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Speaker 2: West Tigers Podcast Episode number four hundred and seven A.
Speaker 2: You've got a very special edition tonight got the two
Speaker 2: stars of the West Tigers Life Podcast. We've got Rob
Speaker 2: Bashara and we've got the coach. Adele has Thank you
Speaker 2: very much, boys for coming on. The Boy's going to
Speaker 2: be debating Benji Marshall off the top, that's the lead. Tonight,
Speaker 2: Adele's going to be talking a little bit about the
Speaker 2: West Tiger's current coaching staff, a little bit of a
Speaker 2: breakdown of particular roles the guys have. We're going to
Speaker 2: do a bit of a masterclass on a tack, defense
Speaker 2: and contact, not looking at yesterday's game, but looking across
Speaker 2: the season, and what the boys make of some strengths
Speaker 2: and weaknesses of the West Tigers in those departments. And
Speaker 2: we'll end with one of our sort of favorite segments
Speaker 2: on this podcast, to buy, sell and hold. But Rob,
Speaker 2: thank you for coming on. Mate. Just tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about how it came about you doing a
Speaker 2: podcast with Adel this year, because I know it's very
Speaker 2: popular with the West Tigers fans.
Speaker 3: Good a erdie and thanks for having us both on.
Speaker 3: It's a strange one. I just met Adele through a
Speaker 3: couple of cousins of mine about three or four years
Speaker 3: ago and the boys I invited him over to watch
Speaker 3: one of the games with us, and yeah, we just
Speaker 3: kind of kicked off a friendship from there and we've
Speaker 3: been bantering quite a bit over the phone, and I suggested,
Speaker 3: how about we trypot on Sunday night and if it
Speaker 3: goes good for the first couple of goes, we'll run
Speaker 3: with it. And it seems to be a very popular podcast.
Speaker 3: Adele is absolutely the star of the show, and I
Speaker 3: think the fact that he gives that perspective from a
Speaker 3: coach's lens, and he's so calm and calculating and definitely
Speaker 3: the complete opposite at me of me, at least when
Speaker 3: we're analyzing on hyper emotional and he's just so suave
Speaker 3: and cool and he loves it.
Speaker 2: And just for the fans out there that haven't heard it,
Speaker 2: Rob wins it on, I think your boy's going to
Speaker 2: be at like cart this Sunday, ain't.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure where we're going to do Sunday Nights one,
Speaker 3: but generally we record on Sunday Night, which would have
Speaker 3: been last night. Unfortunately, Adele was ill had some nause
Speaker 3: here and I jokingly said that he got that nause
Speaker 3: heer from all of Benji's chopping and changing positions on
Speaker 3: the field yesterday, which we'll get onto a bit later.
Speaker 3: But we're actually going to record what we would have
Speaker 3: done last night tonight after doing your pod. We'd made
Speaker 3: a commitment to doing your show eding we didn't want
Speaker 3: to let you down and thank you for starting a
Speaker 3: bit earlier, so we've got a bit of time to
Speaker 3: put a bit more content out there for West Tigers
Speaker 3: fans and Adele.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to have you on mate. I got
Speaker 2: to say, I'm an ardent listener of the Sunday Night
Speaker 2: show and I always find like I learned one or
Speaker 2: two or three things and then go back and have
Speaker 2: a little look at the replay or jees, I didn't
Speaker 2: spot that or something. But first off, Mate, tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about where you're coaching at the moment
Speaker 2: and also your sort of coaching history at the West Tigers.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, idiot, I do get a little
Speaker 1: bit embarrassed when you guys call me like a coach
Speaker 1: and whatnot, because the day I've never been to the
Speaker 1: level that was sort of talking about at the moment,
Speaker 1: so it's a little bit difficult for me sometimes hearing
Speaker 1: some of the compliments, but well, at the moment, I'm
Speaker 1: went to South Slogan Magpies up here in Queensland, so
Speaker 1: I coached their Cyril Connells side this year. Pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: It's pretty relative to what's going on at West Tiger
Speaker 1: at the moment with our club in regards to sort
Speaker 1: of the area and sort of we're a little bit
Speaker 1: of a merged entity as well. Two clubs that have
Speaker 1: come together but which got a pretty rich history. They're
Speaker 1: also the Magpies. So I coached at Cyril Connell this year,
Speaker 1: which is the Harold Matthews team, and I had to
Speaker 1: make some big decisions to be honest at the start
Speaker 1: of the year in regards to a lot of that
Speaker 1: age group. One of the things you used to doing
Speaker 1: is playing the hod age kids. I played a lot
Speaker 1: of the younger age kids this year because I thought
Speaker 1: that was the best development of the club. I did
Speaker 1: move on for a little bit into the being around
Speaker 1: the host Plus Cup team. We've taken a bit of
Speaker 1: a break from that at the moment, just from work
Speaker 1: wise and whatnot. So yeah, well I'm truly in trenchfer
Speaker 1: with the South Helgan Magpies. Love the club, love everything
Speaker 1: about the club. You know, a lot of really good
Speaker 1: people involved in the club. So yeah, that's where I've
Speaker 1: had at the moment. Obviously spent five years of my life,
Speaker 1: the last five years of my life at the West Tigers,
Speaker 1: started more so coaching just a junior rugby league and
Speaker 1: then went to the Sydney Roosters in twenty seventeen. I
Speaker 1: think it was when there's a the SG ball was
Speaker 1: there for a couple of years with Adrian Lamb was
Speaker 1: our head coach for the first couple of years and
Speaker 1: you learned a lot of him. And then through COVID
Speaker 1: I accidentally ended up at the West Tigers Harvey Norman side,
Speaker 1: purely because there was no other ragby league going on
Speaker 1: by the Harvey Norman competition was the only one that
Speaker 1: actually come back other than the NRL. So Adam Hargan
Speaker 1: was the general manager of football at the time. It
Speaker 1: was a close friend of mine and we sort of
Speaker 1: had a conversation. I come on board for the back
Speaker 1: end of that year, and that was really something different.
Speaker 2: Girls want to press.
Speaker 1: Not in the first year, No, No, that was I
Speaker 1: was there for three years as an assistant and then yeah,
Speaker 1: I just got lucky and got a job halfway through
Speaker 1: the year of a team that was not on too well.
Speaker 1: And I like to tell people I sprinkled on magic
Speaker 1: dust and we want to come. But yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: story for another day. But obviously moved on into the
Speaker 1: NRLW before making them move up here.
Speaker 2: That's your coaching history. What about your history as a fan? Mate,
Speaker 2: We were a big West Tigers fan before coaching at
Speaker 2: the club. I'm guessing you were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I you know what it's it's pretty relevant
Speaker 1: to say this sort of stuff because I don't know
Speaker 1: if other people you know the same as me. But
Speaker 1: I was a kid, you know, I grew up at
Speaker 1: first sort of my my first years as a four
Speaker 1: or five year old, I lived in Ashfield, so that's
Speaker 1: where those sort of years were. And relative to us,
Speaker 1: Bennie Alias was a hero for us. Not so much
Speaker 1: these days with the way he carries on, but you know,
Speaker 1: he was a hero to us, so I followed Bennie
Speaker 1: Ollis and for that I follow the West Tigers or
Speaker 1: the Balmain Tigers. At the time, I was banned from
Speaker 1: watching Tigers games a teenager at home because of the
Speaker 1: carry on and the way I love the club. And
Speaker 1: you know, put it this way. In my year twelve
Speaker 1: the back of my year twelve jersey, when you could
Speaker 1: put a nickname, I don't put a nickname. I just
Speaker 1: wrote Tiger for Life. That was the back of my jersey.
Speaker 1: So I love the club so much, or was even
Speaker 1: one of those things. I was advised by people to
Speaker 1: not actually work at the club when the opportunity to come,
Speaker 1: because sometimes you sort of don't want to know what
Speaker 1: you will end up knowing. Yeah, always been a Tiger's
Speaker 1: fan all my life. You know, I'll be honest and straight.
Speaker 1: I don't consider Balmain and West to be anything anymore.
Speaker 1: Like the end, it's the West Tigers for me. Yes,
Speaker 1: I support him with Bowmain and Tigers, but I'm a
Speaker 1: West Tiger.
Speaker 2: It's funny that I actually went to school at Ashriel
Speaker 2: Boys and I was about Main Tiger's fan growing up.
Speaker 2: Played Ozzie Rules for the West Magpist so it was
Speaker 2: almost like the perfect merger for me. But boys, we
Speaker 2: are not going to dwell on yesterday's game because I
Speaker 2: know you're going to have to go through that torture
Speaker 2: later on your own podcast. But we are going to
Speaker 2: lead with Benji's presh conference because that was a bit
Speaker 2: of a hot talking point on our podcast last night.
Speaker 3: Rob.
Speaker 2: I'm probably glad you went on last night because you
Speaker 2: were breeding fires on the text I got. But what
Speaker 2: did you make of it overall? Twenty four hours later?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely am glad I wasn't on it last night, Eddie.
Speaker 3: I think I've cooled down somewhat in the last probably
Speaker 3: two or three hours. Only I was disappointed with a
Speaker 3: lot of what he said. I get that he had
Speaker 3: to cater to the New Zealand media and he was
Speaker 3: back home. I just couldn't get over the fact that
Speaker 3: it was just rather blase joking around the compliments that
Speaker 3: he gave to Tanner Boyd and New Zealand and how
Speaker 3: they played, and then complimenting their style and their ructure
Speaker 3: to a degree, and it was almost like his compliment
Speaker 3: his compliments towards New Zealand, we're actually denigrating what we
Speaker 3: have at our own club, and you know the stuff
Speaker 3: about he's very honest, like he's actually one hundred percent honest.
Speaker 3: He takes the blame for a lot of things, but
Speaker 3: the fact that he does say a lot of it's
Speaker 3: on me. And then you go back to previous press conferences, like,
Speaker 3: for example, a manly press conference where he says, oh, look,
Speaker 3: it's on me for tinkering around with all the positions.
Speaker 3: Yet all that tinkering went on yesterday. Granted some of
Speaker 3: it could have been premeditated that it was going to happen,
Speaker 3: but I just find how do you establish combination and
Speaker 3: flow and continuity when you keep chopping and changing, and
Speaker 3: to be fair, made I feel sorry for the players.
Speaker 3: I know Adele's a staunch defender of Benji, and you'll
Speaker 3: give him his opportunity to talk, but after yesterday made
Speaker 3: in that press conference, he's actually kind of lost me
Speaker 3: because I think that family first attitude, nothing wrong with
Speaker 3: that in life, but that family first attitude, as to me,
Speaker 3: comes across as winning isn't the primary focus, and he
Speaker 3: just gets on with it and it's like, oh, well
Speaker 3: we lost, we lost. But I know he loves the club.
Speaker 3: I know he's trying his best, But from my end
Speaker 3: and from what I see on the field, I don't
Speaker 3: think he's capable of caning as to where he wants
Speaker 3: to get us to.
Speaker 2: We'll get into some of his perceived strengths or weaknesses
Speaker 2: in a minute, Adele, But just on that press conference
Speaker 2: itself must be difficult because I assume they go in
Speaker 2: there like ten minutes after a game. They probably haven't
Speaker 2: really had a chance to speak to their players. What
Speaker 2: was your take on it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually haven't heard it till Rob today, and
Speaker 1: sort of when I heard it. Look at honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't understand what everybody's up in arms about. Like he
Speaker 1: went into a press conference spoke about the Warriors, Well,
Speaker 1: I said the Rob today, like the Warriors are a
Speaker 1: top four sign. Like if we're not going to acknowledge that, well,
Speaker 1: I get that the fact that I'm losing players, But
Speaker 1: if we're not going to acknowledge that they are who
Speaker 1: they are and they've got a really, really good coach,
Speaker 1: that doesn't take away from what Benji is, or the
Speaker 1: stage of his career he's at, or where how our
Speaker 1: results are going. But it does not matter to me
Speaker 1: how a coach speaks in a press conference. I'll be
Speaker 1: honest if I was coaching a row used that as
Speaker 1: an example because the level I could or should be at,
Speaker 1: and I went into a press conference, which I do
Speaker 1: these things, I'm not going to always be genuine as
Speaker 1: to what I'm actually feeling and what I'm thinking. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a little bit strategic in what I say. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's also one of those things where I also got
Speaker 1: to understand my position and whether the things I say
Speaker 1: they are going to be taken out of context too much.
Speaker 1: Benji's being himself and I know we're going to touch
Speaker 1: on this a little bit later. I have no problems
Speaker 1: with what he said. I'm not a staunched defender of Benji.
Speaker 1: In the words of Rob, I try to think, I
Speaker 1: try to think I'm objective, and at the same time
Speaker 1: I put myself in his position.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt we are progressing, even if it is
Speaker 2: painful progress. I actually saw your own Instagram account West
Speaker 2: Tiger's Life. One put up a stat today that there
Speaker 2: are only three NRL teams being the Warriors, Raiders and Tigers,
Speaker 2: who have more wins at this stage this year and
Speaker 2: are better for it against than they did last year. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Warriors and Raiders in top four and we're forty eight.
Speaker 2: But my question to you is are we progressing enough
Speaker 2: given the improvement in the roster.
