Our coaching history has been very poor hasn't it and a huge amount of blame has to be directed at the previous CEO, chairperson and board.
They went with nostalgia hoping it would save their face.
It appears that the further away we got from those in charge of the NRL team the more success we had.
That HM side which beat the Sharks in 2022, by 42-16, contained some of the best talent in the league at that time.
Player like Luke Laulilii, Heath Mason, Tallyn Da Silva, Lachlan Galvin, and Kit Laulilii, who captained the side, just to name a few.
I wish someone could tell me whatever happened to Tajh Colquhoun because he was a gun out wide back then.
I want to point out that Pascoe was indeed the CEO of the Tigers in 2022 and the club was financially stable propped up by HBG.
Where did it go pear shaped with the coaching merry-go-round after that. WHY?
My point is, why can't coaches be developed the same way we coach our pathway lads. The pathway lads in 2022 are just making grade now, probably next year too.
What happened to the coach of that grandfinal winning side, one of my favs, Robert Mears? You have to have some coaching ability for his team to win all 10 matches.
I think he coached the following year...where is he. Why couldn't he be an assistant in the NRL and persevere with him till he's ready. Oh no, we went for an old bloke way out of his league in these latter days.
Ben Gardner who was an NRL assistant who previously held posts with the New Zealand Kiwis, South Sydney, Cronulla and North Sydney as well as the City Origin and NSW under-20s sides was given a short WR caretaker role, basically thrown under the bus like Kimmorley, then We then let Ben go to Penrith. I thought he was a gem of a coach, who spoke well and kept his emotions on the straight and narrow. He new how to coach the youngins too.
By the way back in the successful days, Wests Tigers Pathways Coaching Manager was Brett Kimmorley I'm pretty sure.
I'm not saying these guys could make awesome NRL coaches, I'm just saying we need to identify 2 or 3 coaches early and allow then 5 years or more to develop. Don't rush them, give them time.
Benji should have had a 4 year apprenticeship with us and is relying on his reputation and demeanour more than anything. I think he'll be ok but will the club allow him another 3 years of failure, if we do indeed fail.
We did try this with Brett Hodgson at Wests then he went overseas and on paper his form is poor. Now we give him another try. Time will tell I guess if Benji's 2 mates and he can right the sinking ship.
OR, should we have looked elsewhere and got a hard nosed defensive coach and an assistant coach like Justin Holebrook who was available at the time and could have been a quiet advisor in Benji's ear.
Sorry if some of my facts are a bit off but I'm just highlighting that coaches seemed to be plucked out of the board's bums or they continue to keep recycling the same old same old ones.
