NRL Wests Tigers

If Benji could somehow make the eight with this lot next year - considering the near-historic ineptitude and division of the club - would that be a more or less impressive achievement than when he steered the Tigers to a title?
 

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LOL, yeah maybe not as impressive as that title. But it would be a miracle for this mob to make the eight.
Rookie coach, 3 spoons on the bounce, bunch of players in the headlines (before the seasons even started!) for failing fitness, their starting back rower is a miracle to play there next season, best young player wanted to leave last year, 3 players they can’t give away, other than Luai and Turuva, their ‘star’ recruits all are questionable whether they’re even better than the players they’re replacing.
Tigers gonna Tiger
 

'Very worried': Future of Wests Tigers under cloud​

Story by WWOS staff

An alleged board level movement to reinstate the Western Suburbs Magpies has emerged at the Wests Tigers, a director of the club's majority owner has warned.

A text message sent by former Holman Barnes Group, the Tigers majority owner, chairman Tony Andreacchio expressed concerns over the "misguided ambition" of the organisation in charge of the club.

Andreacchio is one of three board members currently suspended from duties and is expected to be removed as early as this weekend following a disciplinary hearing on over alleged misconduct.

When contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald, Andreacchio declined to comment on the matters cited in his messages but did admit his fears over the future of the Wests Tigers.

"I'm not going to comment on a very private text message," Andreachio told the Sydney Morning Herald.

West Tigers Players take a break.


"All I will say is that my only concern is the best interests of the Wests Tigers.

"Some on the board couldn't cope with losing their blazers as part of the review. If I was a passionate Wests Tigers fan, of which I am, I would be very worried about the future of the merger."

A source speaking with the Sydney Morning Herald on the condition of anonymity confirmed that a high-ranking Tigers official had approached ARLC chairman Peter V'Landys with similar concerns.

The allegations raised with V'landys included a claim that HBG director Dennis Burgess has told Balmain chairman Danny Stapleton "we're bringing back the Wests Magpies" while at a game this season.
 
I know the Western Suburbs side is doing better than the Balmain side financially. But they were struggling to compete compete in the 90s. It would be a lot harder now.

Sure, the NRL now provides a grant which covers the cap and helps to make running an NRL club easier. It would still be a massive change to their finances having to fund an NRL club.

I know the Tigers brand isn't great right now due to results. But the Wests Tigers have been around for 25+ years. Not sure it will be easy to convince the ARLC to ditch them to bring back the Magpies.

A shame we didn't get the tough decisions/talk we were hearing before the ARLC was formed. Strategically look at the number of Sydney clubs. Make the Magpies bid like the other potential new teams and see if their bid stacks up.
 
snake77 said:
I know the Western Suburbs side is doing better than the Balmain side financially. But they were struggling to compete compete in the 90s. It would be a lot harder now.

Sure, the NRL now provides a grant which covers the cap and helps to make running an NRL club easier. It would still be a massive change to their finances having to fund an NRL club.

I know the Tigers brand isn't great right now due to results. But the Wests Tigers have been around for 25+ years. Not sure it will be easy to convince the ARLC to ditch them to bring back the Magpies.

A shame we didn't get the tough decisions/talk we were hearing before the ARLC was formed. Strategically look at the number of Sydney clubs. Make the Magpies bid like the other potential new teams and see if their bid stacks up.
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It’s basically a repeat of what happened with the Northern Eagles when Manly Shafted Norths.
However, in modern terms it does make more sense for Magpies to essentially go it alone. The 2 parent clubs are divided both adminwise and geographically- it’s 50km between Balmain and Campbelltown.
Campbelltown and the MacArthur region is a very fast growing area of Sydney, it’s also where the majority of the clubs juniors are based.
Inner west in comparison is surrounded by 4 other NRL clubs and has nowhere to grow. The demographics have significantly changed away from those that play league and realistically the insistence on things like playing at Liechardt mean the Tigers side really are holding the club back
 
One of the curious things is where Balmain's juniors would go if the Magpies took over their NRL license... I'm no Roosters fan, but the smart option would see Balmain juniors align with the Roosters. This would give the NRL teams in a unified junior competition that spans Sydney city and help the Roosters to avoid the "no junior teams/competitions" arguments. Some of the age-grade competitions over here in Sydney traverse Roosters, Norths, Manly and Tigers territory (and sometimes further afield) in any event, with Souths, Parra, Penrith, Bulldogs, etc. having fairly strong competitions of their own. Roosters would also be a better fit than with Norths (even though there is a lot of crossover in the junior comps), as I suspect Balmain probably wouldn't want to be part of any Bears / Norths bid.
 
Of the two clubs, the Western Suburbs Magpies were always the basket case of the two in the years I watched them. Even if they did have Tommy Raudonikis as coach (12th Man parodied him as "if the players want a smoke, I'll give 'em a smoke. If they want a root I'll give 'em a root...")

It's honestly quite hard to understand how the hell they can miss the Finals for the last 14 seasons. Okay, they've never really looked nailed on GF Winners or Makers, but often they've had team lists that have you going "Maybe not Top 4, but surely good enough for Top 8." But nope...
 
mrblonde said:
Of the two clubs, the Western Suburbs Magpies were always the basket case of the two in the years I watched them. Even if they did have Tommy Raudonikis as coach (12th Man parodied him as "if the players want a smoke, I'll give 'em a smoke. If they want a root I'll give 'em a root...")

It's honestly quite hard to understand how the hell they can miss the Finals for the last 14 seasons. Okay, they've never really looked nailed on GF Winners or Makers, but often they've had team lists that have you going "Maybe not Top 4, but surely good enough for Top 8." But nope...
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Yeah seems funny to talk about Western Suburbs as the partner that has it all together. In my era of Watching(early 90s on) Wests Magpies were possibly one of the worst teams I’ve seen whereas Balmain were generally mid table/lower 8 team but things change- south’s and cowboys are prime examples of turning their fortunes around from awful to regular contenders.
It is a shame about the tigers though unfortunately losing becomes a habit and they have struggled to break that cycle, will never forget they were the only team to stump up and move their home game post covid
 
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