Speaker 3: It depends on what you compare it to, Eddie straight up,
Speaker 3: just on yesterday's game being the Warriors game, I compare
Speaker 3: it to where we were a Round four and when
Speaker 3: we played them in Round four at Campbelltown, I felt
Speaker 3: like we were unlucky not to win that game. I
Speaker 3: thought we matched them physically well, a lot better than
Speaker 3: yesterday anyway. I mean, we still could have been a
Speaker 3: little bit better in that day, but they didn't score
Speaker 3: many points, nor did we, and it came down to
Speaker 3: a Luke Metcalfe penalty goal from about forty meters out
Speaker 3: to win the game that day. So if I compare
Speaker 3: it to round four, we're regress. Now. There are certain
Speaker 3: reasons I think we're have regressed. I mean, obviously, Lochland
Speaker 3: Galvin was a focal point of our team and was probably,
Speaker 3: you know, the main man in terms of trying to
Speaker 3: create attack. So we don't have him anymore. So if
Speaker 3: we've built our whole preseason around Lochland Galvin and Jerome Lewie,
Speaker 3: being in the harves and suddenly that guy's gone. I
Speaker 3: understand it takes a while to improve what bothers me
Speaker 3: from yesterday, Eddie, in terms of talking about whether we've
Speaker 3: progressed or regressed, that's our best forward pack. Like when
Speaker 3: we looked at that team and spoke about it on
Speaker 3: Wednesday night on our show, that was the best lineup
Speaker 3: I thought we could have named, given that who we
Speaker 3: had and who was available. So for that team to
Speaker 3: get basically belted yesterday physically, not win the collision, not
Speaker 3: win the ruck, as Joel Helms always says, lack of physicality,
Speaker 3: that really disappointed me. And like I said, you know
Speaker 3: to Adele privately, obviously they were missing half their spine
Speaker 3: in Metcalf and Nicol Klockstad, but they're also missing Mitch Barnett,
Speaker 3: they lost Rock Oberry through the game. They just seem
Speaker 3: to know what they're doing, and we are still searching
Speaker 3: for our playing identity, Eddie, and I feel if Benji,
Speaker 3: I know, Benji's got to be himself, but Benji should
Speaker 3: know how we want to play. He knows who we've got,
Speaker 3: he knows how we want to play, and we're not there.
Speaker 3: We don't seem to have our own style. Yet he
Speaker 3: mentions it quite often, whether he's telling the truth in
Speaker 3: press conferences or not, that we're still trying to search
Speaker 3: for our own identity, still search for a way to
Speaker 3: win and how to win. And I think by now
Speaker 3: he should know what we should be doing, what we
Speaker 3: shouldn't be doing. And I don't get any confidence from
Speaker 3: what he says in the press conference. Granted, I really
Speaker 3: don't care what he says in the press conferences as
Speaker 3: long as everything's going better on the field and.
Speaker 2: They'll give me two or three of what you think
Speaker 2: of Benji's biggest strength doesn't have to be specific to
Speaker 2: on the field, but in terms of the fit for
Speaker 2: our club.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the obvious ones for me right now is he's
Speaker 1: relatable to the players. I think I've said this on
Speaker 1: the West Lagger's Life podcast and it's probably something that's
Speaker 1: a little bit uncomfortable having this conversation at the moment society.
Speaker 1: I think the fact that he's a Maori, he has
Speaker 1: that relatability to a lot of the specific eye on
Speaker 1: the boys. I think that's significant. Now. People can have
Speaker 1: their opinions on whether that's a positive or a negative,
Speaker 1: but I think that's that's an obvious one for me.
Speaker 2: It's probably been a fact in recruitment, hasn't it?
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely? And you know, from a mentoring perspective, I
Speaker 1: think it's really important. But at the same time, I
Speaker 1: also understand why that could be something that doesn't attract
Speaker 1: certain people. And you know, it might be a little
Speaker 1: bit controversial saying this. The boys that have left are
Speaker 1: not specific on the boys, so I don't know how
Speaker 1: much of an impact that's having attracting players or attracting
Speaker 1: certain players. He's done a good job in doing that.
Speaker 1: And then the last thing is probably something that he
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to I guess translate into his current
Speaker 1: thing as a coach. But he's got the football like you.
Speaker 1: I meant the end of the day, he's got the
Speaker 1: football ability like no other. There is this notion that
Speaker 1: great players don't make great coaches. I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: that's true. But he's got that football in IQ, that's
Speaker 1: his strip. They're the obvious ones without being on the inside.
Speaker 2: Rob, is there a pass mark for Beggie for you
Speaker 2: for the rest of the year. I mean, I said
Speaker 2: at the start of the year, I just thought I
Speaker 2: set fairly low expectations that if he could just avoid
Speaker 2: the wooden spoon and get a few more wins and
Speaker 2: I'd be happy enough.
Speaker 3: Are you there?
Speaker 2: Or he's got to be better?
Speaker 3: No, he has to be better the way I see it,
Speaker 3: look from what I see on the field, Eddie, there's
Speaker 3: a certain clunkiness to our attack. I was actually pleasantly
Speaker 3: surprised when Skelton scored that try really early yesterday because
Speaker 3: that was a really smooth looking back line player, looked
Speaker 3: really simple, really effortless, and we scored, you know, with
Speaker 3: precision in the corner. But generally our given Benji such
Speaker 3: a great attacking player and the guy that could strip
Speaker 3: numbers from any defense, it's upsetting to me that he
Speaker 3: can't translate how to how to you know, how to
Speaker 3: get that to the players, how to teach them to
Speaker 3: actually do it? And that's what coaching is about. It's
Speaker 3: about teaching players how to do it. There's no point Benji,
Speaker 3: you know, running shape of training. He needs to be
Speaker 3: able to explain to Loui and Latu and how to
Speaker 3: do this and be really x's and those and specific
Speaker 3: about how to do things. Sometimes I've questioned some of
Speaker 3: the team selections. Obviously, you know we don't know what
Speaker 3: goes on during a game, but your question the interchange. Sometimes,
Speaker 3: particularly when some bugs haven't got out on the field,
Speaker 3: I can accept, like Adele's pointed out to me, that
Speaker 3: a back or you know, a hooker or something doesn't
Speaker 3: get a run. But when a middle you know doesn't
Speaker 3: get on the field at all, I mean that there's
Speaker 3: something wrong there. It's either a lack of trust in
Speaker 3: the player or he's got the selection wrong. But no
Speaker 3: look for me. For me, it's a it's a it's
Speaker 3: a fail right now. And I put it this way
Speaker 3: to Eddie. We've got three players that were incumbent premiership
Speaker 3: winners in Happy corus Our, Jerome Leui and Tito Taruva. Now,
Speaker 3: if I go back to two thousand and six, and
Speaker 3: I know they're different players, but put those put players
Speaker 3: from those positions, such as Robbie Farrow, Benji Marshall and
Speaker 3: say Pat Richards, who'd be the three equivalents in those positions.
Speaker 3: If I took them out of the West Tigers in
Speaker 3: two thousand and five and put them in the team
Speaker 3: coming last in two thousand and six, I don't think
Speaker 3: they'd come last. Okay, so we've got basically a quarter
Speaker 3: of a premiership winning side sprinkled with some other talent
Speaker 3: there as well. We should not be wooden spooners. We
Speaker 3: shouldn't even be in the fight for the wooden spoon
Speaker 3: And to be fair, if we'd have won the games
Speaker 3: we should have won, we wouldn't even be talking about
Speaker 3: this right now. We should be in the middle of
Speaker 3: the pack, but we're not. And it's such an even
Speaker 3: comp you see too. That's what's most frustrating about it.
Speaker 3: This is probably our best chance to make the eight
Speaker 3: because the top four have separated themselves and we should
Speaker 3: have been in that fight from fifth to eighth and
Speaker 3: now we're basically in a fight for the bottom four.
Speaker 2: I noticed you didn't mention Brett Hodgson there, rob in
Speaker 2: your little comparison. But Adele espose from a coach's perspective,
Speaker 2: do you reckon they set like win targets at the
Speaker 2: start of the year or is it simply about next
Speaker 2: training session and improving individuals throughout the year. Do you
Speaker 2: think there was a specific top eight target or is
Speaker 2: that looking at it too simplistically?
Speaker 1: Oh, I think they'll have different targets amongst different parts
Speaker 1: of the organization. So you know, your football administration, your
Speaker 1: football committee would have targets, Your coaching staff will have
Speaker 1: their targets. You probably have one with the leadership group,
Speaker 1: and then obviously as a playing group as well. One
Speaker 1: of the things I always talk about is you sort
Speaker 1: of target little blocks of the season, so maybe your
Speaker 1: first four rounds, your first six rounds, a middle further
Speaker 1: orangein period. You know, I'm sure they break it down
Speaker 1: into that sort of stuff and try to target certain things.
Speaker 1: You certainly look at that period we lost six in
Speaker 1: a row and that's a massive negative and that that
Speaker 1: would put a lot of pressure, will take the confidence
Speaker 1: out of you. Sometimes it really takes its toll. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll have targets or they'll have expectations. No doubt.
Speaker 1: They do change though during the year as well, both
Speaker 1: positively and negatively. I mean, if you have targets that
Speaker 1: are trying to be fifty percent, i'd say seam of
Speaker 1: the Camber Raiders, I recommend their goals will change halfway
Speaker 1: through this year, haven't they considering what it was to
Speaker 1: start of the year. So it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where you do have targets and you do have expectations,
Speaker 1: but they can change depending on circumstances as well.
Speaker 2: Rob twenty twenty six, So I think you know whether
Speaker 2: you like it or not. I reckon Benjie's going to
Speaker 2: be here for twenty twenty six. Is it as simple
Speaker 2: as top eight or bust or not.
Speaker 3: I think the goal should be to win a final.
Speaker 3: If you win one finals game, I think that would
Speaker 3: be a success. I've always been a believer Eddie that
Speaker 3: if you aim for a certain spot, you're probably not
Speaker 3: going to hit that mark. So if we aim for eighth,
Speaker 3: we're going to finish twelve. I think I think you
Speaker 3: really should be aiming top four every year and if
Speaker 3: you fall short, you fall short. And you know, teams
Speaker 3: that came for the premiership, they probably will still make
Speaker 3: the eighth. So just set your goals as high as
Speaker 3: you can and don't put any expectations. Like if Benji
Speaker 3: was to acquire a few more good players in the
Speaker 3: off season besides Kay Pierce Paul if you rate him
Speaker 3: as one, and Salen May who looks like he's going
Speaker 3: to be a really good asset to the club based
Speaker 3: on what he showed him Cup yesterday. There's no excuses.
Speaker 3: Just because we come seventeenth last year or potentially seventheenth
Speaker 3: this year doesn't mean that we should accept sixteenth or
Speaker 3: fifteenth just because we came last. There have been teams,
Speaker 3: you know, like the Rouses, you know back in twenty ten,
Speaker 3: that were Wooden Spooners in two thousand and nine and
Speaker 3: they made the Grand Final the year after. So I
Speaker 3: don't think we should set the bar so low, Eddie.
Speaker 3: But it really just depends on the cattle. If you know,
Speaker 3: we get a good run of injuries next year. There's
Speaker 3: lots of factors, you know before you really judge on
Speaker 3: what Benji should be doing or shouldn't be doing. But yeah,
Speaker 3: if he's not thinking finals thinking, you know, coming twelve
Speaker 3: is just a lot better and that's a good year.
Speaker 3: I don't buy that twelve is still a failure. We
Speaker 3: complained when we used to come ninth every year. Ready,
Speaker 3: so the glory is rob nine. Yeah, it turns out
Speaker 3: they were. The glory is we were like really depressed,
Speaker 3: weren't we? But yeah, I think if you're not playing finals, mate,
Speaker 3: and I don't even want to make I don't want
Speaker 3: to even come Ethan just get belted by thirty in
Speaker 3: week one, like you make the finals, you want to
Speaker 3: make an impact, So hopefully we can do that next.
Speaker 2: Year's changed tact a little bit adele like in terms
Speaker 2: of putting together a coaching staff, like I assume it's
Speaker 2: you know, Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett. It's a big
Speaker 2: part of their success is getting good assistance and looking
Speaker 2: at the West Tigers, I can see from what I
Speaker 2: can gather, the three assistants of Brett Hodgson, Chris Hrrington
Speaker 2: and John Morris, and then you've got Aaron Paine. Do
Speaker 2: you want to maybe break down from me what you
Speaker 2: think those guys specific roles are within thein the team
Speaker 2: at the moment.
Speaker 1: Yes. Again, a lot of this is from what I
Speaker 1: know and what I understand. Again, that sort of stuff
Speaker 1: can change on the run as well. So specifically those guys,
Speaker 1: from what I understand, Brett Hodgson looks after the attack,
Speaker 1: John Morris looks after the defense. Chris Hinnington, I think
Speaker 1: his role can sort of be around the forwards. Plus
Speaker 1: he's what they call an effort coach, and from what
Speaker 1: I understand, he's really good at that. And what it
Speaker 1: does is it's one of those roles where I think
Speaker 1: the old school rugby league fans sort of sits there
Speaker 1: and sort of frowns upon some sort of role it's
Speaker 1: been created. It's not a role, it's been created. It's
Speaker 1: actually pretty common. And what it does is it actually
Speaker 1: focuses on the small parts of the game that you
Speaker 1: can't actually coach, but you sort of highlight to the
Speaker 1: players more so than anything. And then Aaron coaches obviously
Speaker 1: inhas Cup coach, but what he does is all of
Speaker 1: our transition coaching. So guys that are not playing first grade,
Speaker 1: he'll be working with them on their development and giving
Speaker 1: them all their feedback. So even guys that potentially are playing,
Speaker 1: especially with that club played Rob, Massy Cup, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: He's in charge of. Guys that are playing Flag that
Speaker 1: are on top thirty contracts. You might have someone like
Speaker 1: a Macassini who's a development player or I'm not sure
Speaker 1: he's a development player, or even the train and trialist.
