Random Tigers articles from the media

[Old Time Tiger]

Interesting:
Paul Kent has claimed the Wests Tigers’ last-ditch plays for the services of Dale Finucane and Tevita Pangai Jr shows Michael Maguire is not to blame for the club’s recruitment woes.

Pangai signed a deal to head to Canterbury-Bankstown last week, while Finucane put pen to paper on a four-year contract with Cronulla on Sunday.

Fox League’s James Hooper, who broke the story of Finucane’s Storm exit, said the Tigers only came in at the last minute for Finucane but by then it was too late.

“Last Friday the Sharks and the Dragons were informed they were the last two clubs bidding for Dale and they were told to put their final offer on the table,” Hooper told Triple M.

“Both clubs did that. Then the Tigers came in and went bang with a four-year, $2.8 million deal. I don’t think Dale wanted to go down that road.

“At that stage both clubs were at three-year deals which made both the Dragons and Sharks went to a fourth year.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Kent said such a late play suggested the Tigers weren’t on the same page when it came to recruitment.

“It makes you wonder, everyone lays the blame at Michael Maguire’s feet about why players don’t go to the Tigers,” Kent said.

“But to come in at the eleventh hour with an inflated offer, it makes you wonder if they really know their business.”

Hooper responded by saying: “Clearly they don’t. You’re spot on about Madge.

“I’m frustrated to the high teeth about how much flack Madge cops and that he can’t sign a player. He’s a part of the stigma that’s going around by the club.

“But that’s amateur hour doing business like that. They did the same with Pangai and said: ‘we’re out of it and we’ve done our homework and he’s not the right fit we are off in a different direction’.

“Then they come back in and up the offer.”

Kent suggested that the issue could in fact lie with the club’s football manager, Adam Hartigan.

“(Phil) ‘Buzz’ (Rothfield) has an item in The Sunday Telegraph with a little slight from Simon Woolford about Adam Haritgan who is in charge of recruitment over there at the Wests Tigers,” Kent said.

“He (Hartigan) said it’s no wonder they can’t sign a player when he doesn’t return an email or answer a phone call.

“Well, seriously, if you’re in the business of trawling for talent you should never let a phone call or email go without response…It’s madness that the Tigers are like this.

“I think it’s convenient to blame Michael Maguire for why they can’t sign a player: ‘oh, he’s too tough on them’.

“Then people around him, who are failing at their jobs, say: ‘yeah, but we support Madge we won’t let that worry us’.

“Actually, you guys might be the problem and need to look at yourself here.

“The reason players aren’t going here is because you are not getting your ducks in a row when you need to.

“Therefore every other club is looking far more professional and attractive to what you guys are looking. That’s why they can’t sign a player unless they are not wanted anywhere else.”

‘It’s madness’: Kent highlights Tigers’ flaw in failed Finucane, Pangai bids

‘It’s madness’: Kent highlights Tigers’ flaw in failed Finucane, Pangai bids

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Fordy20]

So the player agents have their nose out of joint because the administration isn't dancing to their tune anymore and signing track wreck contracts like they did for Packer, Reynolds and Mbye.

The media can't blame Madge cos Gus has come and said it's not the coach, so they are swinging for everyone else, first Pascoe and now Hartigan. It might have been nice to get a few of the signings on the market, I don't think players seriously consider us as a destination unless they are blocked or unwanted at their current club and can't get a contract elsewhere.

 

[gordsy]

I have a few signings questions if Hartigans job is for juniors then why would he be involved in first grade signings ?
Did Woolford gets the arse from the club or did he get beaten out for a job ?
What is Sheens role and did we ask Hartigan if he was ask with Tom Shines being signed ?

 

[BrotherJim05]

When we missed out on Latrell, I said "this won't be the last marquee player we miss out on for a number of years to come". I'm not Nostradamus, we all knew this. We all know the reasons why so I won't bother typing it up.

