Tigers enforcer David Klemmer reveals what he said to ex-teammate Jackson Hastings in fiery clash

David Klemmer claims his role in a post-match argument with Jackson Hastings has been exaggerated, with Wests Tigers players insisting their NRL season is not in dire straits.

The Tigers’ frustrations over their winless start boiled over after Sunday’s siren, when center Tommy Talau took offense when former teammate Hastings apologized for a high shot that broke his nose.

Talau shoved Hastings after the Newcastle half closed in on him, before a security guard intervened and Klemmer gave his rival a verbal reprimand.

“There wasn’t much to it,” Klemmer said Tuesday.

‘I could see that Tommy didn’t want to talk about it and some argy-bargy thing happened. I walked over and said, “Leave him, he doesn’t want to talk to you.”

‘That was it. The next thing there was a security guard and everyone was jumping. Then he started talking bad. It wasn’t like it was a melee… Then the security guard came. It was a bad scene.”

Klemmer insisted Wednesday that there was nothing personal in the matter after his club’s trade with Hastings during the offseason, and that he had done nothing wrong.

“I don’t know the guy,” he said.

‘It’s just one of those things, I was taking care of my partner and my partner didn’t want to come out and talk.

So I just stepped in and hung up. It wasn’t anything too bad.

Asked if he thought the incident required him to intervene or was confrontational enough, Klemmer insisted he was right.

“The security guard intervened. I just passed,” said the prop man.

It was quite harmless. It might have looked different, but there was nothing on it.

The affair summed up the Tigers’ unfortunate start to the season, with two losses at Leichhardt Oval and Sunday’s to a badly depleted Knights.

Fullback Daine Laurie, second row Isaiah Papali’i and bench hooker Jake Simpkin joined Talau in missing this weekend against Canterbury in Belmore.

Five-eighth star Adam Doueihi also has an injury problem, after missing the end of training on Wednesday with a bruised foot.

The Tigers look a long way from the team whose attack gave fans genuine hope in the final week of testing at Belmore three and a half weeks ago.

But they insist they can recover.

“We didn’t go too low that day and we were pretty patient with the football,” Klemmer said.

‘There were a lot of completions, our defense was pretty good.

We are not helping ourselves, we are not holding on to football. You can’t win soccer games if you drop it. It is great for us to sustain and complete it.

Jackson Hastings (No. 7) got into a tense argument with Tommy Talau after the siren sounded after the Knights beat the Tigers 14-12 at Leichhardt Oval.

The confrontation between the ex-colleagues forced a security guard to intervene

Hastings was eventually escorted away by the Knights’ football coach, Peter Parr.

Senior player Alex Twal also insisted that things weren’t as bad now as they were early last season, when the Tigers started 0-5 and manager Michael Maguire was finally fired.

‘It’s definitely not what it was last year. I can assure you,’ Twal said.

‘We have not reached the panic stations. We had a lot of new recruits, we’re still building.

‘We just have to complete. We haven’t been completing our sets.