Speaker 1: They're currently playing at the club. So who will go
Speaker 1: after those guys? So that's from what I understand, the
Speaker 1: current model they've got at the moment.
Speaker 2: Of Rob, that sort of structure at the moment, I
Speaker 2: mean they are is two thousand and five mates? I
Speaker 2: mean John Morris wasn't there two thousand and five. I
Speaker 2: think he was there two thousand and seven to two
Speaker 2: thousand and nine. But is that the right mix for Benji?
Speaker 2: And should some of those assistants be under pressure if
Speaker 2: Benji's not?
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know if it's the right mix. Dy
Speaker 3: it depends. I mean, based on what I've seen so far,
Speaker 3: possibly not. But Bret Hodgson I don't think has had
Speaker 3: such a senior role with another NRL club before, So
Speaker 3: I guess you've got to give him some time in
Speaker 3: terms of whether someone else, like not in the two
Speaker 3: thousand and five Click or the West Tigers Click, should
Speaker 3: be there. I guess Benji's got to be able to
Speaker 3: trust the people he's got around him. It does concern
Speaker 3: me that it always seems to be that West Tiger's
Speaker 3: people are there only and maybe we need someone from
Speaker 3: the outside looking in, but we're not inside those walls.
Speaker 3: He so it's really hard to hard to judge that.
Speaker 3: But I will say if we do fail, the problem
Speaker 3: is that, like Benji needs to be able to say
Speaker 3: to whoever it's happened on the shoulder and say, guys,
Speaker 3: you know you're not the right people, because ultimately it's
Speaker 3: going to cost Benji his job if his mates aren't
Speaker 3: doing their job properly. So I think they're all responsibility.
Speaker 2: How important adele is having trust in your assistant coaches, Like,
Speaker 2: for instance, if you're a head coach of say a
Speaker 2: new franchise next year, and the organization says to you,
Speaker 2: we're going to give you this assistant coaching attack and
Speaker 2: this defense, would you be fine with that? You obviously
Speaker 2: want to take the job, but would you prefer ideally
Speaker 2: to pick guys that you trust and know or you
Speaker 2: open book on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess the situation and your resume sometimes can
Speaker 1: dictate that. If you want me to speak honestly, Benji
Speaker 1: Marshall as a rookie coach should have never been given
Speaker 1: that opportunity. You know, Ricky Stewart in two thousand. The
Speaker 1: only comparison I can give to Benji is Ricky Stewart
Speaker 1: at the Roosters. And this is where I say there's
Speaker 1: always an exception to every Ricky Stewart has the same
Speaker 1: experience that Benji did. And if anything, I'm going to
Speaker 1: say I think Benji was probably a little bit better
Speaker 1: player than Ricky Stewart, but same sort of character I
Speaker 1: was not say for a character, same sort of characteristics
Speaker 1: that he's taken from his rug from his football career's
Speaker 1: taken into his coaching career, same as Ricky Stewart. The
Speaker 1: difference was Riggy Stewart got given from what I remember,
Speaker 1: Shane Flanning and Ivan clearly, John Carr, right, Dean pay
Speaker 1: and there was one more and I can't remember who
Speaker 1: it was as his assistant. So he got given a
Speaker 1: massive team and he had Phil Good. That's what Benji
Speaker 1: should have been given, and he should have been given
Speaker 1: that with no questions asked. You know, and if you
Speaker 1: if someone approached me today and said I want you
Speaker 1: to go coach at the NRL West Tigers team, the
Speaker 1: hardest thing to do, as a guy who hasn't been
Speaker 1: coaching at that level is for them to bring a
Speaker 1: Jason Demetrio or David Ferner or I'm just throwing names
Speaker 1: out there, Brad Arthur to be my assistants. Because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, what I know is if
Speaker 1: I don't do the job, there's already made replacement there.
Speaker 1: So I can understand how that would be tough me personally.
Speaker 1: I love that challenge, so I would want it. Have
Speaker 1: I been given assistant coaches in the past. This year
Speaker 1: I was given assistant coaches I never met. What you
Speaker 1: do is you work with them. You give them your trust.
Speaker 1: You don't They don't need to earn your trust. You're
Speaker 1: a head coach, You're responsible. Part of the challenge of
Speaker 1: being your head coach is being able to look with everybody.
Speaker 1: It's the same as players. You inherit players, and I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know recruitment officers signed players at clubs that you
Speaker 1: don't want to be there. The easy option for me
Speaker 1: is to say I didn't appoint you, I didn't assign you,
Speaker 1: so you're good for me. I think the challenge needs
Speaker 1: to be as a head coach and be able to
Speaker 1: work with everybody. But then if those people can't do
Speaker 1: their job, you can be comfortable up and tell them
Speaker 1: they can't do their job as well.
Speaker 2: Interesting one that Adele raised their rob didn't raise its specifically,
Speaker 2: but Todd Payton like if he was to be sacked
Speaker 2: by the Cowboys, which I think he will be at
Speaker 2: the end of this year unless they go on a run.
Speaker 2: He would then become I think I don't think he's
Speaker 2: going to get a head coaching job straight away. It
Speaker 2: could be wrong, but he would then become that sort
Speaker 2: of figure that would have more experience than Benji and
Speaker 2: they are it despite being five Grand Final mates. He
Speaker 2: could possibly see Toydy Payton is some sort of threat
Speaker 2: or already made takeover. Where would you sit on someone
Speaker 2: like Todd Payton coming in? Maybe he as an assistant coach.
Speaker 3: Well, given the fact that he's won a premiership at
Speaker 3: our club and has had multiple roles as head coach
Speaker 3: now not only for the Cowboys but he had that
Speaker 3: great season with the Warriors as well, I think you
Speaker 3: know we'd be manned not to get him on board.
Speaker 3: He's got the experience. I know he's not having a
Speaker 3: good season this year. He's actually really only had one
Speaker 3: good season at the Cowboys, but the one thing with
Speaker 3: the Cowboys we have seen is they can attack and
Speaker 3: we seem to lack that attacking skill. So at a minimum,
Speaker 3: if he can help our attack, and if he's got that,
Speaker 3: if Benji can trust him enough to know that he's
Speaker 3: not going to get undermined by Todd Payton, then I
Speaker 3: don't see it being a problem. Adele's mentioned on our
Speaker 3: podcast Eddie that you know, like the head coach could
Speaker 3: go and then he could take over. I'm of the
Speaker 3: opposite belief. I think if Todd Peyton, for example, came
Speaker 3: to our club and we still failed miserably on the field,
Speaker 3: I don't see why he should. He should just be
Speaker 3: the next coach. I think you get rid of everyone,
Speaker 3: So I don't understand that logic. I know it happens,
Speaker 3: but I just don't get the logic behind that. So
Speaker 3: I think you're under as much pressure as an assistant coach.
Speaker 3: So hopefully, look, if Todd Peyton does become available, I'd
Speaker 3: love him to be at our club. I mean, he
Speaker 3: has some success with you know, with the younger kids.
Speaker 3: He underwe any ones or whatever it was back in
Speaker 3: those days. So yeah, if he's available, I'd certainly want
Speaker 3: to have him on board. But again, will Benji be
Speaker 3: happy with that? All he see that as someone's about
Speaker 3: to come in and take over from me.
Speaker 1: The hardest challenge of being an assistant coach sometimes is
Speaker 1: your loyalty to your head coach means you still implement
Speaker 1: a lot of the things they want and as an
Speaker 1: assistant coach, You're never going to go away from what
Speaker 1: the coach wants from you. Sometimes the change to an
Speaker 1: assistant coach can actually be of a benefit to the club,
Speaker 1: especially if there's fresh ideas. So for example, if the
Speaker 1: Panthers and I know they will go really, really well,
Speaker 1: Cameron Surroualdo was always talented and spoken about just as
Speaker 1: highly as I've been. Theory sometimes your assistant coach, even
Speaker 1: in the good and the bad, can be the difference
Speaker 1: between you're improving or you're not improving. I have no
Speaker 1: doubt if Cameron Sarreada stayed at the Panthers and took
Speaker 1: over from Ivan, I actually think the Panthers wouldn't be
Speaker 1: even better than what they are right now. The other
Speaker 1: thing from that perspective is if it also depends on
Speaker 1: who the coach is. If it is a Brett Hodgson
Speaker 1: or a John Morris who hasn't had the same type
Speaker 1: of experience as a Todd Payden has, well, then potentially
Speaker 1: I probably go along to what Rob just said there. Well,
Speaker 1: you can't really make that change. But when it is
Speaker 1: someone who I actually think they go pretty well to Cowboys,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's anything to do with Todd Payton,
Speaker 1: watching his coaching some of the things he says. He's
Speaker 1: actually one of those good ones that excuse me. When
Speaker 1: he speaks in press conferences, you can tell he's being
Speaker 1: really honest and he's very raw. There's no strategy in
Speaker 1: what he says to the extent where he'll call everybody
Speaker 1: out if they need to be called out. He's also
Speaker 1: shown that he can make some really big decisions. The
Speaker 1: reason why the Cowboys aren't going well, that's a very
Speaker 1: good question. I want.
Speaker 2: I've just got one more sort of nerdy one on this, adele,
Speaker 2: because I love, like, I love watching press conferences and
Speaker 2: body language and things like that, but coaching from the sideline,
Speaker 2: Like I was at that game against the Roosters and
Speaker 2: it was great TV for the people watching at home
Speaker 2: because it was like Benji was coaching Chelsea FC or something.
Speaker 2: It was nearly on the field. But what are the
Speaker 2: advantages and disadvantage do you think of coaching from the
Speaker 2: sideline at enter L level?
Speaker 1: Honestly, I don't think there is. I think there's no
Speaker 1: at another A level, there's no need to ever be
Speaker 1: on the sideline. I think it's like almost like a
Speaker 1: spray that you give a team you might, you know
Speaker 1: randomly on the on occasion, make your way down there.
Speaker 1: That's personal though, that's a personal preference. Richie Steward sits
Speaker 1: on the sideline. He's one of the few. But in
Speaker 1: the modern day, I don't I don't like it. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's ever necessary. I do it a lot
Speaker 1: at junior Rep level because it's different. You're at junior
Speaker 1: Rep level and I'll be honest as open as I
Speaker 1: can be here. Sometimes my assistant coaches and then you
Speaker 1: get at that level sort of don't have the experience
Speaker 1: and don't have the same ability, so sometimes your assistant
Speaker 1: coaches can have an impact. I don't know this information
Speaker 1: a fact. To me, it almost looks like that. The
Speaker 1: reason they're doing it at the moment is Benji is
Speaker 1: delegated game day interchange and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: and one of the game day coaching to his assistance,
Speaker 1: which is pretty common across the league. I know Craig
Speaker 1: Bellamy barely does any of the x's and o's and
Speaker 1: the innertre inter change in Melbourne, so he's one example.
Speaker 1: Wayne Bennet doesn't do it itselfs So it is pretty common,
Speaker 1: but from my perspective, I can't understand at that level
Speaker 1: way they ever want to be on the sideline.
Speaker 2: Rob last one on sort of Benji is the West
Speaker 2: Tigers in general need sort of more help around him
Speaker 2: in terms of Benji and rich I tend to be
Speaker 2: doing everything at the moment, so they need someone who
Speaker 2: could potentially be like a general manager of football there
Speaker 2: or you don't think rich I think is not needed.
Speaker 3: Well, we haven't had much luck with the football managers
Speaker 3: in the past, have we. I guess rich O you
Speaker 3: for a start, did that as a cost cutting measure
Speaker 3: and everything wanted to go through him. So the fact
Speaker 3: that rich I wanted to micro manage what players we
Speaker 3: got and didn't get and it was just him and Benji,
Speaker 3: I think that's an easy, easier way to get your
Speaker 3: roster right because obviously, you know, if like we saw
Speaker 3: the disagreements with Benji and Fulton over over different players
Speaker 3: and what have you previously, so there it helped to
Speaker 3: get a football manager if you could trust that person. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but again it just I just want our players to
Speaker 3: have that system below first grade where they can develop,
Speaker 3: where they understand what the first grade team's trying to
Speaker 3: do and the players just play to a system. And
Speaker 3: you know, like we saw yesterday, when you know the
Speaker 3: New Zealand are missing their main guy, they're half back,
Speaker 3: the next blow can come in and just do his
Speaker 3: role and understand it. And that's what we need. Below that,
Speaker 3: we need to find our style. And then I just
Speaker 3: hope we set up the platform below first grade that
Speaker 3: that's where we need the help, Beattie, That's where I'd
Speaker 3: like to get the professionalism, the assistance the guys with
Speaker 3: experience below that, not the young guys. We want the
Speaker 3: older guys that around for years that can devel. We
Speaker 3: need to poach the blokes that are whatever they're doing
Speaker 3: at Penrith, Mate, we need to poach those blokes because
Speaker 3: they've just got that way of just getting the best
Speaker 3: out of their kids coming through and by the time
Speaker 3: that he first grade, they're ready to go. So I'd
Speaker 3: be more focused on getting the Pathways right as opposed
Speaker 3: to just getting a football manager.