Tigers have been used as a bargaining chip for years. I can understand why we came in late with our offer because it then doesn't give the player manager time to shop our offer to the other clubs to raise the price. The irony with Finucane is even when we came in late they managed to use us like we are always used. I don't blame Hartigan...in fact I actually blame Hooper for his constant dragging of our club through the mud and damaging our image. Players pretend they don't listen to J. Pooper but they do. He's one of the biggest NRL journalists (if you want to call it that) on the planet. As much as he annoys the f**k out of me you have to respect that.

Coming up with a 4 year deal for a player like Finucane is risky as f**k. Yes, he is absolutely everything that we need, but he will be 30 next year and only recently came off a serious injury. The club needs time to think this one through. I can understand that the offer came in late, and tbh I think the timing with TPJ was a co-incidence rather than "oh we missed out on TPJ so now we are going after Finucane".

We were never getting Finucane and there isn't a damn thing Hartigan could do about it.

All this being said, it really doesn't look great when you see Pascoe on TV acting like he's some big tech-billionaire who can get the job done by working smarter and not harder. That and the way we f**ked up Addo-Carr's offer (I blame the club for that one) really does compound all of this.

We have to simply stick to our plan - develop or sign young talent and wait for experienced first grade leaders to come on the market for the right price.

 

[benched tiger]

The WT seem to be the last resort for off contract players, only when there are no other options available ,then the WT become appealing , this needs to change, and for this to occur the front office needs to gets its sh*t together .

 

[Perth Tiger]

When we missed out on Latrell, I said "this won't be the last marquee player we miss out on for a number of years to come". I'm not Nostradamus, we all knew this. We all know the reasons why so I won't bother typing it up.

Tigers have been used as a bargaining chip for years. I can understand why we came in late with our offer because it then doesn't give the player manager time to shop our offer to the other clubs to raise the price. The irony with Finucane is even when we came in late they managed to use us like we are always used. I don't blame Hartigan...in fact I actually blame Hooper for his constant dragging of our club through the mud and damaging our image. Players pretend they don't listen to J. Pooper but they do. He's one of the biggest NRL journalists (if you want to call it that) on the planet. As much as he annoys the f**k out of me you have to respect that.

Coming up with a 4 year deal for a player like Finucane is risky as f**k. Yes, he is absolutely everything that we need, but he will be 30 next year and only recently came off a serious injury. The club needs time to think this one through. I can understand that the offer came in late, and tbh I think the timing with TPJ was a co-incidence rather than "oh we missed out on TPJ so now we are going after Finucane".

We were never getting Finucane and there isn't a damn thing Hartigan could do about it.

All this being said, it really doesn't look great when you see Pascoe on TV acting like he's some big tech-billionaire who can get the job done by working smarter and not harder. That and the way we f**ked up Addo-Carr's offer (I blame the club for that one) really does compound all of this.

We have to simply stick to our plan - develop or sign young talent and wait for experienced first grade leaders to come on the market for the right price.

Agreed, I thought it was good coming in late with 4 years because he was never going to sign with us and it forced the Sharks to go for 4 years. I seriously can’t see him being very effective on the field after 2 years with his age and injury history

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

When we missed out on Latrell, I said "this won't be the last marquee player we miss out on for a number of years to come". I'm not Nostradamus, we all knew this. We all know the reasons why so I won't bother typing it up.

Yep

We have to simply stick to our plan - develop or sign young talent and wait for experienced first grade leaders to come on the market for

I agree and I’d add that these days contracts aren’t contracts. The number of players who hit the market unheralded is substantial compared to the old days.

It’s the Doogies, Lauries and Stefanos that we are after. Players on the up, on the cusp with 5+ years now playing at 70 % that bode well for sustained success.

A year under his belt at top flight, some extra beef and drilled defence and Laurie is due to break out in the next few years. The little bloke has all the skills and desire, he just needs some armour! Hard work ahead. He’s been great.

Hastings has an insatiable thirst for his next challenge, brutal dominant sob who thinks like a forward. Only too happy for a “ lovers tiff” with Manly Royalty and DCE is a very tough player, who has been targeted for a decade.

