The Ambush

[Tigerm]

I've posted this in season 21 thread as well. Appears Madge isn't going anywhere yet.

Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire backed by club
The Wests Tigers have given an iron-clad guarantee that coach Michael Maguire’s job is safe.
After a terrible performance against the Cowboys on Sunday, chairman Lee Hagipantelis directed full blame at the playing group.
“There is no change of coach on our radar whatsoever,” Hagipantelis said.
“Madge has extended for two years. I don’t think the issue at our club is the coaching.
“Your patience can be tested but that first half performance on Sunday was all about effort and attitude.”
The Wests Tigers lost 34-30 and were booed off the paddock at half-time, trailing 28-6.
“This is something no administration has got control over,” Hagipantelis said.
“Once the boys cross that line and run onto the paddock they’ve got to do their jobs.
“We can’t run onto the field and neither can Madge.
“It’s not his job to make tackles and catch the football.
“I’m sure he’ll make the appropriate enquiries into why they played so poorly.
“We’ve got some cap space and when the appropriate opportunity comes up, we’ll be looking at it.”

 

[Tigerm]

Blog with Hoops: Insipid, soulless Tigers must cut Brooks loose and target Reynolds
By James Hooper

The Wests Tigers keep telling us garbage performances aren’t representative of who the club is or what it stands for.

After the insipid and soulless opening 40 minutes at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon, it’s difficult to comprehend what that actually means.

It sounds like empty corporate drivel. Little more than public relations spin.

The club needs to cut its losses on local junior Luke Brooks and make the recruitment of South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds an immediate priority.

It’s not the little no.7’s fault it hasn’t worked out at the Wests Tigers but it’s got to the stage where both player and club look in need of a change.

Brooks has been the Tigers great playmaking hope for the past seven full seasons but after 153 NRL games without a finals appearance it’s time to move on.

It’s a sensitive issue because he’s a local junior who was a Tigers diehard growing up.

The club sat down with him as recently as last month to assure Brooks they wanted him to be the halfback who steers them into the finals.

Alternatively, trying to re-invent his career in North Queensland under his one-time under 20s coach Todd Payten appears the best option.

If ever there was a day the Wests Tigers needed to hold their hands up and show some backbone, it was on Sunday.

A sunny afternoon at Leichhardt where they were farewelling the uncompromising, champion Western Suburbs halfback Tommy Raudonikis.

The club even went to the extent of retiring the no.7 jumper as a mark of respect for the Magpies champion.

What they dished up was sadly what we’ve come to expect from an organisation mired in mediocrity.

Wests Tigers club legend Benji Marshall was talking on Triple M on Sunday where he outlined how Leichhardt Oval on a Sunday afternoon was his favourite venue to play.

Gorden Tallis chimed in and recalled how even when the Brisbane Broncos were an NRL flagship they hated playing at Leichhardt and found it hard to win.

It used to be a graveyard. These days the players are getting booed off at halftime.

Is the club devoid of soul? It looked like it on Sunday.

 

[Fordy20]

Hooper is merkin. You'd think that a literal circumcised penis in a suit and tie who makes a living off writing about football would know something about history. Leichhardt Oval is not a graveyeard. The only thing Leichhardt Oval has a been a graveyard for is my hopes and dreams of this club playing finals football. Case in point: 2016. Jason Taylor and the fab four need to win one more match at Leichhardt Oval in order to make the finals. Instead the Raiders curb stomp us 52-10. Same thing when Madge took over in 2019. We're on the cusp of finals football with only the Sharks to beat. It's an emotional farewell for Farah at Leichhardt Oval but our fullback goes down injured in the warm up only to be replaced by perennial whipping boy Paul Momirovski. We go into sheds at halftime down by two only for the Sharks to come back on and blow us off the park and just to add insult to injury, Paul Gallen of all people pots a field goal to send out Cronulla 25-8 winners.