Speaker 1: On that note, and we do have a general manager
Speaker 1: of football and Rob should know this because it's my
Speaker 1: good friend Betsy Matthew Betsy who was our head of
Speaker 1: Pathways previously. His strength, he's not a recruitment manager. So
Speaker 1: obviously when he moved into the role, we did have
Speaker 1: recruitment in scott Fulton and there was someone else actually
Speaker 1: McDonald as well and Warren McDonald were the two guys
Speaker 1: that were sort of doing that role. Then they obviously
Speaker 1: have to separate one because they didn't get along, and
Speaker 1: then obviously it's going into this model. It's funny. I
Speaker 1: actually sent rob a a podcast today of Steve Gillison
Speaker 1: David Riola, who a two prominent player managers. And one
Speaker 1: of the things I'm talking about, without dropping names, I'll
Speaker 1: talking about how certain clubs with the recruitment and how
Speaker 1: it's important with the recruitment and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Certain clubs have five six people in their recruitment and
Speaker 1: we're talking about how one club batterly and one official
Speaker 1: person working in their recruitment, and that's our club. We've
Speaker 1: got Shannon Gland does the role. But even from that perspective,
Speaker 1: Shannon glan has the role, but he doesn't have the
Speaker 1: role from an NRL perspective where he can you know,
Speaker 1: he makes the final decision around recruitment and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. That's where our resources need to come
Speaker 1: in and like I said about Benji in regards to coaching,
Speaker 1: there is so much more. And look, this is me
Speaker 1: presuming I can't say this for fact. I think Richo
Speaker 1: has made it a conscious effort because we've heard him
Speaker 1: saying now on multiple podcasts and multiple interviews that it's
Speaker 1: about making profit this year for the club and showing
Speaker 1: that and the way to do that is by cost
Speaker 1: cutting in jobs. And I get it. In the short term,
Speaker 1: it's not going to show anything on the field because
Speaker 1: probably resources wise, but we don't have ahead of Pathways anymore.
Speaker 1: We don't have anyone on our beside Channon recruitment team.
Speaker 1: We do have Bronson Harrison is our bell main junior
Speaker 1: rep coordinator. Shannon Gland doesn't do West anymore. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember who I think who does West right now.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who it is, but yeah, still, we
Speaker 1: do have a general manager at football, but his role
Speaker 1: as not it's not your Gus god role, it's not
Speaker 1: your Frank Benisi role. It's more of an administration role.
Speaker 2: Let's dive into boys a bit of some of the
Speaker 2: words you use then minute ago, rob structure, system, stuff
Speaker 2: like that, and I'll go specifics with coach in a minute.
Speaker 2: But rob attack wise, the team's played seventeen games scored
Speaker 2: three hundred and thirty four points, which is about average
Speaker 2: of twenty points a game four or five years ago.
Speaker 2: That would be decent. I don't think that's very good now.
Speaker 2: Only the rabbit O's, Eels and Knights have scored less
Speaker 2: points so far this year, so fourteenth ranked in attack.
Speaker 2: What have you made of the sides of this year generally.
Speaker 3: Eddie, I think it's a pretty simple style, and I
Speaker 3: don't mean that as a criticism. I just think when
Speaker 3: you've got so many new additions to the team, like
Speaker 3: we had four or five year recruits from other clubs,
Speaker 3: we've got young guys coming through, you know, some debuting
Speaker 3: or some have had less than twenty games. You know,
Speaker 3: you've got to try and keep it reasonably simple. I'm
Speaker 3: a little bit surprised, as Adel always points out to me,
Speaker 3: that we're not more appy centric. You know, Appy's hardly
Speaker 3: run for any meters in the last few games that
Speaker 3: he has played, and we've got, in my opinion, the
Speaker 3: best hooker in the competition. Galvin leaving mid season obviously
Speaker 3: didn't help, as I touched on earlier with you, so
Speaker 3: you know you've gone from basing your game plan around
Speaker 3: Leui and Galvin. Now Galvin's not there. You can't just
Speaker 3: fix that in five minutes. Granted I love everything that
Speaker 3: La too faint who's bringing to the club. I just
Speaker 3: think we've never had a problem getting from our try
Speaker 3: line to the other end, and our kicking game is
Speaker 3: not bad. It's just literally, Eddie, when we get in
Speaker 3: that red zone, we're just like a deer in headlights.
Speaker 3: So I don't know how to fix that. I'm not
Speaker 3: a coach. I'm sure it all has better ideas in
Speaker 3: terms of that, but given we've got one of the
Speaker 3: greatest playmakers in history, I just don't get how he
Speaker 3: can't teach that because he's got capable players. It's not
Speaker 3: like he's got bums there, mate. He's got a four
Speaker 3: time premiership winner as his captain. Before he left, he
Speaker 3: had the hottest young prospect in the game arguably, and
Speaker 3: now he's got another brilliant prospect too. In my opinion,
Speaker 3: in terms of halfbacks, he's only probably second to Young
Speaker 3: Katowa from the Dolphins in terms of what they're potentially
Speaker 3: capable of being. So he's got great players there. He's
Speaker 3: got Buller at fullback, he's got great finishes in Taruver
Speaker 3: and Skelton. Tower's found a leg this year. I don't
Speaker 3: know why we can't score in the red zone, mate,
Speaker 3: just other teams seem to be able to strip teams
Speaker 3: of numbers so easily. I watched that Saint George Ruce's
Speaker 3: game Saturday afternoon that was quite late, the five o'clock
Speaker 3: game or whatever it was, and the first five tries
Speaker 3: we're just basically stripping teams of numbers and scoring and
Speaker 3: it looks so easy. So again, I don't know how
Speaker 3: that all works. Adele would know better than me, Eddie,
Speaker 3: but look it's it's probably a pass because we get
Speaker 3: to the quarterline reasonably well, but once we get there
Speaker 3: we seem to lack a bit of creativity.
Speaker 2: I'll ask you two questions at Adele, what is our
Speaker 2: style if we have an attacking style? And I often
Speaker 2: hear the coaches before a game, and whether it's just
Speaker 2: a throw a line and whether it was Seabold or
Speaker 2: Cleary or Robinson. A couple of them said in pregame
Speaker 2: West Tigers are an unorthodox or unconventional side. And I
Speaker 2: assume they're talking about with the ball. Is that almost
Speaker 2: like a backhanded criticism to say they sort of you know,
Speaker 2: when they fall behind, they start throwing the ball around,
Speaker 2: or how do you how do you sort of read that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, answer your first question, I don't think we
Speaker 1: have a style yet. I agree with Ron, and I
Speaker 1: don't know whether that's a positive or I haven't sort
Speaker 1: of figured that out in my own mind. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: sit there and as a coach, you're sort of trying
Speaker 1: to you believe in what you believe in, but at
Speaker 1: the same time you're trying to figure out what you
Speaker 1: look like. I think the problem for us is we're
Speaker 1: too focus too much on about our attack. I should
Speaker 1: think our attack isn't too bad. It's not pretty, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't fundamentally base what you do as a team
Speaker 1: of results. Wise. Look, I don't take much notice of
Speaker 1: what other people say about us because we've won three
Speaker 1: wooden spoons, Like nothing is genuine that comes out of
Speaker 1: other team's mounts. So you know, I think they try
Speaker 1: to be respectful, but at the same time Mike gives
Speaker 1: them backhanded compliments or even some backhand pieces of criticism.
Speaker 1: But I don't really worry too much about what other
Speaker 1: teams say. It's a really good question you ask in
Speaker 1: regard to our style of football. I don't think we've
Speaker 1: been able to figure it out, and I do think there.
Speaker 2: Is reasons for that look and some individuals Rob obviously
Speaker 2: the big names in our attack, you know, Happy Chorus,
Speaker 2: our Gerene Buller. But I'll start with Jerome. I think
Speaker 2: the plan initially obviously was to turn him into a halfback.
Speaker 2: That seemed to shift halfway through the year. I can
Speaker 2: only go off Shane Richson chasing Adam Reynolds. Now he's
Speaker 2: back playing in the six, in the seven, where do
Speaker 2: you see his best moving forward for our club?
Speaker 3: I see his best as a six. But just to
Speaker 3: touch on that a little bit further, I mean you've
Speaker 3: got to put that down to a fail from us.
Speaker 3: We've identified him as a seven. We're paying something in
Speaker 3: the vicinity of one point two to one point three
Speaker 3: million dollars to get the best out of him on
Speaker 3: the field. I love I love the guy. I love
Speaker 3: what he brings off the field. I love what he's
Speaker 3: trying to do to the culture of our club to
Speaker 3: set up a winning formula. But we're not seeing enough
Speaker 3: on the field. I think he is better when he's
Speaker 3: got a little bit more rumor, as all players do,
Speaker 3: and gets into that second receiver role. I certainly think
Speaker 3: lats who can help him do that. Excuse me, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think moving forward he has to be he has
Speaker 3: to be the six. But geez, a lot of money
Speaker 3: to be paying for a six, So you'd want him
Speaker 3: to start producing a little bit more on the field
Speaker 3: in terms of results, in terms of you know, try
Speaker 3: and see something. You know, I keep mentioning Galvin's name.
Speaker 3: Galvin left the club a couple of months ago, and
Speaker 3: he's still got more try assists for the Tigers than
Speaker 3: Luli has this year. So you know, it's quite damning
Speaker 3: in that way if you if you're just looking at
Speaker 3: it statistically, But again, you see how hard he tries. Generally.
Speaker 3: I think he was suffering a little bit of an
Speaker 3: origin letdown yesterday. I mean, given he had a fair
Speaker 3: bit in terms of the contribution to our failure in
Speaker 3: Game two and Game three, though we did have some
Speaker 3: good moments. Yeah, he was definitely on a bit of
Speaker 3: a downer yesterday, But normally he's really upbeat, he's really
Speaker 3: driving the team and it's funny, Eddie. We've got co
Speaker 3: captains in Romey and Happy, but when I watched the Tigers,
Speaker 3: it looks to me like Roamy's team. I don't look
Speaker 3: at Appy as the captain anymore because that's how much
Speaker 3: influence I see Roami with barking instructions, and I just
Speaker 3: feel like Appy is more of a what's the term,
Speaker 3: like he's just been given the captaincy as a like
Speaker 3: a little bit of a royalty sort of thing. But
Speaker 3: really the main guy is Jerome Leui do you mind?
Speaker 2: I'm waiting for boys, So it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I'll go to that point first. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: been given a token, because if you look at Isaao
Speaker 1: and Nape and Theory, you can still tell the difference
Speaker 1: on who's your captain. I think that's just the fact
Speaker 1: that Jerome is the general. I'll say a couple of things. One,
Speaker 1: I don't think being a six or being a seven, honestly,
Speaker 1: in the modern day makes too much of a difference.
Speaker 1: I think at the end of day, you look at
Speaker 1: Darren Lockier. Darren Lockey was a six, but he ran
Speaker 1: the theme, puts the ball more than anybody, even at
Speaker 1: someone like Camera Munster. He gets the board just as
Speaker 1: much as Jerome News does, but obviously Jeromews brings a
Speaker 1: different dynamic to the game from their perspective. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be perceived as someone who comes up with excuses,
Speaker 1: but I have no doubt in the world that Jerome
Speaker 1: coming in so late. Then on top of that Origin,
Speaker 1: then on top of that Galvin, then on top of
Speaker 1: that even Lato's issues with injury. You cannot expect, doesn't
Speaker 1: matter who you are. Even Nathan Cleary had to struggled
Speaker 1: with started this year when they're chomping and changing Halds
Speaker 1: with him until they put Saloni there and he's played
Speaker 1: week in week out. You cannot expect someone, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what level you're at, to be able to just
Speaker 1: go click and that's going to work. And I know
Speaker 1: it's easy for us. And I'm going to have the
Speaker 1: Red Holt crack. And then when I get on the
Speaker 1: West Tidle of my podcast tonight, I'm going to have
Speaker 1: a Red Holt crack at our fans at the moment
Speaker 1: because some of the narrative and the conversations around your
Speaker 1: own to me are really really disappointing. He had a
Speaker 1: bad game yesterday, Absolutely no doubt about that. You're entitled
Speaker 1: to have a bad game. I think footballers are in general,
Speaker 1: are entitled to not play well a couple of times.