I heard Hastings took two of them on at once. Hopefully teach our forwards to forget their manners. Some say he’s not the full quid when enraged, Jwh says “ hi”

DCE has used his profile to help out a lot of people. Spent time helping to build a school overseas during an offseason. He didn’t have to. I admire him. If you hear someone running him down, they have no clue. Ornament to the game, a real one.

 

[gordsy]

Who did Jacko punch on with ?

 

[BrotherJim05]

Yep

I agree and I’d add that these days contracts aren’t contracts. The number of players who hit the market unheralded is substantial compared to the old days.

It’s the Doogies, Lauries and Stefanos that we are after. Players on the up, on the cusp with 5+ years now playing at 70 % that bode well for sustained success.

A year under his belt at top flight, some extra beef and drilled defence and Laurie is due to break out in the next few years. The little bloke has all the skills and desire, he just needs some armour! Hard work ahead. He’s been great.

Hastings has an insatiable thirst for his next challenge, brutal dominant sob who thinks like a forward. Only too happy for a “ lovers tiff” with Manly Royalty and DCE is a very tough player, who has been targeted for a decade.

I heard Hastings took two of them on at once. Hopefully teach our forwards to forget their manners. Some say he’s not the full quid when enraged, Jwh says “ hi”

DCE has used his profile to help out a lot of people. Spent time helping to build a school overseas during an offseason. He didn’t have to. I admire him. If you hear someone running him down, they have no clue. Ornament to the game, a real one.

WT players look so unmotivated that I'm really looking forward to Hastings coming in and barking orders at everyone. My only hope is that him and Doeuihi get along like a house on fire and bark the orders together

 

[gordsy]

For those who wonder why foxsports bit the hand that fed them have you ever watched a doco called copping it sweet. Some idiot had the bright idea of letting journos film cops in redfern. End result from the journos, knives met backs. Not the cops were all squeaky clean but good grief what a pack of parasites.

 

[Old Time Tiger]

Re Hastings ^ I see he's been playing fullback in his last few games, more practice giving orders and from a new position.

 

[Fordy20]

Paul Kent: Wests Tigers’ rebuild taking shape, if club holds its nerve over Michael Maguire

The ammunition against Michael Maguire is overly simplistic, but effective.

It seems to be a campaign driven by out-of-work coaches and their future assistants happy to aggravate the job market.

Little attention is paid to what Maguire is doing to clean up the problem at Wests Tigers, which was always the business someone was going to have to do eventually and which was always going to come with some skin lost, no matter who it was.

And it had to come at some point.

For too long the coaches at Wests spent their salary cap with wild indifference to the problems they were creating; namely, caps can be stretched only so much before they burst.

Too many treated the cap like a Ponzi scheme. Buy now, leave the consequence for whomever comes next.

It happened in the interest of short-term job security.

Maguire arrived in town for the long haul, knowing the problems he was inheriting but, still, as he goes about his business out-of-work coaches and their future assistants, at the cost of a phone call, continue to agitate for change.

The subtext goes that only they can fix the problem, without full disclosure that Maguire has finally turned the club in the right direction.

The problem for too long was that the Tigers’ management was unsure itself what success looked like so, unwittingly, they listened to outside voices, wondering if there was a better way.

So they continued to treat the symptom, not the cause.

The knock on Maguire came again over the weekend.

Dale Finucane signed with Cronulla after the Tigers came in with an 11th hour offer Friday. It was portrayed in some quarters that Finucane knocked back the Tigers to sign with Cronulla because he did not want to play under Maguire at the Tigers.

This happened after Tevita Pangai signed with Canterbury last week despite a bigger offer from the Tigers because, it went again, Pangai did not want to play under Maguire.

If only it were that simple.

There was no four-year deal to the Tigers for Finucane.

The Tigers offered a two-year deal with the third season in their favour.

Their reasoning was simple. The Tigers were only just coming out of a cycle where long-term deals, all well above market value, crippled the club and there was no appetite to begin the cycle again, no matter how good Finucane might be.

The Tigers also quietly dropped off Pangai after running a couple of character checks on him, which uncovered the same reasons the Broncos were happy to release Pangai immediately but declined Melbourne’s request to release Xavier Coates immediately.

