The Tigers have a brand new look in 2023. But just some weeks into the season, the league’s perennial punching bag finds itself in an all-too acquainted state of affairs.
The foundations of a robust staff are there however the backbone, exterior of premiership-winning hooker Apisai Koroisau, stays a query mark — regardless of modifications elsewhere.
Of course, the competitors is simply three weeks previous and combos take time to construct.
But Tim Sheens has clearly already seen sufficient to know that the Adam Doueihi and Luke Brooks partnership will not be working, shifting the previous to fullback and selling Brandon Wakeham.
What makes the overhaul significantly fascinating, each within the short-term and into the longer term, is the way it intersects with the membership’s roster state of affairs past this yr.
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Brooks and Wakeham are off-contract on the finish of this season, as are the staff’s two fullbacks — Charlie Staines and Daine Laurie. Doueihi, in the meantime, prolonged his keep on the Tigers till the tip of the 2024 season final month.
Put merely, even when this season finally ends up being a write-off, if anything it must be a yr for evaluating the most effective choices to construct round Koroisau and a star-studded ahead pack.
After all, the Tigers could also be but to win a sport this yr however getting ready to attain hasn’t been the issue — they rank third within the league for common run metres (1453) and second for tackles contained in the opposition 20 per sport (37).
Capitalising on that possession although has been, with the membership’s purple zone ratio (one attempt each 37.0 play-the-balls) ranking the worst within the competitors. A whole lot of that comes again to the halves.
And in line with The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio, if this present instalment of the Tigers doesn’t make ample enhancements this yr, it received’t be the teaching employees moved on.
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“We’ve been going down this discussion of what happens if Tim Sheens doesn’t work, what happens if the Benji situation doesn’t work? I believe the Tigers have hitched their wagon to the entire coaching structure,” he stated on Fox League’s ‘NRL 360’ on Wednesday night time.
“They’ve taken their fans on a journey that this is where they’re going in the next four to five years. It won’t be the coaches who are squared up and moved on again, I believe it will be the playing roster that will be given a shake-up and it will be Luke Brooks who will be moved on before any of the coaches are.
“Ultimately they’ll use the cap money to try wheel in another big-money signing to get the results that way [if they don’t improve this season].”
What course they may go in at this level stays unknown, nevertheless it appears unlikely all 5 of Doueihi, Brooks, Wakeham, Staines and Laurie will nonetheless be on the membership subsequent yr.
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Doueihi is already beneath contract in 2024 and has the management qualities to be an asset for the Tigers no matter the place he performs.
Defence although stays a priority for the 24-year-old and his decision-making in that regard might be examined at fullback, the place Doueihi must organise the Tigers’ line of defense.
A transfer to the centres, the place Doueihi has performed earlier than, has additionally been touted and will work in an attacking sense given he’s a robust ball-playing runner who additionally possesses a brief kicking sport.
But once more, the defence is the larger query mark and being moved out and in of various positions would solely work towards Doueihi’s improvement in that respect.
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As for Brooks, he’s the probably to depart, with experiences of Super League curiosity within the former Dally M Halfback of the Year.
That Dally M honour again in 2018 is usually introduced up in arguments towards shifting on from Brooks, though that was nearly 5 years in the past now.
And whereas Brooks might have had the No.7 jumper on his again at that time, he was enjoying alongside the far more skilled Benji Marshall too.
In different phrases, he didn’t have to fret about controlling the staff. Brooks confirmed flashes within the latter phases of final week’s sport towards the Bulldogs however these flashes regarded extra like that of a operating five-eighth than an organising halfback.
Brooks has been the one fixed on the Tigers over the previous decade, with 15 completely different halves companions since his debut in 2013 — and simply two have performed greater than 20 video games alongside him.
That says one among two issues. Either Brooks hasn’t been given the time to develop combos and has struggled consequently or, in all probability extra precisely, he was a part of the issue and that the Tigers are overdue a recent begin.
Andrew Voss accused the Tigers of hitting the “panic button” in deciding on Wakeham this week and there’s little doubting he in all probability isn’t the long-term reply.
