It’s been a nightmare begin to the week for the Tigers with issues raised across the membership’s signing of Tim Sheens and whether or not they did their “due diligence” on the 72-year-old.
In addition to that, dropped winger Daine Laurie has been caught ‘liking’ a video on social media of Broncos flyer Selwyn Cobbo scoring a attempt in throughout the Tigers 46-12 loss on Saturday evening – a consequence which drops them to 0-5 to start out the season.
With no indicators of enchancment throughout the park, it’s straightforward to see why questions are being raised, and Sheens and his gamers are within the firing line.
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Veteran journalist Buzz Rothfield labelled the Tigers “a mess” on The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday and questioned the signing of Sheens.
“They (Tigers) were blown off the park on Saturday and the draw doesn’t get any easier. I don’t know where they are heading,” Rothfield mentioned.
“The club’s a mess at the moment. It’s a real mess.
“I’m not sure the Wests Tigers did their due diligence and looked at the facts regarding Tim Sheens.
“In England, prior to him coming home to Australia, he had been dropped from a couple of clubs over there (Hull Kingston Rovers, Widnes Vikings), one of which was a second division club (Vikings).”
“It’s just not working out.”
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Sheens has gained 4 premierships within the NRL, together with his most up-to-date coming in 2005 when head coach of the Tigers throughout his first stint there between 2003-2012.
After a couple of years off after which in England, the Tigers employed him to educate the membership for 2 seasons in 2023 and 2024 with a succession plan in place for Benji Marshall to take the reigns in 2025.
Rothfield went on to say that he doesn’t imagine the Tigers ought to “abandon” the teaching set-up after simply 5 weeks with the gamers to shoulder some accountability for the way the season has unfolded.
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“They are playing like a confused football team and there aren’t too many chefs in the kitchen it seems.”
Big Sports Breakfast co-host and Raiders legend Laurie Daley (who gained premierships beneath Sheens) agreed with Rothfield, pointing to various “dumb and ill-disciplined” errors of late which show they aren’t even shut.
“The players need to take a long hard look at themselves,” Daley mentioned.
“Some of them are trying as individuals but they just aren’t coming together as a team.
“In the last two weeks, they’ve lost a scrum against the field and been penalised for being offside on the kick-off.
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“If they can’t sort of stuff out, how can you sort the rest of it out?”
The adjustments the Tigers have made to their participant roster for the reason that arrival of Sheens has additionally raised some eyebrows.
NRL legend Gorden Tallis believes the membership’s choice to commerce away Jackson Hastings to the Knights for David Klemmer was puzzling.
“Based on the footy that I watch, I think Jackson Hastings can play football,” Tallis mentioned on Triple M.
“He was there and then all of the sudden, he’s not good enough for them (Tigers).”
James Hooper went on to shed some gentle on why Hastings was despatched packing, telling Triple M that the Tigers “didn’t view Hastings as a halfback.”
“For whatever reason, once Tim Sheens, Benji and Robbie (Farah) arrived, they decided they didn’t want Hastings to be their halfback anymore and wanted him to move to lock forward,” Hooper defined.
“And now look at the improvement of Newcastle since Hastings has arrived there.”
Rugby League greats Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler additionally joined in on the refrain of criticism directed on the Tigers however mentioned the blamed mustn’t simply relaxation with the coaches.
Johns believes the Tigers ‘gave up’ in opposition to the Broncos.
“The Broncos were running around with fear on Saturday night and to me it looked as if the Tigers just gave up,” Johns mentioned.
“For whatever reason, the combinations just are not working.
“I don’t know who to put the finger at. The easy one to point the finger at is the coaches but you look at Tim Sheens and his record over the years…he knows the game better than anyone.
“So I wouldn’t be blaming the coaches.”
Fittler added, “On both sides of the court, they are failing.”
“Defensively they can’t keep up with teams and when they get down to the other end they can’t execute or put pressure on teams.
“The can’t execute, they haven’t got the fitness or the discipline to put pressure on their opponents.”
The Tigers will subsequent face the Eels in Round 6 at CommBank Stadium and will likely be hoping historical past repeats itself.
It was within the corresponding Easter Monday fixture final yr that the Tigers bought off the mark in 2022 with a nailbiting 21-20 win in opposition to the Eels.
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Source: www.foxsports.com.au