What is being refused to be recognised at Wests is the job the club is doing in regard to the salary cap, and finally getting in order, but also the drive to develop elite junior pathways which has for too long been ignored.

Recruitment is essential at every club, and all the very best clubs realise it.

Without good young players coming through clubs are forced to always go to market, and invariably must pay overs to recruit outside talent.

Wests have done this for far too long.

Development allows clubs to grow from within, and always offers several good years where young players are cheap at the price.

The Tigers dropped off their development many years ago when the club suffered a critical lack of nerve and the coaches, and here it probably began in the final years of Tim Sheens’ tenure, saw no choice but to coach for the immediate future to guarantee their job security.

So they kept going for the sugar hits, the quick fixes, and it came at the cost of long-term development.

All the good clubs realise now the benefit of strong, and honest, junior programs.

Penrith has long been regarded as the junior template, but it took five or six frustrating years to get this current squad in the shape it is in now, which can win a premiership.

Manly has got its pathways in order in recent years and is showing the benefits this season. The Sea Eagles were widely criticised when they scouted wide, recruiting Blacktown as its feeder club, but the emergence of a stack of young stars this season has shown the intelligence in that decision.

The Roosters often get criticised for failing to develop their own but this is an old stereotype, the Roosters having long taken over the Central Coast juniors and poured plenty of effort into them.

Their success came on the back of Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, Latrell Mitchell, and many others, which continues today, being contracted at young ages so they could be coached in the Roosters way of football, through the important years of their development.

Then, when it was time for the icing, the Roosters signed James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk to finish off their list.

Melbourne began with a similar model all the way back in Craig Bellamy’s early years and now reap the annual benefits of maintaining discipline and control of their cap.

So much the Storm were comfortable to offer Finucane under market price, which was really more a symbolic gesture more than a genuine attempt to retain him, because the club was in control of its salary cap and already has somebody trained to replace him.

This has long been the Storm way, comfortable losing one at the top because they already have identified the next young one coming through.

Cameron Smith goes out, Harry Grant is ready to step in. Billy Slater retires, Ryan Papenhuyzen steps in.

It is the natural order until clubs bend their salary cap out of shape.

It is a lesson the Tigers are also finally disciplining themselves to adhere to, despite the outside noise.

Already rivals have recognised the early shoots of development, which will only strengthen now the Tigers are exercising discipline, which will be stronger again next year.

The way forward is north.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

WT players look so unmotivated that I'm really looking forward to Hastings coming in and barking orders at everyone. My only hope is that him and Doeuihi get along like a house on fire and bark the orders together

Hastings and Doogie will compete against each other. They will intimidate each other and lift.

 

[Melbourne Tiger]

Paul Kent: Wests Tigers’ rebuild taking shape, if club holds its nerve over Michael Maguire

The ammunition against Michael Maguire is overly simplistic, but effective.

It seems to be a campaign driven by out-of-work coaches and their future assistants happy to aggravate the job market.

Little attention is paid to what Maguire is doing to clean up the problem at Wests Tigers, which was always the business someone was going to have to do eventually and which was always going to come with some skin lost, no matter who it was.

And it had to come at some point.

For too long the coaches at Wests spent their salary cap with wild indifference to the problems they were creating; namely, caps can be stretched only so much before they burst.

Too many treated the cap like a Ponzi scheme. Buy now, leave the consequence for whomever comes next.

It happened in the interest of short-term job security.

Maguire arrived in town for the long haul, knowing the problems he was inheriting but, still, as he goes about his business out-of-work coaches and their future assistants, at the cost of a phone call, continue to agitate for change.

The subtext goes that only they can fix the problem, without full disclosure that Maguire has finally turned the club in the right direction.

The problem for too long was that the Tigers’ management was unsure itself what success looked like so, unwittingly, they listened to outside voices, wondering if there was a better way.

So they continued to treat the symptom, not the cause.

The knock on Maguire came again over the weekend.

