Tigers to shuffle Benji out door despite his desire for extra year
Benji Marshall's time at the Wests Tigers is coming to an end. In the coming days, Tigers officials will sit down with the club legend to lay out their vision for the future. Unfortunately for Marshall, who believes he has one more year to offer, he isn’t part of it.
It’s not that Marshall is over the hill. He has shown in 2020 he still has plenty to offer. But the Tigers have $1 million to spend on five roster spots for next season and too much money tied up in their halves to justify spending $300,000 on another play maker.
The Wests Tigers are set to inform Benji Marshall there is no room for him in 2021.CREDIT:GETTY
It’s about salary-cap management. Josh Reynolds isn’t going anywhere, despite the club’s best endeavours, and neither is Luke Brooks. Between them they take up $1.6m in the salary cap and it is on coach Michael Maguire to make that work.
There’s also junior star Jock Madden, who has been likened to a young Luke Keary. Madden will make his NRL debut as early as this week as the coach looks to blood some youth in the final month of the season.
There’s also a case that Adam Doueihi’s best position is five-eighth, while the club also has Billy Walters on contract for next year. Co-captain Moses Mbye has played plenty of five-eighth as well, leaving the club with no shortage of options next year. Adding Marshall to that list makes little sense, especially when they are in dire need of leadership in the forwards and strike in the outside backs.
The club has been walking on eggshells for weeks for fear of disrespecting the club’s greatest player. It’s why, even with their finals hopes dead following Saturday night’s loss to the Panthers, Marshall will still feature in the final month of the season despite the club preparing to inform the veteran they are heading in a different direction.
Josh Reynolds will get another chance in the last month of the season.CREDIT:GETTY
Marshall may not be happy, but the Tigers know they can’t afford to allow emotion to dictate their next move. The Tigers indicated earlier in the year that there would be a spot for him at the club in 2021 if he wanted to play on. A lot has changed since then.
The club isn’t convinced Reynolds, who has one more season on his deal worth $800,000, is the answer next year. Playing him over the last month may finally answer that question, or at the very least allow him to show he still has something to offer a rival club willing to pay part of his salary next year.
You would expect Marshall to walk into a media job, like Cooper Cronk, at Fox Sports. However, at this point, he isn’t ready to hang up the boots. A club such as Newcastle or Manly, both on the lookout for a five-eighth, could benefit from his services. Marshall may provide the experience to help those respective clubs emerge as genuine title contenders next year.
The Tigers will begin planning for 2021 from this week. Hooker Harry Grant may not see a lot of football in the last month. With Grant expected to head back to Melbourne next year, the club will look to give 18-year-old Jake Simpkin a crack alongside Jacob Liddle.
PEARCE'S COSTLY LOSS
The Newcastle Knights’ poor showing has likely cost the club more than just a top-four finals berth this year. Captain and halfback Mitchell Pearce stood to earn a $125,000 bonus if he took the club to the top four, as per the contract he signed when he joined the then-struggling Knights from the Sydney Roosters in 2018.
The Knights knew that if they were to end their finals drought it was going to be on the back of Pearce and if the incentive-based clause was ever triggered, it would catapult the halfback’s annual earnings to one of the highest in the competition.
Mitchell Pearce is set to miss out on a top four bonus after the loss to the Warriors.CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES
The shock loss to the Warriors on Saturday has all but cost Pearce $50,000. He still has a top eight bonus written into his contract worth $75,000. The Knights are five points clear of the highest-ranked non-top eight team and would need a dramatic form slump to miss the finals now. They play the Sharks, Roosters, Dragons and Titans over the final month of the regular season.
EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
The NRL executive team will be cut from nine to as low as six as part of the governing body’s major restructure set to be announced in September.
Chief operating officer Nick Weeks and chief corporate affairs officer Liz Deegan are among the changes.
HALF MEASURES
The Dragons have begun speaking to prospective coaches and the club has been rather intrigued as to some of the comments surrounding marquee man Ben Hunt. The feedback the club has received in regards to Hunt is that he hasn’t been used the right way in recent seasons, using the type of game plan that suited former captain Gareth Widdop more than it did their current best option.
Ben Hunt is expected to move back to the halves next year.CREDIT:GETTY
While Hunt is being used at hooker, expect whoever gets the gig for next season to move the Queensland and Australian representative straight into the No.7 and formulate a game plan that plays to his strengths.
DRAGONS FAN’S FURY
Still on the Dragons and prop Paul Vaughan copped a bake from an angry fan after Friday night’s disappointing loss to the Titans. The suspended Vaughan, who was standing inside the tunnel at full-time to show support to his teammates as they left the field, was called a "disgrace" multiple times by the angry fan. "Go and have another latte", the fan also yelled in reference to Vaughan’s COVID-19 breach that saw him miss two games for the club.
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