one, twenty twenty six. Now, there's no
Speaker 2: right or wrong answers here. I've told you guys, you
Speaker 2: can include a signing or two if you want. You
Speaker 2: can dream big, or you can be like me and
Speaker 2: dream low and you know, right out the same side.
Speaker 2: But what do you got one to five?
Speaker 3: Well, I've tried to be realistic, you know, with a
Speaker 3: couple of aspirations, but one to five obviously Buller at
Speaker 3: full back. I've got to Reuven Skelton on the wings still,
Speaker 3: and I've got Taylor mayn stuff at Tower as our
Speaker 3: starting centers next year.
Speaker 2: That sounds ideal. Rob the only other kid I threw
Speaker 2: in with the youngster who I think is going to
Speaker 2: deboot later this year at Makassini.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, there's massive raps on Macasine. I keep getting told
Speaker 4: he's Israel for allow two point zero.
Speaker 5: I'm receive. I just went with those five just for
Speaker 5: the sake of the argument.
Speaker 4: If there was probably a center out there that I
Speaker 4: know whose contract is up for discussion, I wouldn't mind
Speaker 4: going after someone like Catani Sas. But yeah, the five
Speaker 4: that Steve named, I think that'll be our starting five
Speaker 4: next to you, and I'll just go further than that.
Speaker 4: I think if Talen may gets his head right, he
Speaker 4: will be sensational for us. He can actually be a
Speaker 4: top five center when he's on, he's very very good.
Speaker 2: Hope and pray there, Joel, you're any differences, wonder five?
Speaker 1: No differences? Obviously, the X factor will two X factors
Speaker 1: to see how and how Macasini goes in first grade
Speaker 1: and if he is included and if he's brought in
Speaker 1: in that time, and obviously how may he goes other
Speaker 1: than that? I mean, yeah, I think that probably covers it.
Speaker 1: I can't see any significant changes with Charuver and Skelton.
Speaker 1: Maybe Skelton the centers at some stage, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but yep, I'm.
Speaker 5: In agreement Steve the Halves.
Speaker 2: This one's going to be probably disagree, probably have to
Speaker 2: do a bit of dreaming here. I want you to
Speaker 2: give me your six, your seven, and your back up,
Speaker 2: whether it's a fourteen or in reserve grade.
Speaker 3: I will My six is Lewis and my seven's fin
Speaker 3: similar who were talking earlier. I just think I think
Speaker 3: La two Fantom is the natural seven, and I think
Speaker 3: I think Louis Isaam is a natural six. So that's
Speaker 3: how we go. My backup fourteen is again based on
Speaker 3: what I said earlier, I'd be going a specialist. I'd
Speaker 3: be going to silver at fourteen. But if you're talking
Speaker 3: about a backup at the moment, remembering that we've got
Speaker 3: what's his name coming back from seven.
Speaker 2: SI today, I don't think we can't rely on him.
Speaker 5: Can we.
Speaker 3: Well, we can't rely on him, but at the moment
Speaker 3: he's coming back but the other backup is going to
Speaker 3: be Heath Mason, and I think that's the important thing.
Speaker 3: From my perspective. Anyway, I'm not all that disappointed we've
Speaker 3: missed out on Reynolds, or seemingly missed out on Reynolds,
Speaker 3: because I think the word backup is important. We can't block.
Speaker 3: We can't block freinws go at first grade now, and
Speaker 3: if we go out and buy another star half, we're
Speaker 3: going to block his road to first grade. I think
Speaker 3: we need to go with those two and then get
Speaker 3: a couple of good backups, and they're the two that
Speaker 3: are sitting on the shelf at the moment.
Speaker 2: I'm sort of torn on this one, Rob. I know
Speaker 2: Reynolds is probably out of the picture now, but I
Speaker 2: was torn. I thought maybe a senior half for a
Speaker 2: year or two, But what do you got?
Speaker 5: I'm happy to run with Latu and Jerome.
Speaker 4: I really have nothing more to add on what Steve said,
Speaker 4: but I will throw a spanner in the works that
Speaker 4: the three of you.
Speaker 5: Maybe let me ask you guys a question.
Speaker 4: If the Russes go cold on DCE, would you take
Speaker 4: him for a year and let Latu be that number fourteen?
