How much of this are we prepared to take?

[Wizardman]

I have been a fan of this club and the Balmain Tigers since 1988. Through the vast majority of me being a rugby league supporter, my club has finished way more times than not missing out on finals footy.
I've tolerated the failures of this club for a very long time. I think this is the essence of that is why our club is so shit. Too many fans (I'll put myself in this basket), members and people within the organization have tolerated low standards of performance.
The last two seasons as well as the start of this one have easily been my most disappointing as a Tiger supporter. I made the decision to not support them with one cent of my money at the beginning of last season.
After seeing five rounds of crap this season, we are actually worse than when Madge was here. With Madge, at least we saw the very odd match where some players played with ticker. This season, Ive not seen a match where the players (a) play with any real vigour or aggression and (b) play as a team. They have 100% gone backwards.....and this is with a much better roster than in 2022.

Our failure largely comes down to two things.

1) Our coaching set-up: I lay the vast majority of blame on the three stooges in the coaching box. Our side is not improving and look like guys that don't play together regularly. Our players generally don't run with any gusto....that is on the coaching team to prepare these guy and to recruit better players. I've seen no evidence of the players genuinely wanting to play for the three stooges.

2) Management (Pascoe): The fact that we have been so shit on the footy field for so long rests largely on him for his inability to recruit the right people for the football operations side of the club. Yesd, he may kicks some goals in the business world.....but this losing culture will bite into corporate success as well.

I will continue to keep my money in my pocket until Sheens and Pascoe go at the very least.

 

[innsaneink]

I'm the same.
Was a member for over a decade until the end of 2019.
No more $ from me I can't support ineptitude I see weekly, I can piss my money away in more constructive ways.
This is meant to be somewhat enjoyable but the last time I got excited at our footy was last July v Broncos... It's just one negative thing after another and life is meant to be enjoyed.
Something drastically needs to change... NRL seem happy for us to plod along we are a profitable tentacle for their business
Kudos to the fans and members that rock up week in week out... I'd get more enjoyment sitting on a train platform watching the indicators change

 

[Perth Tiger]

I started with Balmain in 88 as well. Watched basically every game since. Have put up with only 3 final series in over 30 years in a comp where half the teams make the finals every year.

But last year and this year are something else, we are just so far off the pace compared to other teams in every aspect. We are slower, smaller, weaker, less talented and flat out dumber than every other team.

the standard of footy has been excellent this year yet every Tigers game is garbage and I find I switch it off after 5 or 10 minutes because you just know we have no chance of winning.

I think we have all proved we can stick with this team through loses, but something clearly stinks about the joint at the moment

 

[Crazyperpman]

The issue with this club is there is no acccountability.

The board approved this approach blindly hoping for success but also knowing full well it was buying them another 5 years worth of excuses.

Sheens is not focussed on results because he is supposedly building the team to hand over top Benji.

Benji will inherit Sheen's team.

So after 5 years, it will then be 15 years of failure but nobody's fault.

This model cannot succeed and to most long suffering fans was sus from the start.

 

[Ned Kelly]

I started following the Western Suburbs Magpies in the early 60's.

This year and last are definitely the worst I can remember as a Wests fan. We are not dead yet but we look like a fish floundering around on the deck in it's death throws.

I have genuinely been worried for a couple of years now that our down hill trajectory has been so severe it will be impossible to recover from ever. At least not in my life time.

 

[simmo05]

Whoever decided to install Sheens, benji, and robbie need to be taken out back. After watching almost every wests tigers game, and supporting Balmain before that, last year I watched maybe 6 games and this year 1. They will not see a cent from me until the three muppets are gone, as well as the board.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

All the garbage all of the poor decisions, as a practical matter -starts from the top.

Lee and his incompetent cronies must be held accountable which they promised us they would be.

Hold fresh elections, change the club management structures.

Get the good people in to lead us properly.

The club is on its knees.

Kudos to our magpies brethren for taking us on.

Thank God we have some honesty somewhere.

Players are getting worse not better under Tim and co.

 

[simmo1]

This club might never gets its act together. Plenty of examples of loser teams in world sport that never win anything - North Sydney Bears, Detroit Lions, LA Clippers, any number of EPL clubs. Starting to think we might turn out the same.

Even if we get sent to Perth, we will probably still find a way to suck. The only thing that will change is that we have to stay up to midnight to watch us lose.

 

[Tigers Tale]

As a kid I was at the '69 Grand Final, have loved the Tigers for as long as I can remember. My second team was always the Magpies so when the merger came I felt I couldn't lose. The management of this club though has been woeful and it doesn't look like it is ever going to improve now or anytime soon. Going back to Sheens has been a huge mistake. He thinks he is some kind of mystic genius with his weird selections each week, he is now proving the game has passed him by.

Seriously, we should have chased a coach like Fitzgibbon. His structures (watching as I type) are exactly what the modern game is. His backs are probably on the better side of good but geezus, blind Freddy can see what a decent spine can create.

Until we clean out the management we will forever be also rans and that saddens me no end....Sheens needs to go, so too Benji and Robbie. Get a coach with a half decent grasp of the modern game and buy a spine that will challenge oppositions....the rest might and should follow. We have money, spend it wisely and clean out from the top down.

 

[Das Hassler]

As a kid I was at the '69 Grand Final, have loved the Tigers for as long as I can remember. My second team was always the Magpies so when the merger came I felt I couldn't lose.

Same here...remember the cardboard bullhorns they gave out? Ditto Tigers / Magpies.
Agree the whole management and board have to go for the same reasons defeated political parties select new leaders ...there 100% has to be a total clean out.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I think Tim needs a hand at this point. He’s missing quite a few things.

