Wests Tigers 2023 season, the set of six: a new coach, sluggish decisions, and a breakout rookie
Even the Tigers’ low expectations were not reached in 2023.
It’s fair to say that the Wests Tigers’ 2023 season fell far short of expectations.
The Tigers were simply too sluggish to make the right decisions in a 2023 season that was doomed from the start.
Under new (and now-departed) coach Tim Sheens, the club was a disaster in more ways than one, both on and off the field, in a year that began sluggish before collapsing flat on its back.
After receiving their second consecutive wooden spoon and yet another season without a final, fans will be hoping for better things in 2024, but before they can move forward, they must first look back and understand what went wrong.
In this series, Zero Tackle will go through each team’s (in reverse ladder order) 2023 season, highlighting all of the major talking points and looking ahead to 2024 to see what can be carried through.
The Tim Sheens experiment and a harrowing beginning that should have destroyed it
Tim Sheens was never going to fit in.
It should have been obvious previous to his employment, but for some reason, the Tigers front office never noticed the issues.
Sheens struggled in England before returning to the Tigers, and when a director of football can finally appoint himself as after directing the interview process for the post, something is seriously wrong.
In principle, the concept of Benji Marshall learning for a couple of years before taking over seemed appealing, but in actuality, it wasn’t a viable option.
If there wasn’t enough proof previous to the season, Sheens’ first appearance for the Tigers should have been enough to show that a quick judgment on Sheens was required.
With losses to the Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights, Canterbury Bulldogs, Melbourne Storm, Brisbane Broncos, Parramatta Eels, and Manly Sea Eagles before they were able to pull the trousers down of the Penrith Panthers, the season was effectively gone before it began… But more on that later.
Speaking of the Tigers’ tardy decision-making, the Luke Brooks situation, which has dragged on well into 2023, is another choice that should have been made before a ball was kicked.
It was clear to everyone that Brooks needed to change clubs. The Tigers needed a heart change. The player-club relationship had reached a breaking point long before this year.
Brooks has been written about extensively, but he has been the Tigers’ most important player over the last decade, during a stretch that has seen them miss the playoffs twice and, more recently, end up with a pair of wooden spoons.
Brooks needed to leave the club if he was to reach his full potential.
It’s a bit ludicrous that it took an ultimatum for Brooks to resign within a certain time frame to sever the relationship between the veteran half and the joint venture.
Brooks’ legacy with the Tigers will not go down in history, at least not for the right reasons, but there were instances in the last year when he appeared to be turning a corner. What he can achieve with Daly Cherry-Evans at the Sea Eagles in 2024 may enrage Tigers fans.
Jahream Bula and the momentum shuffle
While the season looked completely extinguished early on for the Tigers, a rally came on the back of their win over the Panthers in Bathurst.
The Round 8 performance was their best in years. Gritty. Determined. Words that haven’t really been used in recent years when discussing the joint-venture.
The emergence of Jahream Bula was also on show in that game, and it saw the Tigers, for a brief moment, flip the script. They turned up to Magic Round and beat the St George Illawarra Dragons in a game which likely all but sealed the fate of Anthony Griffin.
Finally, the Tigers looked like they were on the right track, and, after a loss to the Rabbitohs, they ran up 66 points at home against the North Queensland Cowboys in what was their best performance in all seriousness since the 2009 preliminary final season.
But then, they had a bye, and the momentum disappeared. They’d lose three in a row before a hammering at the hands of the Cowboys, and their season went up in smoke, to the point it looked as if care wasn’t really on the menu in a final round loss to Manly.
Signing flops and a 74-0 blowout
The Tigers were exceptionally busy in the player market heading into the 2023 season, but in hindsight, busy didn’t neccessarily equal good.
Sure, they signed John Bateman. And sure, they signed Apisai Koroisau. David Klemmer was another player in the mould they desperately needed, while Isaiah Papali’i’s form at the Eels in 2022 said enough to suggest he could have been the buy of the season in 2023.
But the quartet of signings, while harsh, didn’t succeed.
A lot of that was made to look worse than it was though by the complete ineptitude of the Tigers spine to put points on the board or capitalise when pressure was there.
Time and time again, the Tigers looked like passengers in their own game when it came to putting points on the board in the red zone, and while the forwards can help, they aren’t going to solve all the problems.
Adam Doueihi’s injury – and others – didn’t help, but the Tigers need to find a way to score points in 2024 if they are going anywhere.
Attack is one side of the coin, but the other is attitude, and as highlighted, the hammering at the hands of the Cowboys was the worst of the lot.
Coming off their big win over the Tigers, they leaked a staggering 74 points to North Queensland. If their season wasn’t over prior to that, it sure was after it.
What to do with Adam Doueihi?
In all likelihood, this will be a talking point that will stick with the Tigers through the pre-season, and into the first half of next season until star five-eighth Adam Doueihi is finally back on his feet and at full fitness.
Yet another ACL injury cut his 2023 season short, just when he was starting to look like a player who might have been able to make a play in shifting the Tigers’ fortunes.
Instead, he missed the remainder of the season and will be lucky to take any part in the first half of the 2024 season. If he has half of next season on the park, then it could well be a best case result for the joint-venture.
That said, you can’t have your best player consistently watching on from the sidelines, as Doueihi has done for the most part in the last two seasons. He has played just 17 games since the start of 2022.
The Tigers can’t afford to move Doueihi, but he also is beginning to look like a player you simply can’t build your club around.
A tricky time ahead for Benji Marshall and his recruitment staff.
What can Benji Marshall take into 2024?
Speaking of Benji Marshall, and he will take over the toughest coaching seat in the competition at the start of the 2024 campaign.
While it all looks doom and gloom for the Tigers, there is enough to take forward if he can implement a new coaching style and modernise the joint-venture.
They have enough talent to make it work.
Apisai Koroisau hardly had a strong first season at the Tigers and yet was still their most important player, while the emergence of Bula, as discussed, is enormous.
The Fainu brothers signing across from the Sea Eagles will be a boost at the Tigers for years to come, while there is enough in their juniors to suggest the fact they are wanting to position as a ‘development club’ using their facilities at Concord isn’t just pie in the sky stuff.
We have already seen the emergence of the likes of Justin Matamua, and there are others who will follow this year.
That is what Benji Marshall must work with. There is little doubt the Tigers will miss the eight again in 2024, but it’s a chance to write the beginning of a new chapter.
It must be.
2023 must be the final chapter in the current tales of Tiger Town.