Speaker 2: I would I actually had him right at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the page because I think, well, there's whispers that
Speaker 2: they are going cold on him, and if he saw
Speaker 2: some of them got a fair amount of depth in
Speaker 2: the half, so i'd probably I assume I'd be in
Speaker 2: a minority of Tigers fans thinking I would take DC.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if i'd take him for two.
Speaker 2: He probably want two years. Rob that's the team.
Speaker 5: Well, he's definitely money hungry.
Speaker 4: But given that we allegedly offered Reynolds close to a
Speaker 4: million bucks a year, I mean, if the roosteres go cold,
Speaker 4: he's only leaving manly over money, and we're the club
Speaker 4: that's got the money, I'd be hesitant because again I
Speaker 4: think he'd just be one of those players's coming for
Speaker 4: the pension of fund retirement village sort of contract. But
Speaker 4: you know, he looked at his best. He can produce,
Speaker 4: He's got a great kicking game, good organizer, can still
Speaker 4: score a try. But yeah, if you've watched him the
Speaker 4: last month or so, you say, hell no, I don't
Speaker 4: want him at our club.
Speaker 5: But I think Richo is desperate.
Speaker 4: He keeps talking about I want to win a premiership
Speaker 4: in the next two or three years. Well, if he
Speaker 4: was looking at Reynolds, I mean, you've got a guy
Speaker 4: that was playing for Australia a year or two ago
Speaker 4: and a fixture at origin half back for the last
Speaker 4: four or five years.
Speaker 1: I can't give you an accurate at the moment, but
Speaker 1: if you ask me in six or eight weeks, I
Speaker 1: might have a better idea. And that is basically, we
Speaker 1: need to see how Latu goes in the next six
Speaker 1: or eight weeks to get a better idea where we're
Speaker 1: placed at the moment. I see the argument both ways.
Speaker 1: It'd be great to have somebody to come in that's
Speaker 1: a that's a well rounded general, a proper halfback that
Speaker 1: can come in. But then if you ask me in
Speaker 1: six or eight weeks, kind of might be like, geez,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we didn't spend a million dollars on Adam
Speaker 1: Reynolds because we've got something here that will work. So
Speaker 1: I really don't know. And then there's some priorities in
Speaker 1: other positions that need to be strengthened, and I think
Speaker 1: if you strengthen those other positions, then I think that
Speaker 1: if Feinu and lu I can congel and work together,
Speaker 1: then we don't really need anything extra there, Maybe Sullivan
Speaker 1: comes back as a backup. The other factor in all
Speaker 1: of this as well is that we're pretty much whitewashing
Speaker 1: Adam do we out of the team as well. So
Speaker 1: I don't know where he may sit in terms of
Speaker 1: a new South Wales Cup contract next year. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying running him, running him in the halves, but you
Speaker 1: know that's another situation that's going to have to be
Speaker 1: resolved at some stage.
Speaker 2: See just quickly, any any interest d C. If the
Speaker 2: Rusters are saying.
Speaker 3: That no zero zero interest. If we're going to give
Speaker 3: if we're going to give Lui the casas year, we've
Speaker 3: got to give him the casa. Got to lean run
Speaker 3: the team and lean run the halves. Whether you know
Speaker 3: he can do that at six, doesn't have to be seven.
Speaker 3: You can do that at six. Bring Ladriuvanan through, let
Speaker 3: them go together. I takes I take Charles w sorry
Speaker 3: mate about his injury, about his hamstrings, that that that's
Speaker 3: a worry, But you know, can you you know if
Speaker 3: he recovers and comes back fit, you've got to sort
Speaker 3: of take it that he's going to be o chaos.
Speaker 2: I just think Rob like whether you agree or disagree
Speaker 2: with Nums or DC that let's say LOUI and find
Speaker 2: who are the starters. I still think we need genuine
Speaker 2: cover and I'm assuming Bud Sullivan's and no go even
Speaker 2: though he is coming back like maybe it's Abe Sexon
Speaker 2: or someone I just don't think we can or even
Speaker 2: the third May I forget what his first name, but
Speaker 2: he's been elected to the club a little bit, maybe
Speaker 2: through the two brothers, but I think we do need
Speaker 2: depth there, just given the fact that Lard who hasn't
Speaker 2: played muchooty.
Speaker 5: In Yeah, no doubt about that.
Speaker 4: Eddie looked at One promising sign with Heith Mason was
Speaker 4: what he did in attack a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 4: against the Cowboys.