Speaker 1: I think some of the narrative around his origin performance
Speaker 1: are disgraceful, some of the blameing in regards to that
Speaker 1: one kick, Like if you're a team, am I allowed
Speaker 1: to swear on this video? Or like if you can't
Speaker 1: defend a effing set of six because of one seven
Speaker 1: seven tackle set? And people in the media want to
Speaker 1: sit there and rip into one blow about one seven
Speaker 1: tackle set, Well, you did say, kidding yourself, like he's
Speaker 1: been made the scapegoat at all, and it's just terrible,
Speaker 1: Like it's so poor. And I think it's because he
Speaker 1: plays for the West Tigers, which I don't blame people
Speaker 1: for criticizing our club and making fun of us. We
Speaker 1: won three wooden spoons. I think you're allowed to make
Speaker 1: fun of people who are failing at a professional level,
Speaker 1: and that's what we're doing. I think in the long term,
Speaker 1: Jeromes is exactly what we need. Do we need the
Speaker 1: pieces around him to be just as good and better, Yes,
Speaker 1: But the number one thing we need is a competitor
Speaker 1: in our team. Someone to set a standard from that perspective,
Speaker 1: and that's what Jerab does.
Speaker 3: No offense to Adell, I can't buy that we're coming
Speaker 3: into round twenty. I get everything you're saying about what
Speaker 3: he brings with the attitude and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: In terms of the Origin Adele and again that's not
Speaker 3: West Tiger's related. That was like an arm wrestle where
Speaker 3: your new South Wales and I'm Queensland and you got
Speaker 3: me three quarters of the way down in that early tussle,
Speaker 3: and he was the first thing that went wrong with
Speaker 3: that kick, and I know it led to a seven
Speaker 3: will set in the penalty and they got to Neil.
Speaker 3: But these are the moments, like how many games do
Speaker 3: we need to score? When we score first, we generally win,
Speaker 3: you know, except for yesterday. But that's so important in
Speaker 3: Origin to get off to a great start in the decider.
Speaker 3: He had a bad starting in game two in Perth.
Speaker 3: I mean that first trisis it was lucky to hit
Speaker 3: his foot and he had a terrible first half. He
Speaker 3: certainly made up for it in the second half, but
Speaker 3: the guys won four premierships. At what stage is he
Speaker 3: meant to click for us, like he knows what to do,
Speaker 3: Like what what stage do we get to see him
Speaker 3: in a cohesive unit with our club. I accept what
Speaker 3: you're saying about Galvin and origin and interruptions and a
Speaker 3: new Young's Halves partner and all that, but what are
Speaker 3: we supposed to do? Like, so, where is it going
Speaker 3: to be? Middle of next year? Is it going to
Speaker 3: be in year three? Can you answer that formula? What's
Speaker 3: what's the right timeline?
Speaker 1: If where? If I'm If I'm someone who walks around
Speaker 1: at seventy helos and I put on thirty kilos of weight,
Speaker 1: I can't expect to lose his thirty kilos in a
Speaker 1: year or not, Let's not say in two or three weeks.
Speaker 1: And that's the sort of timeline we're talking about. When
Speaker 1: can he expect When can we expect him to be
Speaker 1: at his best when he's been given And it's not
Speaker 1: his fault, it's not the club's fault, it's not even
Speaker 1: the playing group's faults, not even Bensi's fault. You can't
Speaker 1: forecast what was going to happen with Galvin. I still
Speaker 1: have no doubt, and I think rich I remember Richard
Speaker 1: saying it in the preseason. The fact that he come
Speaker 1: in in January is not ideal. I actually tried to
Speaker 1: google a little bit earlier to see if someone are
Speaker 1: playing this year. But when you get a full pre
Speaker 1: season in which he's not been able to get with us,
Speaker 1: especially coming to a new team where you're dealing with
Speaker 1: young kids, a new combination, you know, obviously yes he's
Speaker 1: got the combination, but happy that that's all he's got.
Speaker 1: He does not know anybody else. It's not easy to
Speaker 1: just walk in and go click. If him and Galvin,
Speaker 1: let's just say, let's just use that Galvin as hypathetic.
Speaker 1: If we are in the sane Harves combination all year
Speaker 1: and we got to this stage, i'd agree with you wrong.
Speaker 1: But I think I look it. I actually looked it
Speaker 1: up the other day. Record when Galvin and Luil are
Speaker 1: our halves, it's above fifty percent. Now we can start
Speaker 1: sitting that standard with him and Lato and see where
Speaker 1: how they go.
Speaker 3: But you know, I was just going to say, all
Speaker 3: the numbers on their back side. It kind of does
Speaker 3: make a difference these days, Like you know, not even
Speaker 3: two years ago, it was literally the numbers meant nothing
Speaker 3: because it was literally one guy plays left half, one
Speaker 3: guy plays right half. But we've seen with some of
Speaker 3: our success this year when we've score tries or made breaks,
Speaker 3: so we've had both halves on the same side of
Speaker 3: the field. And particularly that game against Canberra when Latu
Speaker 3: Feynu came on as soon as Jerome Leueye got wider.
Speaker 3: I mean he did some great line breakers this, you know.
Speaker 3: I think one to Adam Dewey Wonder SAMUELA feyn who,
Speaker 3: like I just think he needs a little bit more room.
Speaker 3: I'm not sold on his kicking game, mate, I thought that.
Speaker 3: I mean again, I'm probably I've still got yesterday's kicks
Speaker 3: in mind. It's not that they were bad, it's just
Speaker 3: they were what's the term impotent, Like you see Adam
Speaker 3: kick a ball like he can boot the crap out
Speaker 3: of it. I just don't think he's got the strong
Speaker 3: enough kicking game to be that dominant halfback. I think
Speaker 3: he's more suited to being a six, more suited to
Speaker 3: being a second receiver than being a first receiver. And
Speaker 3: we've tried to put him into a space that he
Speaker 3: really didn't fit into, and from what I've seen so far,
Speaker 3: I'm sure he's capable of being a really good seven,
Speaker 3: but from what we've seen this year, I don't see
Speaker 3: that mate.
Speaker 1: Last time, Sorry, Eddie, I think you're going to ask
Speaker 1: a question a little bit later about a position week
Speaker 1: and sign I'll answer that question said.
Speaker 2: Just last one on sort of Jerome Adele and I'll
Speaker 2: tie Adam Doweens as well, because like I'm just a
Speaker 2: creat coach, mate, I teach you a lot of our
Speaker 2: Indians for defense. A big shout out to Indian fans
Speaker 2: are listening. But like the last twenty minutes was interesting yesterday,
Speaker 2: Like Adam Dewey going to thirteen, and I know he
Speaker 2: sort of did that a bit against manly, it wasn't thirteen.
Speaker 2: I think he went into the halves late and maybe
Speaker 2: it's easier to dominate a game late when everyone's struggling.
Speaker 2: But just thought of Isaiah yo penrith. And please don't
Speaker 2: confuse me for saying Adam do's Isaiah yoh, But I
Speaker 2: thought could that potentially help Jerome Lewi just get him
Speaker 2: a little bit wider left and having that central guy
Speaker 2: in Dewey orchestrating a bit more from a great coach perspective.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you that observation is much better than
Speaker 1: a footy coach. It was actually what I was about
Speaker 1: to answer when you talk about what we need. I
Speaker 1: also think it's no flute that even earlier in the
Speaker 1: year when LA two was coming on at thirteen, we
Speaker 1: look better. So I potentially think that's what we need
Speaker 1: as a group, not just it's not so much the individual.
Speaker 1: Someone who was a genuine ballplayer at thirteen, I think
Speaker 1: unlocks a little bit of what we do. Look he's
Speaker 1: doing that guy, well, I think that's up to do it.
Speaker 1: If he wants to play the role. You know, it's
Speaker 1: something that could happen. It's just about whether he wants
Speaker 1: to do it or not. I've been around long enough
Speaker 1: now in the last couple of years, watching his team
Speaker 1: very closely to know that Adam has his ups and downs,
Speaker 1: and especially his challenge has more been around defense and
Speaker 1: his application of his defense. This year, it's improved. And
Speaker 1: if anyone doesn't acknowledge that, or they're kidding themselves. And
Speaker 1: I think Adam is in the same boat as a
Speaker 1: lot of other players, where people either criticize him, don't
Speaker 1: like him and criticizing or don't say a word when
Speaker 1: he's playing well, I don't think he's our halves solution
Speaker 1: in the long term. He might be able to fill
Speaker 1: a gap in the meantime because I actually potentially think that,
Speaker 1: you know, if Latu's got the attitude, we think, potentially
Speaker 1: you go back to putting Latsu at thirteen while he's
Speaker 1: building his game and playing that role off the bench
Speaker 1: that he was early in the year. But they're the
Speaker 1: sort of decisions you get paid for as a head
Speaker 1: coach to make, and you live a name work and
Speaker 1: you know that when you lose, you're going to get
Speaker 1: criticized for it, and when you win, no one's going
Speaker 1: to he's going to compliment you. They're still going to
Speaker 1: wait for you to lose, especially in a position we're in.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's something that I'm sure the club looked at.
Speaker 1: I mean, considering Benji made that move in the second
Speaker 1: half on the weekend, I think it's something that I
Speaker 1: think my perception of that and I said it on
Speaker 1: the podcast last week, is I think why he made
Speaker 1: the move is because I think Taylor made will be
Speaker 1: in sooner rather than later, and I think Adam's in
Speaker 1: our best seventeen So I think Adam will go to
Speaker 1: the bench and we'll come on and play that fourteen roll.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that question, I'll go there. Now. Let's let's
Speaker 2: assume you know KPP and Taylor may are in the
Speaker 2: side next year. Is lock the position you think most
Speaker 2: needs addressing, because do his off contract would if just
Speaker 2: let's say he moves on. Do you think a ball
Speaker 2: playing lock is key for this side.
Speaker 1: I think a middle forward. I think a middle forward
Speaker 1: is the key for us. If you're not going to
Speaker 1: get a ball playing lock, a genuine or even thought
Speaker 1: the man to be. I mean, who would have thought
Speaker 1: Kirkman and Bailey Hey would are going to be genuine
Speaker 1: ball playing locks and have influence on football games? No one, right,
Speaker 1: So it's either putting time and effort into somebody and
Speaker 1: turning them into that, because I think that's the only
Speaker 1: way you can do it. I don't think there's anyone
Speaker 1: out there that you know you're going to sign a
Speaker 1: Cameron Murray or Isaao. They're not coming off contract.
Speaker 2: With Dylan Perfect. He went to Parrot earlier this year.
Speaker 2: I watched him play yesterday. I thought, man, he's footy,
Speaker 2: IQ's high in the middle.
Speaker 1: But again, Dylan walk is a manufactured lock. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not someone so from our perspective, it's we identify.
Speaker 1: We maybe go to at him and say, look, let's
Speaker 1: put a bit more bulk on you, let's work on you.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a bigger contract, we'll give you a
Speaker 1: longer term. We want to turn you into our third
Speaker 1: And in the long term he may want that. I
Speaker 1: think the person's got to want to accept the challenge
Speaker 1: as well. The other one for me is a middle forward.
Speaker 1: And when I when I say middle forward, I mean
Speaker 1: a genuine destructive middle forward who can find that front,
Speaker 1: who generates good line speed, who has a little bit
Speaker 1: of intimidation and a bit of fear factor. I think
Speaker 1: our forwards all play very very similar. Obviously, I think
Speaker 1: we tried them in Roy's Humber. That experiment obviously hasn't worked.
Speaker 1: I think in genuine hard running middle which is not
Speaker 1: available for next year unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Rob last one on sort of the attack, I still
Speaker 2: think we're lacking in a bit of pace and power
Speaker 2: and that's probably captain obvious statement. But like look in
Speaker 2: our centers and edgeback rowers, do we have enough athletes
Speaker 2: coming through or is it just the way that we
Speaker 2: don't run hard enough of teams or to me, it
Speaker 2: looks like physically we don't look like we have some
Speaker 2: of the athletes other clubs do.
Speaker 3: I agree with you, we don't have the athletes other
Speaker 3: clubs do. But that said, we've got young Macasini coming
Speaker 3: through and I think you'll find I hope Taylor may
Speaker 3: All be named in the team this week to face
Speaker 3: the Titans. So we've got two guys that run hard
Speaker 3: and run fast.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: We're definitely lacking speed, Eddie. That's one thing that we're
Speaker 3: really devoid of. I mean, Buller is deceptively quick, so
Speaker 3: I'll give him that. And we keep hearing about the
Speaker 3: Forbes Ferrari, but we doesn't seem to get in the
Speaker 3: clear too much. Old mate stainsy, But yeah, we're devoid
Speaker 3: of pace. And yah, I just think even when you
Speaker 3: look at our forwards, I think some of the other
Speaker 3: club's young forwards coming through, they just seem to have
Speaker 3: this prototype of big six foot three, six foot four,
Speaker 3: young big Polynesian boys and we don't have all that
Speaker 3: coming through. So I don't know if it's who we
Speaker 3: identify or what we're doing, But yeah, other clubs seem
Speaker 3: to have more natural, naturally talented players or physically talented
Speaker 3: players than we do.
Speaker 2: I think Blocker called him Dan Stain yesterday, so a
Speaker 2: bit of a flashbackin in the nineties for Blocker. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's loved listening to his commentary. Not with defense. Adele
Speaker 2: four hundred and thirty six points conceded this year, average
Speaker 2: of about twenty five and a half a game. Only
Speaker 2: the Cowboys and Titans have conceded more. But there are
Speaker 2: a few buyers and stuff and variables in there, so
Speaker 2: I think we were only slightly higher than two or
Speaker 2: three other clubs. Do we have a specific defensive system
Speaker 2: and what have you made over all of the team's
Speaker 2: defense this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good. Be harsh for me to say this,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to tell if we do. I think
Speaker 1: it changes. And again I'm saying this off what my
Speaker 1: eyes are telling me. This is not inside information of
Speaker 1: anything I learned previously being at the club at all.
