The man behind the Wests Tigers merger that saved football clubs Balmain and Western Suburbs fears the venture is on the verge of collapse.
The Wests Tigers have become the NRL’s running joke, failing to reach a finals series in 12 years, losing a swag to elite players including James Tedesco and Josh Addo-Carr, while the club lost its second wooden spoon in two years approaches .
The Tigers’ predicament got worse this week when veteran coach Tim Sheens stepped down despite being signed for the 2024 season.
It means rookie coach and club favorite Benji Marshall will be thrust into the hottest seat in rugby league when he makes his debut next season.
It’s hard for many supporters to see where the light at the end of the tunnel will come from, including former Western Suburbs chairman Jim Marsden.
Benji Marshall and Ben Galea celebrate Wests Tigers premiership in 2005 in brighter days for the club
Benji Marshall as a premiership winning player. Marshall now has the weight of the world on his shoulders as Wests Tigers coach
Marsden forged the Wests Tigers merger from the ashes of the Super League war, along with Balmain counterpart John Chalk.
He is devastated by the current state of affairs at the club and fears that with expansion on the table at NRL HQ the Tigers could fall by the wayside.
“Coming from someone who was a founding member of the club I have serious fears of moving forward – something has to be given,” Marsden told News Corp.
“If you’re forever at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll lose your fan base.
The league (NRL) is always looking to expand and if they have to expand at the expense of another club they are more likely to do so with a club at the bottom.
“If a club has to be sacrificed for the sake of expansion, a club that is at the bottom of the ladder and losing popularity is the easiest to sacrifice.
Wests Tigers fans had plenty to cheer for in 2005 when the club achieved an unlikely premiership, but the club has done little since then.
Tim Sheens went from premiership winning coach to leaving the club for the second time 12 months before his contract expired
It would absolutely break my heart, no doubt about that, and the hearts of many, many fans as well. I don’t think it’s a real threat at the moment, but unless something is done, it could reach that level. It is a fact.’
“From my point of view, it is extremely disappointing. When you look at it now, you think, “There’s nowhere to go.” Disappointed is an understatement. You have to go up, but how do you go up?’
That’s the million dollar question for Tigers fans.
Since Sheens first left the club after the 2012 season, the Tigers have enlisted coaches Mick Potter, Jason Taylor, Ivan Cleary and Michael Maguire in their quest for change.
The club returned to Sheens with a five-year plan to get premiership winning half Benji Marshall ready for the role, but that plan is in tatters with Sheens walking out just a year after the deal.
“I’m not closely associated with the club anymore, I’m just an observer looking in from the outside, but still a Wests Tigers fan,” said Marsden, a senior partner at Marsden Law Group.
“If you have radical changes, and constant changes of coaches, it’s not good for the fans, it’s not good for the players, it’s not good for morale. It just doesn’t work.
Former Western Suburbs chairman Jim Marsden fears the club will collapse due to expansion in the NRL
“You can’t send someone from the bottom of the ladder to the top of the ladder overnight. You have to have a well-developed plan to do it and that plan has to include consistency, getting it right and sticking to it,” Marsden continued.
“I’m not here to tell anyone what to do, but you can’t let little hiccups change the plan. That plan may very well be that in three years, five years, whatever it is, you’ll be in the top eight.”
“I’m not in the boardroom and I’m not in the management room, but from my experience you have to have a plan, and that plan has to be developed well and then executed well. In other words, you have to stick to it.
“So by doing that, you start to develop a level of constancy, which I distinguish from consistency.” That ensures a better organization.’
Where to now? Even much-maligned Tigers halfback Luke Brooks (pictured right) leaves the club and signs a contract with Manly for 2024
West Tigers chief executive Justin Pascoe (left) and chairman Lee Hagipantelis bear much blame for the state of the NRL club
It comes after current Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis was reprimanded by News Corp and labeled the club’s condition as a ‘mess’.
“The assumption that we’re a mess is dead wrong,” Hagipantelis said.
“We had a five-year plan that included two years with Tim Sheens overseeing Benji Marshall’s transition. That has been accelerated.
Tim has come out and publicly admitted that Benji is ready to step up. The five-year plan has become a four-year plan in that we’ve sped up a year from where we thought we could be.
We’ve come to a good place. The conversations with Tim and his management were very professional, amicable and respectful. There’s nothing chaotic about it.’