Speaker 5: He had a couple offlowers, he had a couple of
Speaker 5: line breaks. He looked dangerous.
Speaker 4: We just can't afford a half that lets eleven tackles missed.
Speaker 4: You know that that has to be rectified. If he
Speaker 4: can work on his defense, he's probably good enough for
Speaker 4: a backup, and as I think he might have been,
Speaker 4: Joel mentioned it, We've got to work out what we
Speaker 4: do with Sullivan as well. There's half a million bucks
Speaker 4: a year tied up there. He did a lot of
Speaker 4: good tackles on kick out by the Way today and
Speaker 4: why can't you tackle like that against you know, for
Speaker 4: us when you're in our colors. But yeah, it's a
Speaker 4: tricky one, but I don't think we should be spending
Speaker 4: any more money on the halves, you know, I'm.
Speaker 5: Happy to go with Latu and Lua.
Speaker 2: All right, Rob, what do you got Ford Paklisco eight
Speaker 2: to thirteen. We've obviously got a new signing in there. Ideally,
Speaker 2: would you.
Speaker 4: Like Okay, this will be a little bit controversial because
Speaker 4: I'm not going to go through fourteen.
Speaker 5: To seventeen, and you'll understand why when I do that.
Speaker 4: So my front row is Terrell May, Happy Corusau and
Speaker 4: Josh Kerr if we could purchase him. My back row,
Speaker 4: given that we've signed KPP already, would be Kay Piece
Speaker 4: Paul and Samuela Feinu. My lockforward another one from left field,
Speaker 4: Adam Elliott. Okay, I just thought he's the sort of
Speaker 4: guy that can ball play. He's a solo defender, he
Speaker 4: can poke his nose through a line. But again we're
Speaker 4: talking hypotheticals. But I think one of our biggest issues
Speaker 4: other than right edge back Rower has been having a
Speaker 4: lot that is a bit of an all round of
Speaker 4: the can ball play and be a strong runner.
Speaker 5: So he fits the need in the sense that he's
Speaker 5: off contract.
Speaker 4: Well give us your bench now, okay, well my bench
Speaker 4: and I won't say the bench in order, but I've
Speaker 4: got talent. Obviously, I've got safe after for the fact
Speaker 4: that we're signing for three years, so we're going to
Speaker 4: use him something. I'd want him there, But the reality
Speaker 4: is that's who's going to be there. It's going to
Speaker 4: be Jack Byrd. I love what Jack Bird's bought off
Speaker 4: the bench this year. And this is probably the controversial one.
Speaker 5: For Fanua ballet fans. I think ballet is much better
Speaker 5: off the bench, and he gives us that impact.
Speaker 4: And if you get the sort of impact that ballet
Speaker 4: gives you that Jack Byrd gives you, say, Fath can
Speaker 4: come on and toil a little bit in the middle.
Speaker 5: If that's who we've got, that's how I would go
Speaker 5: with my bench. So to be talent, sayf Bird and ballet.
Speaker 2: So if I'm right, role I'm just writing notes and
Speaker 2: I got it wrong, you'd have like Alex Twiles, who
Speaker 2: maybe Adam Dewey is sort of backup players.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Look, in a perfect well, I don't think Adam
Speaker 5: will hang around.
Speaker 4: I think Adam's going to be able to demand decent
Speaker 4: money from other clubs, especially someone looking for a goalkicker.
Speaker 5: And let's be really objective about this.
Speaker 4: Other than the fact that Adam lacks a lot of
Speaker 4: pace and a lot of thrust these days, his defensive
Speaker 4: reads and his IQ is immaculate.
Speaker 5: So he will be wanted by another club.
Speaker 4: And I see how some of those Cowboys center's tackled
Speaker 4: last night and other teams, how defensively weak they are.
Speaker 4: He'll get a gig somewhere else. I would love to
Speaker 4: keep him at our club because right now it seems
Speaker 4: we've only got twenty one or twenty two players, and
Speaker 4: we need to be able to call on twenty five,
Speaker 4: so to speak.
Speaker 5: And Adam's on a minimum contract. He's going to want
Speaker 5: more money. He's proven that he can play first rate,
Speaker 5: albeit he's not an attacking threat.