Speaker 1: It almost seems like the individual makes the choices in
Speaker 1: how they defend, especially on our edges, because some of
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense. You look at the staff to
Speaker 1: teller when it was the stuff to its Chanelle Harris
Speaker 1: of Entitroy and staff to Teller's decision making a correct
Speaker 1: defense if the system would never allow Senator make that decision.
Speaker 1: So either the players just cannot implement what the coach's
Speaker 1: system is or the system is broken. The hard part
Speaker 1: for us is we don't know what the truth is.
Speaker 1: It's got to be one of the other. It's not
Speaker 1: even in between them that it's got to be that
Speaker 1: there is a good system or there is a system
Speaker 1: going to need to be a good system as there
Speaker 1: is one, but it keeps getting broken by the players
Speaker 1: because I am seeing so many insistencies with the decision
Speaker 1: making we are coming up with, especially on our edges.
Speaker 1: We are middles of the defensive system. Middle Wise, the
Speaker 1: onely thing you really can focus on is things like
Speaker 1: tackle control, principles around a defenders, principles around market work,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. Unless you're hearing things and
Speaker 1: you actually can get access to the players on the field,
Speaker 1: you can't actually really tell too much about your defensive
Speaker 1: systems and around the middle of the field. But I
Speaker 1: have no doubt how defensive well. Defense doesn't have a
Speaker 1: consistent system and the principles get broken too frequently in
Speaker 1: my liging.
Speaker 2: Does that where like a player like Skelton can get
Speaker 2: exposed because he's got a lot of heat at the moment.
Speaker 2: And I remember an offer back in the day. He
Speaker 2: used to drive me crazy running off his wing. But
Speaker 2: I think he came out once basically a bad idea
Speaker 2: on Twitter or something and said, basically, a lot of
Speaker 2: the problems are happening inside me. Is that happening for
Speaker 2: Skelton or has he got his own defensive issues.
Speaker 1: He's got a really big problem with decision making if
Speaker 1: you look at the dall and try on the first
Speaker 1: half of the scrub. So there's one, for example, where
Speaker 1: Adam Doing makes a decision to come off, to come
Speaker 1: off to basically turn in. We call it come in
Speaker 1: to take the lead runner a proper defensive system, and
Speaker 1: I'm a very comfortable saying this. Any logical defensive system says,
Speaker 1: when your center makes the decision, you follow, So you
Speaker 1: just take the next man and you challenge him to
Speaker 1: be able to. Skelton doesn't neither one or the other.
Speaker 1: So he's sort of in between making the right decision
Speaker 1: or making a decision. I think he just struggled with that.
Speaker 1: It's funny I see a lot of our band talking
Speaker 1: about Tui Tupo, who's in the cup. Very similar. As
Speaker 1: a winger, you've got to be good with understanding the
Speaker 1: defensive system, the defensive principles, and being good at making decisions.
Speaker 1: That's where Adam do. He has been really good for
Speaker 1: us at left center because I think he's done a
Speaker 1: really good job and reading defense and making good decisions.
Speaker 1: He's been let down by his winger way too much.
Speaker 2: Last focus point, boys, in terms of sort of system
Speaker 2: and structure, I just want to focus on like contact
Speaker 2: and collision. I've listened to your podcast number of times
Speaker 2: this year, Rob, What do you make of the forward
Speaker 2: pack in general? Do we have too many forwards of
Speaker 2: a similar ilk.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there, Eddy, we do. Look,
Speaker 3: I think yesterday has really affected my opinion on how
Speaker 3: our forward pack has gone. I think ultimately we've done
Speaker 3: really well this year. I think Terrell May has just
Speaker 3: been the standout forward of the competition in terms of
Speaker 3: his output, in terms of the meters he makes, you know,
Speaker 3: the tackles he makes, the lack of misstackles. He's got
Speaker 3: an offload in him. He's doing two men's work. And
Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit lopsided in terms of
Speaker 3: how our pack is. We're certainly getting some good output
Speaker 3: from Sioni Feinu Ballet is a great player. Though we
Speaker 3: didn't have a good game yesterday, there's enough there to
Speaker 3: work with. But just seeing the way that pack was
Speaker 3: manhandled yesterday by New Zealand, who are arguably missing their
Speaker 3: best forward in Mitch Barnett, that was really disheartening for me.
Speaker 3: But I guess overall you give it a pass. But
Speaker 3: I guess I'd rather judge it in another seven or
Speaker 3: eight weeks from now, Eddie than right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard you an other times coach talk about
Speaker 2: losing collision and contact. Is that like that was obvious yesterday?
Speaker 2: But is that a gap in talent between the sides
Speaker 2: or can that be a deficiency in either application of
Speaker 2: the players or how they're being taught by coaches or combination.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a combination of both. In regards to collision,
Speaker 1: a lot of it comes down to your competitiveness As
Speaker 1: a competitor. You need to want to come out of
Speaker 1: a line and show the line speed that's needed at
Speaker 1: that sort of level. But then there's also a second
Speaker 1: part of it that comes with what's been coached. So
Speaker 1: as a team, for example, I think we don't have
Speaker 1: an emphasis on winning tackle one and two. What I
Speaker 1: mean by that is pick any game and I'll use
Speaker 1: the balld on because they're really good at it. Go
Speaker 1: watch every time it can kicks the ball down the field,
Speaker 1: and watch the first tackle, and watch what the emphasis
Speaker 1: is on what the defensive side does, and then watch
Speaker 1: what our team does. We tackle. Okay, our job is
Speaker 1: to It's almost like our players all they care about
Speaker 1: is getting it, trying to get to the guy on
Speaker 1: the ground, the guy agree you look at to a
Speaker 1: picky yesterday, how many times he bumped the first man.
Speaker 1: Our dual contact is not there. Our kickchase application is
Speaker 1: so poor, Like there needs to be so much more
Speaker 1: work on kick chase. It's where it starts for us.
Speaker 1: Then if you can win tackle one, usually you're a
Speaker 1: chance of winning tackle two, which will have a big impact.
Speaker 1: And I just think our wrestle work is not good enough.
Speaker 1: I know the club has a wrestle coach. I know
Speaker 1: who the wrestle coach is. He is very highly regarded,
Speaker 1: So you know it's potentially from a resource perspective, They've
Speaker 1: got the right person there. Potentially, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know him personally. I just know who he is
Speaker 1: and how he's regarded around the league. He used to
Speaker 1: be at Canberra, previously worked under Ricky Stewart, So potentially
Speaker 1: you turn around and go well, other players capable of
Speaker 1: doing it. I'm not sure what the solution is to that,
Speaker 1: because to me, it's almost you sit there and work
Speaker 1: on that till it becomes perfect. If you cannot win
Speaker 1: tackle one and two defensively in a football game, you
Speaker 1: will not win football games. And I think we've proven
Speaker 1: that this year. It's been a big reason why we
Speaker 1: have not won football games in my opinion.
Speaker 2: My boys, Well, that was fascinating sort of insight tactically
Speaker 2: from both of you there. But we're going to go
Speaker 2: to a bit more rapid fire stuff here. I've got
Speaker 2: a few coaching questions. I'm going to intertwine them into
Speaker 2: buy cell, wholes or release. So I want you to
Speaker 2: just give me one word, but then I want you
Speaker 2: to expand on it a little bit. So Rob, I'm
Speaker 2: going to fire you the first one. Okay, old school coaches,
Speaker 2: and I've got in braggets here, Madge Dez, Shane Flanagan.
Speaker 2: Are they on the way out? Buy sell or hold?
Speaker 3: Now? I'm buying that. I mean for one simple reason,
Speaker 3: they're getting older, aren't they. Yeah, definitely definitely buying that.
Speaker 3: I think now it's just about what you can get
Speaker 3: out of your players, getting the best out of your players,
Speaker 3: getting the best out of your team. You know some
Speaker 3: still have it, like I know Souse are failing, but
Speaker 3: obviously Wayne Bennett still got that aura about him and
Speaker 3: he can still do it. And don't know where we
Speaker 3: stand with Madge. He's a little bit up and down.
Speaker 3: But look, as far as I'm concerned, as long as
Speaker 3: you've got the right coach and who's done the hard
Speaker 3: yards on the apprenticeship, believes in what he's doing, I
Speaker 3: think that's all that matters now. And I think we're
Speaker 3: going to go towards younger coaches now. It doesn't affect us, guys,
Speaker 3: but I would be so excited to see the Gold
Speaker 3: Coast get the Walker brothers because I know they were
Speaker 3: doing so many radical things six and seven years ago
Speaker 3: and they haven't coached for a while now. But if
Speaker 3: they do end up getting that Titans gig. That's the
Speaker 3: sort of thing that would excite me to watch a
Speaker 3: team like that and see what they come up with.
Speaker 3: I think everyone just copies everyone else now, like most
Speaker 3: people have follow you know, copying Penrith obviously because they've
Speaker 3: won four Premierships in a row and can it's just
Speaker 3: another version of Penrith at the moment. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know, we need someone to rejuvenate the game and
Speaker 3: be a little bit more revolutionary and come up with
Speaker 3: something new. So yeah, I think the old coaches are
Speaker 3: out data, but they've certainly got a place in the
Speaker 3: game still.
Speaker 2: I'll ask you one more question, Adele, because I don't
Speaker 2: know how to frame this as a by cell whole.
Speaker 2: But I was listening to Phil Good and I can't
Speaker 2: stand the guy, but I do like listening to him,
Speaker 2: and he was talking about trying to get clubs off
Speaker 2: the bottom of the ladder, and he pretends that he
Speaker 2: loves the Tigers and blah blah blah, but he was saying, basically,
Speaker 2: when you're in the bottom, you have to improve your
Speaker 2: attack first, and you buy trying to buy players that
Speaker 2: can hit the scoreboard for you, and then you can
Speaker 2: improve your defense. Does that make sense or not.
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't make sense if you look at his
Speaker 1: model as what he's got at the moment. So it
Speaker 1: comes down to your coach. Your coach dictates what you
Speaker 1: want your team to look like. If you're asking me,
Speaker 1: you know I can't use it. For example, I can
Speaker 1: use an row for example. If you the club called
Speaker 1: me to mine and said you're our coach for the
Speaker 1: next three years, I would go buy a halfback. The
Speaker 1: first thing I'd do is go buy a half back.
Speaker 1: So I'll flip it back to the NRAL if you
Speaker 1: if I'm a West Tiger's coach, I look at what
Speaker 1: position we need. And the funny thing about that is
Speaker 1: you're actually building your attack for us, because I would
Speaker 1: go by a lock. I think the habits you can
Speaker 1: build in pre season will improve your defense and the
Speaker 1: application the players put into that. But yes, your attack
Speaker 1: needs to become better.
Speaker 2: All right, Rob, We'll go just one word on this one.
Speaker 2: Our young players these days hit maybe Galvin de Silver
Speaker 2: more entitled, or is it because of the environment you create.
Speaker 3: It's a bit of both, mate, But honestly, I'm going
Speaker 3: to say it's the environment you create, because we see
Speaker 3: so many players at other clubs that you know are
Speaker 3: young and they're happy to buy their time. I know,
Speaker 3: I've heard Steve on your podcast, you know, mentioned that
Speaker 3: the grants of the world, and I can't think of
Speaker 3: the I eight the sitting behind Munster that hurt his knee,
Speaker 3: But guys like that, even the winger that just did
Speaker 3: his hamstring from Melbourne, they're all young. They don't seem
Speaker 3: to have an ego. And even if you look at
Speaker 3: the guys that aren't as young anymore, like your Dylan
Speaker 3: Edwards and your Isaiaeos, they've just always looked like respectful
Speaker 3: people and they've never had egos. They were really young
Speaker 3: ones and they never busted to get out of clubs
Speaker 3: or do anything differently. So yeah, I think it's about
Speaker 3: the environment you create. And look, there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 3: trying to please your players, but I feel like, you know,
Speaker 3: from what we see, with what we've seen with Galvin
Speaker 3: and Tallon, we're just letting people get their way, and
Speaker 3: that's something that I think all were Tigers fans are
Speaker 3: frustrated with. And I've got no issue with letting them go.
Speaker 3: It's just trying to get something in return for them,
Speaker 3: whether it's a player. I don't think getting one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty one hundred and sixty thousand means anything to us.
Speaker 3: We don't care we've we've got, you know, big salary caps.
Speaker 3: We keep hearing how much money we've got in the pool,
Speaker 3: in this war chest and everything. It means nothing to us.
Speaker 3: We just want to get wins. So I just think
Speaker 3: it's about setting having a good environment and you know,
Speaker 3: teaching young people to be respectful and making them work
Speaker 3: hard and just yeah, just I guess the generation is
Speaker 3: entitled Eddie. But I think if you create the right
Speaker 3: environment at the club, you can get rid of those egos.
Speaker 3: And look, I think the test will be in terms
Speaker 3: of what you've just mentioned. Now, let's judge Lockie Galvin
Speaker 3: where he's in eighteen months from now, in terms of
Speaker 3: how he acts on and off the field and what
Speaker 3: his performances are like, and if he does put his
Speaker 3: head down and do the hard work, then I guess
Speaker 3: you could say, well, he's gone all a better environment
Speaker 3: than what we have.