Benji and Robbie aren’t cutting it either. Tim must be reconsidering the inheritance issue by now.

Benji shouldn’t be meddling with an nrl side if he has no experience. Im sure he knows some things, but not others.

We’d be better off with Morris or getting Des in to help. Keep him occupied waiting for Saints.

Or Flanagan, potter, a Hannay even.

But Benji and Robbie need a few years at least and then assist. They’ve been rushed in on a whim.

Seibs is showing a break can be a good thing for coaches. He’s doing a good job.

 

[Tigers Tale]

We as supporters can joke about losing to the bye...the coach should be shot for saying it. Shows the team is defeated on every level.

 

[Tigers Tale]

Same here...remember the cardboard bullhorns they gave out? Ditto Tigers / Magpies.
Agree the whole management and board have to go for the same reasons defeated political parties select new leaders ...there 100% has to be a total clean out.

During the '69 season my grandfather scored a jersey Dave Bolton wore....of course it finally wore out through all the wear but I cut off the tiger emblem and had it for bloody years....now it is long lost and I'd love to have it still.

 

[Hoofhearted]

I must admit this is one of the lowest points I can remember as a supporter of this club (Be it Balmain or Wests Tigers). Even through some of our leanest times (mid 90's) I still held some hope of things turning around (misguided hope).
At the moment we are the worst team, making the worst decisions moving forward and actually getting worse as time goes by. To put it into perspective, we have won 1 game since Madge was sacked in early June 2022, and have not even led a game this year at any point. I haven't heard one person say our plan is a good one, to compare to others:
Dolphins have Bennett short term, but the guy taking over is a multiple premiership winning coach who has also had international success. They have also put Ben Teo coaching the Qld Cup team to learn and gain experience.
Fitzgibbon took over at the Sharks after years of coaching under Robinson, same with Ciraldo and even Webster under Cleary.
Payton started as our 20's coach and slowly made his way through the ranks.
O'Brien spent years under Bellamy, same with Arthur.
We have a veteran coach short term teaching two rookies with zero experience to take over in 2 years, and a bottom team in need of a major rebuild to top it off.
If you were a player manager with young talent on your books, would you be even considering letting them sign for us?

 

[Old Time Tiger]

How the professionallly run football clubs do it.

Two Premier League managers were axed overnight as the competition enters the home stretch.

First it was Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers, whose side is now in severe danger of relegation after picking up just one point in six games.

Gee, the Tigers could only wish for 1 point from 6 games.

And with Chelsea, the coach said:

“I don’t like to blame anybody, I have to take responsibility,” said Potter who was widely booed by Chelsea fans.

“We can feel the pain of the supporters … I understand when you lose at home, the emotion of the game is such that people are going to be disappointed and frustrated and angry.

“Where we are in the league table, no one’s happy with. Whatever criticism comes I have to accept.”

Take note Tim.

 

[Perth Tiger]

It is amazing reading some of these comments. It seems most of us were around pre merge and we all feel this is a worse time than our clubs actually merging. at least there was hope of better days back then

Show just how bad it is.

 

[gUt]

you poor bastards

 

[Wizardman]

Imagine if V'Landys was our CEO

 

[Wizardman]

It is amazing reading some of these comments. It seems most of us were around pre merge and we all feel this is a worse time than our clubs actually merging. at least there was hope of better days back then

Show just how bad it is.

I'll be painfully honest....the 90's were pretty f**king grim for the Balmain Tigers. I'd rate those days worse than today for a few reasons.

(a) The gap between the best and worst teams were wider in the 90s than they are today. I'd give us more hope to beat the Penrith Panthers today than I would have given the Balmain Tigers to beat the Broncos and Canberra teams of that 90's era.

(b) The Balmain Tigers had no money and always had the threat of extinction over their heads.

(c) As shit as we are, we have a better roster now than the Balmain Tigers ever had. in that mid 90's era.

What makes this era particularly tough to swallow is that it should be easier in this present day era to improve a club then back in the days where no salary cap truly existed and the strong teams had reserve grade squads tougher than some lower first grade clubs.
The toughest thing to swallow is the fact that we are so behind in terms of building even a decent, competitive side. I think most fans would settle for a team that plays decent footy and can compete with teams for most weeks.
We are STILL going backwards as a club!

 

[Hoofhearted]

I'll be painfully honest....the 90's were pretty f**king grim for the Balmain Tigers. I'd rate those days worse than today for a few reasons.

(a) The gap between the best and worst teams were wider in the 90s than they are today. I'd give us more hope to beat the Penrith Panthers today than I would have given the Balmain Tigers to beat the Broncos and Canberra teams of that 90's era.

(b) The Balmain Tigers had no money and always had the threat of extinction over their heads.

(c) As shit as we are, we have a better roster now than the Balmain Tigers ever had. in that mid 90's era.

What makes this era particularly tough to swallow is that it should be easier in this present day era to improve a club then back in the days where no salary cap truly existed and the strong teams had reserve grade squads tougher than some lower first grade clubs.
The toughest thing to swallow is the fact that we are so behind in terms of building even a decent, competitive side. I think most fans would settle for a team that plays decent footy and can compete with teams for most weeks.
We are STILL going backwards as a club!

I still remember my Dad after the '89 GF, devastated from what had taken place. The thing that I still remember him saying at the time, and I was to young to comprehend, was him saying that was our last chance. He was saying that with the Bronco's coming in and the League growing, our 80's team aging etc that the little suburban battlers wouldn't be able to compete with the big end of town.

How prophetic he was.