Speaker 2: All right, Joel Well, Rob Had, Josh Kerr and Adam
Speaker 2: Elliott a couple of time ins. There have you got
Speaker 2: any year players in your eight to seventeen I guess
Speaker 2: apart from kpp.
Speaker 1: Well, I haven't got any any suggestions, but yeah, nine, ten, eleven,
Speaker 1: and twelve are sorted eight and thirteen. Of the two
Speaker 1: areas that I've got, question Mark's over and I agree
Speaker 1: polla better on the bench, which my bench is hunt
Speaker 1: it's the only finu pole. And then a utility, which
Speaker 1: could be a bird or a mason or a TDS
Speaker 1: and twile and say far sort of in the depth area.
Speaker 1: That's my So when I look at the team and
Speaker 1: I look at we've already made one signing, We've got
Speaker 1: two more signings for twenty twenty six, I think to
Speaker 1: get us pushing into that top eight and that's a
Speaker 1: thirteen and and eight. And I don't mind the suggestions
Speaker 1: that Rob's made, and they seem like pretty reasonable possibilities
Speaker 1: as well, So yeah, they would certainly add something forward
Speaker 1: pack and bench.
Speaker 3: Steve Well, I'm going to throw a curly one out
Speaker 3: on this. This is my one dream dream signing that
Speaker 3: I've put it in the squad, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: say we're still lacking. We need an elite front rower,
Speaker 3: we need dynamic punch through the middle. Yeah, We're we're
Speaker 3: going to throw the pitchen at.
Speaker 2: Pain Assom something He plays for the Blues.
Speaker 3: So if if we were able to pull off that
Speaker 3: miracle and get him to the club, my forward pack
Speaker 3: would be see only Feinu and pain Hass as starting props.
Speaker 3: For the same reason that Robbin said, I like the
Speaker 3: idea off the bench, but this is a big one.
Speaker 3: And then the second round is the same Pierce Paul
Speaker 3: and Sam Feu and then I'm moving to Rell May
Speaker 3: to thirteen. I reckon who could be He can punch
Speaker 3: at them, He can punch out the minutes, he can
Speaker 3: play eighty minutes at thirteen. He can play a middle style,
Speaker 3: but he can also he does have the mobility to
Speaker 3: be a link a link player. So a bit controversial
Speaker 3: that one, but that's what.
Speaker 2: I find that that lock roll rob is fascinating, especially
Speaker 2: the last five or six years. Like I just remember
Speaker 2: a guy like Kurt Man. He was hated by the
Speaker 2: Newcastle fans and seen as undersized and you know, not
Speaker 2: real a position. Now he's one of the probably the
Speaker 2: most valuable players in the competition and it almost his
Speaker 2: party is spine Now the lock roll for a lot
Speaker 2: of teams.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, Canterbury have been blessed in the fact that
Speaker 4: those hybrid players that play multiple positions have kind of
Speaker 4: worked out for them just about in every case. You
Speaker 4: mentioned Todd Peyton early. I'd love to have Todd Payton
Speaker 4: at thirteen nowadays because he was pretty much our first
Speaker 4: receiver back in those glory days, especially twenty and ten,
Speaker 4: twenty eleven. Look, lock's going to be the hardest position
Speaker 4: I can look. Terrell May does play a little bit
Speaker 4: of that lock role these days. He has taken the
Speaker 4: ball up and passed before the line a little bit.
Speaker 4: He doesn't hit the line as much as he was
Speaker 4: in the first four or five rounds of the year.
Speaker 4: So I get the logic behind what Stee's saying. He's
Speaker 4: busting out the minutes.
Speaker 2: Personally, you get the logic, but you disagree.
Speaker 4: Well, I disagree, and actually I actually want to reduce
Speaker 4: his minutes. I know he wants to play those long minutes.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm really scared of the fact that he could
Speaker 4: potentially be burned out. I really do like it's great
Speaker 4: he's doing what he has to do now and averaging
Speaker 4: over seventy minutes a game. But as you know, he
Speaker 4: averaged forty six minutes a year or thereabouts for the
Speaker 4: Russes last year and we've up that by over fifty percent.
Speaker 4: It's just such a big jump. I mean, at some
Speaker 4: I don't like the fact that he has to pace himself.
Speaker 5: I think he's elite. I think if he can play
Speaker 5: him for fifty minutes, it'd be great.