Speaker 2: I thought I noticed a bit of stopping by him,
Speaker 2: and then that Broncos game, Rob when he threw a
Speaker 2: couple of passes that hit the deck. He was looking
Speaker 2: around like it was someone else's fault.
Speaker 1: He didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I just think I thought Henry might
Speaker 2: have coached that out of him in a week, but
Speaker 2: maybe not.
Speaker 3: Mate, that was That's probably the worst game of his
Speaker 3: short career. And I know it sounds harsh, but he
Speaker 3: did cost some victory. He pushed the pass at every opportunity.
Speaker 3: Even the first two tries that they ended up scoring
Speaker 3: from were from push passes. One that got a six
Speaker 3: again off Adam Reynolds, one that went behind their whole
Speaker 3: right hand edge, and it ended up being the winger
Speaker 3: Montoya who picked up the ball and did this amazing
Speaker 3: pass behind his head that ended up leading to a try.
Speaker 3: Like even his bad passes turned into gold at the
Speaker 3: beginning of the game. But he just kept pushing and
Speaker 3: pushing and pushing, and then to push the pass that
Speaker 3: he did at eighteen mil up, you know, twenty meters
Speaker 3: out from the line to kickout. I mean that turned
Speaker 3: the whole momentum of the game. So he'll learn from that, Mate.
Speaker 3: He's only young, and he's a talent. There's no and
Speaker 3: there's definitely a bit of sour grapes from me. But
Speaker 3: let's just see how he is in eighteen months from now.
Speaker 3: And also let's see how talent to Silver is and
Speaker 3: see if Jason Rowles, you know, keeps him ground and
Speaker 3: if they do that, then you'll say it's the environment
Speaker 3: that's not the player.
Speaker 1: Surprise. Surprise is awere with Rob I'll say this, I
Speaker 1: actually think that My conspiracy theory is I think Lucky
Speaker 1: Galvin got punished for the Bulldogs. Well what you just
Speaker 1: said any about his reactions of some of the players
Speaker 1: last week. I think that from a standards perspective and
Speaker 1: what I understand about Serroaldo, he's really big on that.
Speaker 1: I think he was punished. I think he was dropped
Speaker 1: because of that. That's my that's my I like theories.
Speaker 2: I like that. I'm going to run with that. I
Speaker 2: think that's fact.
Speaker 1: Coach.
Speaker 2: I'll ask you bysel, hold do NRL sides play in
Speaker 2: the personality of their head coach?
Speaker 1: So whole means in between.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hold means on the fans.
Speaker 1: Hold. I'll hold on that, and I'll say they should
Speaker 1: do they necessarily do that, not necessarily, but they should
Speaker 1: the good teams do.
Speaker 2: I say to my cricket side coach, like I'm a
Speaker 2: bit of a prick and you know, we finished third
Speaker 2: lass in the spirit of cricket, so they play in
Speaker 2: my personality. So I was quite happy when we finished
Speaker 2: third last in the spirit.
Speaker 1: But the question, the question for that is, you know,
Speaker 1: when you batter, were you aggressive? When you bold? Were
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 2: You want to pay more? A grinder? Gritty?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's the sort of personality I think that
Speaker 1: the players should show, you know, I think that's where
Speaker 1: you look at South Sydney, even though they're not going great.
Speaker 1: You look at Cody, you look at a lot of
Speaker 1: the players, a lot calmer this ye would wig in
Speaker 1: there right again, a reflection of his personality. You go
Speaker 1: to Melbourne, they are intense and don't stop. You know,
Speaker 1: they're always you know, you go to the Roosters, their
Speaker 1: coaches have silk, their silks, you know, it's a reflection
Speaker 1: of the personality of the coach.
Speaker 2: Righty, boys, I'm going to take a few of these
Speaker 2: out because I'm mindful. You've got another your own podcast.
Speaker 3: Again, mate, ask what you've got to ask it and
Speaker 3: if you make it a two part pot let it
Speaker 3: be a two part part. It's fine, mate, We're he for.
Speaker 2: You, right rum rich O with the beard, not including
Speaker 2: the bid, still has you one hundred percent backing.
Speaker 3: He's got one hundred percent support.
Speaker 4: But then, if I can rephrase that slightly, Eddie, I've
Speaker 4: gone from one hundred percent confidence to about seventy five
Speaker 4: percent confidence in him.
Speaker 3: Now. I thought the whole handling, particularly of the the
Speaker 3: Silver situation, that's just lost me a little bit. We
Speaker 3: got nothing in return other than saving a tiny bit
Speaker 3: of cap space for letting him go early. I do
Speaker 3: not see the reason why we strengthened another team who
Speaker 3: were in the fight for the spoon with and how
Speaker 3: he couldn't have been an asset to us, you know,
Speaker 3: whether Appy goes down next week, got Heaven forbid that,
Speaker 3: or Young Hope or anything like that. So he's just
Speaker 3: lost me a little bit that way. Plus the fact
Speaker 3: that he went rather silent through that whole Galvin period
Speaker 3: of him about to go or soon to go, and
Speaker 3: then he went. And I know there were legal ramifications
Speaker 3: and all that sort of stuff, but I felt like
Speaker 3: the Richo we'd seen prior to that situation would have
Speaker 3: come out, been on the front foot, done a ten
Speaker 3: minute behind the roar, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3: Or send an email out to members and put us
Speaker 3: at ease, and I just felt like I just started
Speaker 3: building a lot of doubt. Eddie said, look, he's always
Speaker 3: going to have my backing mate, like I even I'm
Speaker 3: not seeing Banji anymore, and Benji will always have my
Speaker 3: support and I'll be cheering the team. Will the cows
Speaker 3: come home? But in terms of whether I believe in rich, Oh,
Speaker 3: I've just lost a little bit of confidence.
Speaker 2: There now, Coach, you've lost your hold. You're not allowed
Speaker 2: to hold anymore. It's only by or Sell. It's a
Speaker 2: mistake to resign happy until twenty twenty eight. By or Sell,
Speaker 2: I'll sell.
Speaker 1: It's not a mistake, man.
Speaker 2: Why because at the.
Speaker 1: End of the day, you can never ever ever doubt
Speaker 1: the experience of a player, and class is permanent. Class
Speaker 1: is always permanent. So for me, you know, unless you
Speaker 1: can potentially back the unknown. And like I said previously,
Speaker 1: and I said this earlier in the year, and I
Speaker 1: almost feel like I've been a little bit vindicated. I
Speaker 1: mean not yet, especially with the galvan one. But I've
Speaker 1: always talked about the fact that I think that if
Speaker 1: you didn't sign up he now for the next two years,
Speaker 1: it means you're needed a stop gap solution until I
Speaker 1: think the better hooker for us is Jared Hayward would
Speaker 1: come through. So I think it's the perfect signing and
Speaker 1: the timeline sort of works.
Speaker 2: Rob. We're not going to go down the rabbit hole
Speaker 2: with this one, but James Tedesco is the club's club's
Speaker 2: greatest ever fallback.
Speaker 3: You know where I stand on this.
Speaker 2: Sorry, they'll back you up on the other one. But
Speaker 2: just to throw my little defense of Hodgo, I just
Speaker 2: thought Hodj's O five season was Bennet and Teddy sixteen season.
Speaker 2: Am I wrong? Coach? Do you think I'm way wrong?
Speaker 1: You're way wrong? Man? Toscos that season from Tedesco that was.
Speaker 2: He was Maybe it's because we lost games on switch
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 1: I'll put it to you this way, Tedesco. Tedesco was
Speaker 1: in five. We win the minor premiership.
Speaker 2: Rob. We'll just go a short answer this, otherwise we'll
Speaker 2: we going forever. Does the club need to settle on
Speaker 2: a maximum of two home grounds by twenty twenty seven
Speaker 2: by ourself?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm buying that. Look, the decision has to be
Speaker 3: made if we're serious about growing that MacArthur region. Mate,
Speaker 3: I really need this Campbelltown thing to get through. So
Speaker 3: if you don't want me to go on further than that,
Speaker 3: I'm happy to stop there. But yeah, we need we
Speaker 3: need clarity. We need to home grounds only, not multiple
Speaker 3: home grounds. Our team needs a home ground where they
Speaker 3: can get the full support and where they're used to
Speaker 3: playing and where it's a fortress. We don't have that now, mate.
Speaker 3: We're playing games at paramatter against paramatter. I don't care
Speaker 3: about the corporate facilities where we're giving away two competition
Speaker 3: points when we do that. So you're not going to
Speaker 3: get short answers out of me yetie, And don't let
Speaker 3: the bell so easily with the whole stuff, ok mate,
Speaker 3: Because of course we because we do play to Benji's personality. Mate,
Speaker 3: He's a natural at everything he does and there's not
Speaker 3: much hard work put in. That's how that's our seem. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going to fire him up.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take the bait, but I will
Speaker 1: say this. I'm going to be very controversial here. I
Speaker 1: think like can't over should be our home ground full time.
Speaker 3: Gosh.
Speaker 1: But but but obviously yeah, at a loss from in
Speaker 1: regards to financial you.
Speaker 2: Know, now, like I would listen to people for years say, oh,
Speaker 2: the big sides play at the big stadiums and that's
Speaker 2: how you grow your club. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: use Pranulla as an example of success, but they play
Speaker 2: at a twelve thousand seed, but they have a genuine
Speaker 2: home ground advantage and so demandly and it shits me
Speaker 2: no end that we've played one game at like Art
Speaker 2: and we're coming up in around twenty Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'll also say this, I mean, I've seen the
Speaker 1: numbers in regards to the Bridge and Broncos and how
Speaker 1: much money they make. I guarantee you this not a
Speaker 1: lot of it has to do with sun called stadium.
Speaker 1: It's an advantage, but it's not a lot of it
Speaker 1: to do some cars fadium perspective. So look, once I've
Speaker 1: become a billionaire, I will buy the club. I will
Speaker 1: play every game at Like Art Oval and then thanks
Speaker 1: for coming.
Speaker 3: It's a double edged sword to Eddie because Campbelltown's season
Speaker 3: fifish at the end of June. So the people in
Speaker 3: MacArthur are you don't get a game out there as well?
Speaker 2: They're meaningful games if you're down the bottom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you're depriving, so Campbelltown are going to get
Speaker 3: to cry for the rest of the year. And like
Speaker 3: Art's only had one game, As you said, we're coming
Speaker 3: in a round twenty. It's not good enough mate.
Speaker 2: With your coach. I've got one for you here, Lart
Speaker 2: too fine. Who is more likely to become a rep
Speaker 2: level player than talent of silver or Lucky Galvin? By ourself? By?
Speaker 1: Well, it's likely, Yeah, so bye, because he'll play for
Speaker 1: time this year.
Speaker 2: That's a bit of a sideways cut out there. But
Speaker 2: do you think better in our ochera Galvin or fin him?
Speaker 1: I said it previously. I was attacked by blokes who
Speaker 1: work in rugby league. I think Latu will, but I'm
Speaker 1: willing to be proven wrong.
Speaker 2: Rob. Only you allowed one word for this one, because
Speaker 2: this is a negative one. A fourth wooden spoon in
Speaker 2: a means the club is impossible to turn around. No,
Speaker 2: thank you for being positive there, Adele. There are at
Speaker 2: least five players in the current roster that could be
Speaker 2: a part of the West Tiger's next premiership side.
Speaker 1: Bye, yes, absolutely. Do you want to know who they are?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Going, I'll give you five. Jerene Buller, Plio taruva a
Speaker 1: La two fine happy carras our jeron lay there's five
Speaker 1: and there's probably about five.
Speaker 2: Beautiful rob We still have a bottom four roster. And
Speaker 2: when I say roster, I'm talking top thirty by ourself
Speaker 2: one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: We have a bottom four ross. I'll go further. We've
Speaker 3: got the worst roster. We're clearly a bottom thirty roster.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean I don't think our best seventeen wasn't
Speaker 3: capable of making the eight. We've got absolutely zero depth.
Speaker 3: You know, we've seen that with Benji not even wanting
Speaker 3: to play Kit off the bench because he knows he
Speaker 3: couldn't do a job, and when he came on against
Speaker 3: the Russes, he didn't do a job. We've let go
Speaker 3: of Galvin and the Silver so we're already weakened. We
Speaker 3: only replace them with Tailor May. In some ways, Adele
Speaker 3: all loved this. In some ways, you can probably defend
Speaker 3: Benji given that we've got a really crappy roster, but
Speaker 3: who created that roster? Like Benji's been there going on
Speaker 3: three years now since he got employed as an assistant.
Speaker 2: Adele West Tigers are not given a fair shape by referees,
Speaker 2: by ourself.
Speaker 1: Change the response to is the Pope, Kathleen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I can't. I know you guys, Rob
Speaker 2: was seeding at the rest. I can't. I just almost
Speaker 2: can't be bothered because I just don't even want to
Speaker 2: talk about a guy like Jared Sutton. I just find
Speaker 2: him nauseating talking about him, like he must be going
Speaker 2: that bad to get our game every week. We see him,
Speaker 2: to get him every week, like he must be Reford
Speaker 2: poorly or something. But god, he's a bad referee.