Wakeham has simply three wins from 18 begins within the halves in his NRL profession and struggled for a similar consistency the Tigers are craving proper now throughout his time on the Bulldogs.
But Wakeham can nonetheless be a part of the answer with out being it solely. Plus — Doueihi and Brooks clearly aren’t working, so why not attempt one thing completely different?
Sheens advised reporters final week that the membership would begin to sit down with all its off-contract gamers in its first bye, which is just some weeks away in spherical seven.
That offers Sheens and the remainder of the Tigers teaching employees slightly below a month to see what they’ve in Wakeham, who’s a type of off-contract gamers.
As premiership-winning hooker Cameron Smith identified earlier this week on SEN 1170, any resolution the Tigers make on their future backbone has to swimsuit Koroisau’s enjoying type.
Koroisau’s guile made him one of many league’s premier hookers at Penrith however he additionally benefited from having halves in Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai who understood his sport.
At the Tigers although, there may be “no connection between Api and his halves” in line with Greg Alexander.
“That’s missing,” he stated on SEN 1170 this week.
“We all know he’s a very crafty No. 9 but you’ve also got to have a connection with your halves as well,” added Smith.
“When they [the halves] are playing good football and are confident and actually present a threat to the opposition, then that allows yourself as a dummy-half to then see opportunities. “You talk about Api’s ability, we know he’s a great player, but in the sides he’s played in for most of his career he’s had threats around him… whereas at the moment he’s just trying to do everything to lift this team.”
Koroisau himself admitted as a lot after the latest loss to the Bulldogs, talking to simply how far the staff has to go in constructing these essential combos.
“I think they haven’t too much front-foot footy in the last few years and I have spoken to them about it,” he stated.
“It takes a lot of getting used to, it’s a reaction thing — understanding the ruck and if it’s quick. The second half they got a lot better… it’s just something that we can work on at training and fix up there.”
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There is lots for the complete staff to work on at coaching too, in line with Matty Johns and Cooper Cronk.
While the Tigers undoubtedly have to choose a long-term reply within the halves, the backline as an entire remains to be removed from polished on each side of the ball.
That was evident to each Johns and Cronk on the weekend when the Tigers went down their proper edge in prime attacking area place, just for Doueihi to have his cross intercepted by Paul Alamoti.
“Looking at Tim Sheens-coached sides, one thing they are is very synchronised,” Johns stated on ‘The Matty Johns Podcast’, which airs on Tuesday nights on Fox League at 7.30pm.
“They get everything right. But they looked completely out of sync. I think the best example was in the first half was the intercept try in which Josh Addo-Carr eventually scored.
“When you watch the head-on from that, you see Doueihi go up to his target defender [Alamoti] and he’s willing his ballrunner to run into the tight gap.
“He’s produced a sort of half-space and just lofts the ball and his ballrunner has gone for the far gap. Just total miscommunication and misunderstanding. That is a really basic fundamental between a playmaker and a ballrunner.
“Nothing undermines a playmaker’s confidence then calling plays and getting there and their ballrunners aren’t there or they’re even half-a-step late. That’s what lends itself to often times ballplayers playing too sideways.”
Cronk, in the meantime, stated there have been loads of examples he might have pointed to from Sunday’s sport towards the Bulldogs that spoke to the disconnect in assault on the perimeters.
He even steered the Tigers might do with having a frank dialog just like the one Jarome Luai and Jaeman Salmon shared after Penrith’s spherical one loss to Brisbane.
“With the Tigers’ attack right now, I could show 10 bits of vision and I could say this person is out of position, this person is out of position,” Cronk stated.
“And no wonder the ballplayer is like, ‘Whoa, where are you? What is happening?’, because he doesn’t feel like they are there. It just comes back to accountability.
“The halves get the blame for that too. But you know when we saw Luai and Salmon having that conversation after the game, I would love to see the Tigers have that conversation.”
And maybe the Tigers have already had these conversations. After all, Sheens refused to publicly talk about the thought course of behind bringing Wakeham on within the first place.
It looks like he would like to maintain these sort of discussions behind closed doorways and truthful sufficient.
But if nothing improves, he also can anticipate these inquiries to hold coming — and that extends to these about the way forward for his halves and backbone as an entire.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au