Speaker 1: The irony is is we've pretty much already got the
Speaker 1: perfect person. He's just not robust enough. He's just at
Speaker 1: that point in his career. And that's Jack Byrd. He's
Speaker 1: your natural thirteen, but just not exactly exactly where he's
Speaker 1: at in his career. Unfortunately. Maybe Jack Bird five years
Speaker 1: ago Perfect.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five. Rest of Season four cast Steve biggest fear,
Speaker 2: I think, you know, my biggest fear is that we're
Speaker 2: going to get into a wooden Spoon race and somehow
Speaker 2: win a fourth freight Wooden Spoon. I just look. I
Speaker 2: know I'm being negative, but I look at that table
Speaker 2: and I think there could be five or six teams
Speaker 2: that finish on eight or nine wins, because I just
Speaker 2: don't think there's one bad side in the competition. I
Speaker 2: think even you see Gold Coast capable winning. What's your
Speaker 2: biggest fear heading into the last eleven twelve weeks.
Speaker 3: Well, my biggest fear comes off last week against the Panthers,
Speaker 3: where we played good football and didn't get the two points.
Speaker 3: And to me, it's not inconceivable to consider we can
Speaker 3: play good football for the next five six weeks and
Speaker 3: maybe only JAG one one win. Yeah, playing good and
Speaker 3: that would be demoralizing for the team, for the fan base,
Speaker 3: for everyone. So that's my greatest fear, that the team
Speaker 3: continue to play with Britain effort and determination, but just
Speaker 3: don't nice games.
Speaker 2: I hope your biggest pick.
Speaker 4: Not so much the fact that we might get our
Speaker 4: fourth Wooden spoon, the fact that everyone's going to say
Speaker 4: nothing has changed when it certainly has changed. We have
Speaker 4: to remember we've got one of the most inexperienced rosters
Speaker 4: and worst rosses in the competition, and obviously we're all
Speaker 4: results orientated and it's hard to keep telling our fans
Speaker 4: be patient, be patient, be patient.
Speaker 5: But we're on a rotten part of the draw.
Speaker 4: I don't believe we're capable of winning a game till
Speaker 4: probably round twenty against the Titans, And the Titans played
Speaker 4: pretty good football against Many the other night, so that's
Speaker 4: no given either. So and I'm also worried about what
Speaker 4: you mentioned earlier. The meeting is just going to jump
Speaker 4: on our back. It's going to be all doom and gloom,
Speaker 4: and you're going to have members saying I don't want
Speaker 4: to renew next to year.
Speaker 5: I'm sick of this crap.
Speaker 4: Benji can't coach all all the negative talk that we
Speaker 4: get so and it's very hard to be positive when
Speaker 4: you're getting drowned with negativity.
Speaker 5: So that's probably my biggest fear ready.
Speaker 3: So so I've just said pretty much the same thing, Rob,
Speaker 3: but I'm fright and we're going to We're not going
Speaker 3: to win. But surely, surely if we play the way
Speaker 3: we against pen Eth and that Midgiar slump of the
Speaker 3: Galvin situations behind us, surely our team is good enough
Speaker 3: to beat Manly the way Manly been playing. Surely we're
Speaker 3: we are more consistent across the eighty minutes to beat
Speaker 3: the Roosters. Unless we get the russ on a really
Speaker 3: red hot day, you know, we really should be aiming
Speaker 3: like cam is going to be hard, worry is going
Speaker 3: to be hard. Surely we're going to be aiming for
Speaker 3: two out of four over the next month and then
Speaker 3: We've got the Titans twice, so there's another two two
Speaker 3: wins that we should be aiming. For sure. We're going
Speaker 3: to have enough faith in this the growth of this team,
Speaker 3: that we're going to get a few We're going to
Speaker 3: watch a few wins.
Speaker 5: I look, I wish I had that faith, Steve.
Speaker 4: I still think we'll try our hardest and perform admiably,
Speaker 4: But at the same time, I'm a bit of a realistic.
Speaker 5: For example, we're playing Canberra Friday night.
