Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall has torn his side to shreds following a horror 58-6 defeat to Cronulla at Pointsbet Stadium. The Tigers had shown signs of life at the start of this year, but a third wooden spoon in a row is starting to look increasingly likely as each round passes.
The joint venture club has conceded 138 points in their past three games against top-four sides and on Friday they were completely outplayed and out-hustled by a Sharks side that had lost five of its past six NRL matches and were without star halfback Nicho Hynes. Following the match the rookie boss went nuclear, calling out the players’ poor attitude as a damning stat revealed just how far behind the eight ball the club is in effort areas.
“I’ve got to apologise to our fans,” he said. “When you take the field, you’ve got to choose the right attitude, and tonight they ran harder and tackled way harder than us and it showed on the scoreboard.
“We haven’t seen that (lack of attitude) all year. If it was a weekly occurrence then I’d probably know more, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it this year. There’s no one in our team that could say they played well.”
“When you take the field, you’ve got to take the right attitude with how hard you want to tackle and how hard you want to run. They ran harder and tackled harder than us and had way more energy than us.”
Statistic exposes Wests Tigers flailing in effort areas
The Tigers went into the Sharks game as outsiders but fans were holding out hope a win could be on the cards. With Cronulla’s recent struggles, they would have been bitterly disappointed by not just the scoreline but their players’ efforts.
The Tigers’ attack was disjointed and their defence lazy and ill-disciplined as the Sharks cut them to shreds with ease. The Tigers’ backs as a whole failed to do any real heavy lifting early in the sets and the props were hardly putting their hands up to make an impact.
Incredibly with only 10 minutes to go, not a single Wests Tigers player had run for 100m. By that stage in the game, the Sharks’ entire back five had well and truly surpassed that mark, as had two of their forwards.
By the end of the match, only Adam Doueihi cracked the triple digits for run metres. In comparison by the time the full-time siren had sounded, 11 Sharks players had reached that same mark.
While in defence, the story wasn’t much better. Throughout the game, the Tigers’ poor discipline and lack of defensive pressure was on full display for all to see. And in the first half, Api Koroisau was sent to the sin bin for a ruck infringement, taking their tally to a staggering 14 players marched from the field this season.
The Tigers’ loss was made worse with skipper Api Koroisau coming off with a calf injury, while Alex Seyfarth and Stefano Utoikamanu also left the field with head knocks. The only downside for Cronulla – who strengthened their grip on a top-four spot with the big win – was the loss of young forward Jesse Colquhoun to a suspected ACL injury.
Benji Marshall feeling the pressure?
The greatest player in the club’s history, Marshall, has a contract until the end of 2027. But the coach has seemingly cracked since the club’s bye just three weeks ago. Tigers CEO Shane Richardson and Marshall came under fire recently when the veteran administrator flew out to the UK trying to offload players, while the coach went on a mid-season break with family in Fiji.
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The decision was heavily criticised but Tigers fans at least hoped he and the players would come back reinvigorated and ready for an end-season surge. Heading into the break the Tigers had lost eight straight games but somehow have been worse in the two games since their bye.
The Tigers were humiliated by the Dragons 56-14 where they conceded 44 unanswered points and then on Friday night flogged again by the Sharks. After both matches Marshall delivered a massive spray, throwing his players under the bus but barely shouldered any of the blame. But the reality is the rookie coach will likely need to show signs of improvement in the side’s last seven games of the season or he might be headed out the door alongside some of his players come year’s end.
with AAP