Dale Finucane signed with Cronulla after the Tigers came in with an 11th hour offer Friday. It was portrayed in some quarters that Finucane knocked back the Tigers to sign with Cronulla because he did not want to play under Maguire at the Tigers.

This happened after Tevita Pangai signed with Canterbury last week despite a bigger offer from the Tigers because, it went again, Pangai did not want to play under Maguire.

If only it were that simple.

There was no four-year deal to the Tigers for Finucane.

The Tigers offered a two-year deal with the third season in their favour.

Their reasoning was simple. The Tigers were only just coming out of a cycle where long-term deals, all well above market value, crippled the club and there was no appetite to begin the cycle again, no matter how good Finucane might be.

The Tigers also quietly dropped off Pangai after running a couple of character checks on him, which uncovered the same reasons the Broncos were happy to release Pangai immediately but declined Melbourne’s request to release Xavier Coates immediately.

What is being refused to be recognised at Wests is the job the club is doing in regard to the salary cap, and finally getting in order, but also the drive to develop elite junior pathways which has for too long been ignored.

Recruitment is essential at every club, and all the very best clubs realise it.

Without good young players coming through clubs are forced to always go to market, and invariably must pay overs to recruit outside talent.

Wests have done this for far too long.

Development allows clubs to grow from within, and always offers several good years where young players are cheap at the price.

The Tigers dropped off their development many years ago when the club suffered a critical lack of nerve and the coaches, and here it probably began in the final years of Tim Sheens’ tenure, saw no choice but to coach for the immediate future to guarantee their job security.

So they kept going for the sugar hits, the quick fixes, and it came at the cost of long-term development.

All the good clubs realise now the benefit of strong, and honest, junior programs.

Penrith has long been regarded as the junior template, but it took five or six frustrating years to get this current squad in the shape it is in now, which can win a premiership.

Manly has got its pathways in order in recent years and is showing the benefits this season. The Sea Eagles were widely criticised when they scouted wide, recruiting Blacktown as its feeder club, but the emergence of a stack of young stars this season has shown the intelligence in that decision.

The Roosters often get criticised for failing to develop their own but this is an old stereotype, the Roosters having long taken over the Central Coast juniors and poured plenty of effort into them.

Their success came on the back of Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, Latrell Mitchell, and many others, which continues today, being contracted at young ages so they could be coached in the Roosters way of football, through the important years of their development.

Then, when it was time for the icing, the Roosters signed James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk to finish off their list.

Melbourne began with a similar model all the way back in Craig Bellamy’s early years and now reap the annual benefits of maintaining discipline and control of their cap.

So much the Storm were comfortable to offer Finucane under market price, which was really more a symbolic gesture more than a genuine attempt to retain him, because the club was in control of its salary cap and already has somebody trained to replace him.

This has long been the Storm way, comfortable losing one at the top because they already have identified the next young one coming through.

Cameron Smith goes out, Harry Grant is ready to step in. Billy Slater retires, Ryan Papenhuyzen steps in.

It is the natural order until clubs bend their salary cap out of shape.

It is a lesson the Tigers are also finally disciplining themselves to adhere to, despite the outside noise.

Already rivals have recognised the early shoots of development, which will only strengthen now the Tigers are exercising discipline, which will be stronger again next year.

The way forward is north.

Something remotely encouraging… never thought I’d live long enough

 

[Ron's_Mate]

Sheens takes on a Gould-like role at Tigers as club looks for big-name recruits
By Christian Nicolussi
July 29, 2021 — 6.00pm

Wests Tigers premiership-winning coach Tim Sheens has been rushed in to start work on recruitment and retention and looms as the club’s trump card in attempting to land big-name signings.

On the same day coach Michael Maguire shot down any interest in Canberra centre Curtis Scott, Tigers officials revealed Sheens, who is still stranded in England, had already been used as a sounding board for future targets.

The man who delivered the club’s only title was signed in June to oversee the Tigers’ pathways and junior development at the joint-venture club.

But the 70-year-old has already had his role beefed up to include a Phil Gould-style recruiting component for the Tigers’ NRL program, after the club recently came under fire for failing to sign several marquee targets, including Dale Finucane and Tevita Pangai jnr.