Speaker 4: I mean, if I told you a month ago, you
Speaker 4: know late withdrawals are going to be Galvin and Leui,
Speaker 4: would you give us a chance of winning? I don't
Speaker 4: see us playing LOUI having a game on Wednesday night
Speaker 4: in Perth flying back, I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't see it's winning Friday night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we'll probably get touched up to be fair,
Speaker 4: and we don't match up well against Camber. They're one
Speaker 4: of the biggest packs in the comp. They've got big
Speaker 4: outside backs and they're in white hot form manly it
Speaker 4: depends when you get manly. So yeah, but I mean
Speaker 4: we're playing them at brook Fait, aren't we, or whatever
Speaker 4: they call four Pine Stadium or whatever. Stupid name they've
Speaker 4: come up with for that ground where I look, I
Speaker 4: don't want to steal your thunder on a few questions, Eddie,
Speaker 4: but do we have seventeen top quality first graders?
Speaker 5: I mean we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 4: Now. We've had players that we haven't heard of play
Speaker 4: last week. Kick didn't even get a minute last game,
Speaker 4: So I don't know. I just think we're at the
Speaker 4: bottom of our roster and it's very hard to compete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was going to be my point, which is basically,
Speaker 1: we've got a skeleton of a good team, but we
Speaker 1: have no fat whatsoever. So what we've seen is over
Speaker 1: the last six weeks the depth is start to be tested,
Speaker 1: and as soon as you lose that two or three players,
Speaker 1: we revert back from being an average team to a
Speaker 1: poor team at times. So that's definitely a factor, is
Speaker 1: how many more players we lose over the second half
Speaker 1: of the year. Obviously, it's great to see Loui selected
Speaker 1: for New South Wales. It would be great to see
Speaker 1: May selected for New South Wales, but that just cuts
Speaker 1: into the problem even more so. We probably got fifteen
Speaker 1: first graders at best, and then you lose a couple
Speaker 1: and you start to you start to struggle against teams
Speaker 1: that have got more fat, that have got more ways
Speaker 1: of being able to cover over their deficiencies when guys
Speaker 1: are out, and we just don't have that at the moment.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're sort of the analogy man. You haven't brought
Speaker 2: one up for a while. But I didn't have an analogy.
Speaker 2: But I was just thinking, you know, how many times
Speaker 2: can you go to the well without a result? And
Speaker 2: I don't know if people work at the bottom of
Speaker 2: a well or what you do, whether you cleaning up
Speaker 2: crap or whatever, but if you kept getting handed out
Speaker 2: five bucks or whatever, eventually you inne go to the
Speaker 2: bottom and well and go, well bug at least I'm
Speaker 2: not going to put in. That's my worry, is that,
Speaker 2: like Steve said, with so many close losses and no reward,
Speaker 2: eventually it sort of breaks out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think there's a difference between a loss
Speaker 1: and you know, if you look at the Penrith game,
Speaker 1: there's a difference between that game and that result in
Speaker 1: terms of the fans and the Storm game. So the
Speaker 1: Storm game was it was here we are again, We're
Speaker 1: back at square one. We're a terrible team. There's a
Speaker 1: mountain in front of us, and Penrith was We got
Speaker 1: exactly the same amount of competition points from that Penrith game,
Speaker 1: but fans walked away disappointed but satisfied to see that
Speaker 1: there's improvement. And so long as we continue to be
Speaker 1: competitive and we don't suffer too many blowouts. I mean, realistically,
Speaker 1: to be a Spoon team, you're getting five or six
Speaker 1: blowout scores against you in a year. We've had one
Speaker 1: one half most times. So stay competitive, stay in the games,
Speaker 1: and like that Cranella game, you know, sometimes the wind
Speaker 1: is with you, and you know the ball bounces you're way,
Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 2: I just think we're that curse jrole. Like most years,
Speaker 2: teams that win twelve games make the finals. But the
Speaker 2: year we won twelve games, we missed it by two games.
Speaker 2: Just like, wouldn't this be a year where the Spoon
Speaker 2: team got nine wins or something crazy like that. But
Speaker 2: Steve's finish on a positive. What are you most looking
Speaker 2: forward to the rest of the season seeing, whether it
Speaker 2: be a player or.
Speaker 3: I just want to see I just want to see
Speaker 3: the team finish strong. It has upset me so much
Speaker 3: I've spoken to you guys about this so many times.
Speaker 3: The last two or three seasons, we just give up
Speaker 3: on a season and tail away and put in some
Speaker 3: absolutely horrendous performances. Now that era of West Tigers, I
Speaker 3: firmly believe is now finished. It's gone. It's our past.