Speaker 1: Thin at the start of the year, look at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, until you start turning yourselves around,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that'll be having to deal with some of
Speaker 1: that adversity, which clubs like Canberra have done well. The
Speaker 1: Worries I think did it well. Then the worries is
Speaker 1: to cops some absolute garbage and they've got some good
Speaker 1: stuff this year. But if you can turn it around
Speaker 1: and you can start winning football games, usually you'll see
Speaker 1: the course coming your way. Still doesn't mean I'm not
Speaker 1: going to rip into them.
Speaker 2: Let's do one more each boys, Rob. This might be
Speaker 2: an unfair one to the club giving our roster West
Speaker 2: Tiger's daboo their juniors or hot prospects too soon By ourselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unfortunately, I'm buying that, but I don't think we've
Speaker 3: got a choice given how poor our roster is. I mean,
Speaker 3: we're going to We're most likely going to see that
Speaker 3: with Macasini this year. The difference I think with Macasini,
Speaker 3: I would like us to give him a taste of
Speaker 3: first grade just so he knows what he's got to
Speaker 3: work on in the offseason. So actually, even if we're
Speaker 3: when we're totally out of the race for the finals,
Speaker 3: which it looks like we are now, I would give
Speaker 3: him a game regardless of how well the centers are
Speaker 3: in the team the previous week. So for example, if
Speaker 3: Taller and Tailor may have had blinders, I don't care.
Speaker 3: Just move one of them or shift one of them,
Speaker 3: give Macasini a taste and then go from there. But yeah,
Speaker 3: they look, we've seen it for so long, Like Tallon
Speaker 3: played a couple of years ago, We had to play
Speaker 3: for Letty a couple of years ago. We've tried so
Speaker 3: many guys and you know, unfortunately, whether our fans want
Speaker 3: to believe it or not, and it's really harsh Eddy,
Speaker 3: we destroy careers sometimes. So we've got to be a
Speaker 3: little bit better and a little bit more concerned about,
Speaker 3: you know, the player's development, instead of just rushing him
Speaker 3: in or playing him injured, or playing the long minutes
Speaker 3: just because we're desperate for wins. There's got to be
Speaker 3: a duty of care that's a little bit better from
Speaker 3: our club.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's the most ridiculous statement, because if
Speaker 1: you are a player at that age and playing a
Speaker 1: couple of games in first grade, you cannot handle that.
Speaker 1: That kills you career. You were never good enough in
Speaker 1: the first place.
Speaker 3: But so what's so ridiculous about saying that I can
Speaker 3: go back ten years before Benji was there, I can
Speaker 3: go back to your Miller's and all those sort of
Speaker 3: guys or you know, they just they get thrown in
Speaker 3: the deep end and they just end up in England
Speaker 3: after five minutes because they just haven't been brought up
Speaker 3: in the in a slow way. They haven't Like someone
Speaker 3: like Macasine, he should be playing twelve games of Cup
Speaker 3: before we even consider him for first grade. Tailor May
Speaker 3: hasn't even done a full preseason yet, and just because
Speaker 3: he's scored three tries in Cup, we're going to throw
Speaker 3: him in like like Lob scored three tries a week before.
Speaker 3: We're not We're not certainly going to put him there.
Speaker 3: We've got to respect for Cup being what Cup is.
Speaker 3: And I just think other clubs don't do that. Mate,
Speaker 3: they don't.
Speaker 1: They don't know they do they do well, give me
Speaker 1: some nas they one hundred percent do do it. The
Speaker 1: problem the difference is we don't get to watch them
Speaker 1: week in week out. There would be that many There
Speaker 1: is a stut out there about how many first graders
Speaker 1: have played less than five first grade games, and I
Speaker 1: guarantee you you know, not the high majority of them,
Speaker 1: not West Tiger's players. And that's because it happens across
Speaker 1: the league. It does. It happens across the league. The
Speaker 1: difference is us, as West Tigers fans, we focus on
Speaker 1: our stuff and again we're damaged by the fact that
Speaker 1: we've won three Wooden Spoons. But there is guy playing
Speaker 1: for other clubs right now who would not get a
Speaker 1: game at any other club as well. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: about clubs that are struggling. I'm not talking about clubs
Speaker 1: at the top. When you're at the top, you don't
Speaker 1: need to, but when you're in our position, you have to.
Speaker 1: And it's not a negative and those guys you're talking
Speaker 1: about is when we've been back, and we've been back
Speaker 1: for a very long time.
Speaker 3: It shows death. It shows a lack of depth, like
Speaker 3: it might be the right thing to do, but it
Speaker 3: shows that we don't have anyone in between. There's no
Speaker 3: padding there. There's like it's literally like the gun or
Speaker 3: the kid. There is no one. We don't have enough journeyman.
Speaker 3: We've seen it with our forward pack. We were crying
Speaker 3: out for someone that's played one hundred and fifty games.
Speaker 3: You and me have spoken about it. Get someone that's
Speaker 3: languishing in languishing in cup that the club doesn't want,
Speaker 3: you know, is on the way out. And again, someone
Speaker 3: like a Ryan Madison who everyone hates. I get that,
Speaker 3: but that type of person that's played plenty of games,
Speaker 3: and instead you've got to put Kit low Lee on
Speaker 3: the bench and you know he's not ready for it.
Speaker 3: Like there's guy, there's just no in between. With our clubmate,
Speaker 3: we've got really good, top quality players and then got
Speaker 3: you go from the penthouse to the basement. There's no
Speaker 3: middle of the road players there.
Speaker 1: I'll say this, I don't agree with you that either
Speaker 1: put him in too early. I think we have got
Speaker 1: players that have been a part of our top thirty
Speaker 1: who were never an RL players. That's where I think
Speaker 1: we've failed. We have signed guys that Brandon Timith respectfully,
Speaker 1: was never an n RL player through the ranks. He
Speaker 1: may have played under the nine ing's origin, but he
Speaker 1: to me, I watched him, he was never gonna He
Speaker 1: looked at him and he's going to be good at
Speaker 1: an RL level. He never was. Kiit Lowie did the
Speaker 1: same thing, like he was a good player at Harold Matts.
Speaker 1: If you're going backwards from Harold Matson going up, I'll
Speaker 1: see you another one. Heith Mason's another one. To me,
Speaker 1: he's actually got worse every year. Well, I watched Heith
Speaker 1: Mason player schi ball last year. He's Mason couldn't dominate
Speaker 1: ant ball game. So I'm sitting there going whereas Talon did.
Speaker 1: So I'll give Talent the credit he did. On Talent
Speaker 1: went back, he dominated Luke Ouri. When he goes back dominates.
Speaker 1: These are the sort of differences between the guys that
Speaker 1: can play an RL. When guys go back to the
Speaker 1: lower grades and your Filetti's and they can't do anything
Speaker 1: and they're not having an impact. They're not in rol players.
Speaker 1: They never were. The problem for us is we have
Speaker 1: this notion about building from within. We fallen a victim
Speaker 1: to a Harrell Matt side that won one comp. Well
Speaker 1: done to them. A lot of teams win one comp
Speaker 1: and we thought, what we'll do is we'll turn that
Speaker 1: into a golden generation. It was one competition and that's
Speaker 1: what we decided to do. And off the back of that,
Speaker 1: we actually ended up playing Rocky Galvin at six, who
Speaker 1: was the actual back roller in that team. So it's
Speaker 1: not even a consistency of what that team looked like.
Speaker 1: So I will agree with you we have guys that
Speaker 1: shouldn't have ever belonged in first grade. But to say
Speaker 1: that that's our fault that we played them to early,
Speaker 1: we never had a choice. Unfortunately, Well is.
Speaker 2: A going to throw this last one to you. It's
Speaker 2: a bit of a fun one. So we could put
Speaker 2: the boxing gloves down for a minute. If you could
Speaker 2: bring back one current West Tigers player, I don't care
Speaker 2: if they've played one game for the club or left
Speaker 2: the club like treacherously, like Moses or Tedesco. If you
Speaker 2: could bring one player back at the peak of their career,
Speaker 2: into this current side with the makeup of the squad.
Speaker 2: So we've got Buller, We've got Jerome, we got Happy,
Speaker 2: we've got Latu. Who would it be? I'll give my
Speaker 2: answer first. I thought about Gareth Ellis giving our lack
Speaker 2: of back rows, but I'm still going with my man
Speaker 2: Scottie Prince Rob. Who would be for you?
Speaker 3: There's only one answer to this, mate, although I've got two,
Speaker 3: but there really is only one answer.
Speaker 1: It's going to be the same as mine.
Speaker 3: It's going to be the same as yours. Put the
Speaker 3: clipboard down, mate, You're not a coach, Okay, we love you.
Speaker 3: You're the greatest player our club's ever had. Get back
Speaker 3: on the field. You'll fix our attack instantly. You will
Speaker 3: strip the defensive numbers. You will run rings around these guys.
Speaker 3: You'll make everyone else in the team look good. Benji Marshall,
Speaker 3: you're only forty years of age or there where, so
Speaker 3: just turn back the clo just five or six years
Speaker 3: and we'll have you. But my second choice was Gareth
Speaker 3: Ellis because he was a man mountain and he I
Speaker 3: know we had a lot of good forwards in that pack, Eddie,
Speaker 3: but he carried that pack. So if I had the
Speaker 3: choice of one of those two, it'll be one of them.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Benji just fixes our problem this week at
Speaker 3: Leichhard Oval against the Titans.
Speaker 2: Right now, the coach, you're going to agree because I
Speaker 2: just look at Benji and Jerome and I go, man,
Speaker 2: there's going to be some great stuff, but there's going
Speaker 2: to be some balls out of the sideline and people
Speaker 2: I'm not going to know what's going on. I look
Speaker 2: at Scotty Prince just just steadying the ship there.
Speaker 1: You know what. My initial anthem was very easy, and
Speaker 1: then I realized Dream Buller is our fullback, so it's
Speaker 1: going into this turreentee. Because I was automatically going to say,
Speaker 1: James to James desk On to speak to me is
Speaker 1: yeah the top of them. But when Rob said that,
Speaker 1: I sort of went, well, hang on a second, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to replace Jeram, So yeah, it's got to
Speaker 1: be Benji.
Speaker 3: I may don't agree with me, Please do not agree
Speaker 3: with me tonight, but you've been smashing me from pillar
Speaker 3: to post. You're going to cop it on our shows.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely going to tune in later tonight. You want
Speaker 2: the show because there might be some afters on that,
Speaker 2: but I can't thank you enough. I've really enjoyed tonight.
Speaker 2: I know it's been a marathon podcast and you're doing
Speaker 2: a double shift tonight, So thank you so much for
Speaker 2: coming on. And let's do it again sometime later this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks very much, Eddie. And you just want to say, like,
Speaker 3: we're going to do some more of these collabs in
Speaker 3: the bye week. I'm sure we'll talk to your guys
Speaker 3: and you guys talk to us and we'll get together
Speaker 3: and we'll work out something. So looking forward to having
Speaker 3: you guys again in a few weeks, and you're welcome
Speaker 3: to have Definitely you can have a del Mate, have
Speaker 3: a del on your.
Speaker 2: Going to say and come over to ours after tonight.
Speaker 3: He can come over to yours and make people are
Speaker 3: sick of hearing me. He's the star of the show.
Speaker 3: So you can have adele on me or Josh or Aaron,
Speaker 3: whoever you want.
Speaker 1: And do you give me permission to the next bet
Speaker 1: I put on with Rob If he loses, one of
Speaker 1: the things he has to do is get in front
Speaker 1: of a bowling machine and clicks depends.
Speaker 3: I've got to say one thing, I know you want
Speaker 3: to sign up Dye I've got to say one thing, Adele.
Speaker 3: You've you've really let down the listeners by not telling
Speaker 3: them word for word what you said to me today
Speaker 3: about Jared Sutton, word for word and it wasn't rude.
Speaker 3: Just tell them what you said to me and make
Speaker 3: our West Tigers fans happy.
Speaker 1: Actually what I said, you said, we.
Speaker 3: Never stand a chance of winning that game with him,
Speaker 3: and look, we would have lost anyway in my opinion,
Speaker 3: but he said, we never stood a chance of winning.
Speaker 3: He always gave the six agains on the fourth tackle.
Speaker 3: He said all these things. He said, mate, We're never
Speaker 3: going to win a game with him as reference.
Speaker 2: I'm not a conspiracy theorist with the rest, but I
Speaker 2: do think, like coach. I know we're meant to wrap up,
Speaker 2: but I still think like Origin is a bit contrived,
Speaker 2: Like that game too, man, like that ten to one
Speaker 2: penalty count to Queensland. I guarantee you who ever loses
Speaker 2: Game one gets a not in a wink referee, We're
Speaker 2: going to win game two and blah blah.
Speaker 1: So look, I've got myself in enough trouble in the
Speaker 1: past with her three so I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna speak about reference. Look, my opinion is that, But
Speaker 1: like I said, if you win football games, I think
Speaker 1: you've turned that around.
Speaker 2: Do we beat the Titans, coach before.
Speaker 1: You go absolutely like hard over, Let's go.
Speaker 2: I'm nervous, says Rob.
Speaker 3: Thank you boys, Thanks Eddie, says Guy
Speaker 1: Septi