The club maintain they got it right by only offering Finucane a two-year deal with a third-year option in their favour for around $600,000 a season – he signed with Cronulla for four years – while they only returned to the negotiating table late with Pangai because they had enough belief their club culture would help the back-rower thrive. Pangai opted for the Bulldogs.

Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe told the Herald the club would not pay overs or “panic buy”, and had already made shrewd long-term signings with the likes of Daine Laurie, Shawn Blore, Stefano Utoikamanu and Luciano Leilua.

Pascoe said the Sheens impact could be likened to that of Gould at Canterbury, and despite being out of the NRL a decade, Sheens still had “gravitas”.

“We’ve already spoken to Tim about future signings and he has shared his thoughts and knowledge with us,” Pascoe said.

“He has a keen eye for talent identification and he will certainly assist ‘Madge’ [Michael Maguire] and [football manager] Adam [Hartigan].

“Having been still based over in the UK, he has a lot of connections over there and knows who has been performing well, so he can also give us a leg up with those local players.

“But he has kept a close eye on the NRL, has a lot of respect in the game and he knows what success looks like. He has the Wests Tigers blood in him.”

Pascoe said there were no plans for Sheens to succeed Maguire as head coach, and despite the “outside noise” there were no concerns about Maguire’s future.

A win over the New Zealand Warriors on Friday night will keep the club well and truly in the finals race.

“Madge is a big part of our club and the direction we’re heading, and while we’re not happy with some of the results on the field, we still have six weeks to prove what we believe we can do on the field,” Pascoe said.

“I’m sometimes amazed at some of the talk out there. There was talk at the start of the week about Shane Flanagan, but there has been no talk with Shane Flanagan. Michael Maguire is our head coach. He will remain our head coach.”

As for playmaker Luke Brooks and his future beyond this season – there were suggestions Brooks and Moses Mbye were offered to Canberra as part of a bizarre swap deal with Jack Wighton and Josh Hodgson – Pascoe said he wanted to show how committed the club were to the local junior, they wanted to extend his deal further.

“Luke has been a West Tiger all his life, he’s loyal and an honest kid, and we have the utmost respect in Luke,” Pascoe said. “We’ve told him that, we’ve told his management that, he has two more years, but the expectations are Luke will be here a lot longer than that.”

Pascoe has often pointed to the stability in the Tigers’ front office, and said while fans were only concerned about on-field results, the financial success allowed them to pour money into the football department and respected judges like Sheens.

Off-contract centre James Roberts was allowed remain in Queensland this week, despite breaching a balcony directive from the Queensland Government, and Pascoe said there were no plans for him to return home early, and he was keen and appreciative to be given the chance to unite with his teammates.

Sheens takes on a Gould-like role at Tigers as club looks for big-name recruits

Sheens can have a Phil Gould-like affect at the Wests Tigers as he quickly starts work on recruitment and retention at the joint venture.

www.smh.com.au

 

[gordsy]

So what does Hartigan do that Sheens doesn't and vice versa ?

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

So what does Hartigan do that Sheens doesn't and vice versa ?

Final say on recruitment and other duties.

Sheens will no doubt wield a lot of influence though.

 

[Fordy20]

God I hope not.

Sheens gave us three years of no finals appearances because of his stubborn refusal to play a genuine halfback after Prince signed elsewhere. He also forced out Hodgson and refused to play a genuine fullback until Tedesco started. Instead of fixing the issues with the spine, he gutted out forward pack by signing Adam Blair which started an exodus of players to the Sharks. He tore the club apart, going through 3 CEOs and was too arrogant to see that he was past it and took legal action rather than taking a coaching director role. He also signed a washed up Braith Anasta as a parting gift.

Sheens may have been in charge when we won the premiership, but if it was anything more than incidental, we would have seen much better results in the ten years after that.

 

[macnaz]

Great post Fordy

 

[stryker]

Hastings and Doogie will compete against each other. They will intimidate each other and lift.

Battle of the Titans.
I suppose the only way is up for both of them