Speaker 3: So I just want to say, do exactly what we're
Speaker 3: just talking about. Finish the season strong. I am more
Speaker 3: hopeful than you know the bottom three or four. I
Speaker 3: do think we can push for the bottom of the eighth.
Speaker 3: I think we can make I think we'll probably finish ninth, tenth, eleventh.
Speaker 3: I think that's realistic. I think we can get a
Speaker 3: few good wins. I just want to says, stick together
Speaker 3: and finish strong and not have those blowout scores where
Speaker 3: there's bugger all effort. That's what I'm hoping.
Speaker 1: Just one thing I'd add to that. I mean, aside
Speaker 1: from the excitement of signing peenhas Steve, You've got me
Speaker 1: really excited about that. So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 3: Got a dream mate, got a dream exactly.
Speaker 1: There isn't a terrible team this year, which which does
Speaker 1: change the way the Wooden Spoon looks.
Speaker 2: Paramatta without Mitch make just might become that exactly again. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah, he's going to come back those six weeks.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I'm going to doom doomsday stuff here. But Rob,
Speaker 2: what are you most looking forward to seeing the rest
Speaker 2: of the season.
Speaker 5: It's a little bit of wishful thinking, but not too much.
Speaker 4: I'd like to see Latu faint injury free for the
Speaker 4: rest of the year and show us that he's going
Speaker 4: to be our number seven for as long as he
Speaker 4: wants that number seven spot. And given that he's got
Speaker 4: a couple of brothers in the club, I think you know,
Speaker 4: he will really make a good fish of it. The
Speaker 4: one thing we've all noticed what he provides with our
Speaker 4: team is he straightens up our attack. He's going to
Speaker 4: give our outside backs more room. I don't think we
Speaker 4: need another half so I want La two to play
Speaker 4: as well as possible, even in losing performances, so that
Speaker 4: riche says, well, hey, I don't need to go to
Speaker 4: spend nine hundred k a million bucks on another half back.
Speaker 4: We've got it right here right now. Let's just make
Speaker 4: sure we get his hamstrings right and he's our future.
Speaker 2: Well boys, well, I think that's a wrap but Rob,
Speaker 2: I think you said to me. I might have text
Speaker 2: the other day. You know, I don't even know what
Speaker 2: you guys look like, and I think you know why
Speaker 2: we don't do visuals now now our melons. But on
Speaker 2: Tuesday night, it's going to be Roles reversed. Tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about what's going to be happening. I
Speaker 2: usually eat my dinner during our podcast because Gary just
Speaker 2: talks a way up an hour, but I'm having to
Speaker 2: be on my game Tuesday.
Speaker 5: Mate. We might have a chat about it tomorrow.
Speaker 4: So what we'll discuss, Maybe we'll maybe we will talk
Speaker 4: about our best ever West Tiger seventeen. And obviously we'll
Speaker 4: preview the Canberra game on Friday night. I will leave
Speaker 4: the previewing for you guys, because I'm scarred with negative
Speaker 4: tissue inside my brain and I see those big monsters
Speaker 4: from Camber and how well they're playing, and see that
Speaker 4: we're at.
Speaker 5: The bottom of our depth.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a tough ask and it's really
Speaker 4: hard to keep asking the fancy to rock up to
Speaker 4: Campbelltown and support and we're zero and three out there.
Speaker 5: But we'll show up, we'll show up, we'll.
Speaker 2: Share and hopefully they can go off a miracle, all right, Rob, Well,
Speaker 2: thank you for that. I'll see it the Orange Grove
Speaker 2: Hotel Tuesday night. Joel, I think you're going to be
Speaker 2: in charge of our midweek podcast this week. Is that
Speaker 2: okay with you or not?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I will. I will make the effort. I
Speaker 1: will make myself available. I'm not like a Lachland Galvin
Speaker 1: who's looking at other opportunities elsewhere and trying to get out.
Speaker 1: I will be here. I'm committed to the West cause.
Speaker 2: Steve, you're welcome as well. The vice captain this week.
Speaker 2: I think, oh nough, Gary will be There's no way
Speaker 2: Gary on miss two in a row. You'll stager if you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, might have to have to fight for a spot,
Speaker 3: I reckon on Wednesday night. I'll be around mate.
Speaker 2: I'd a right boys. Actually packed episode takes again Rob,
Speaker 2: looking forward to Tuesday night. See you next time.
Speaker 3: Boys.
Speaker 1: Thanks, thank you,