Ohut at Wests Tigers HQ there is now not a lot doing. No gamers operating drills. No fanatics looking ahead to selfies. No digital camera crews soaring. It’s simply me, a thin Burmese cat and New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet slinking round (the latter “just passing by”). These are the cold winds which greet a facet that loses 3 immediately to begin the season and hasn’t performed finals since 2011.
Turns out the turf, just like the staff, is underneath renovation so the Tigers are coaching in an adjoining park that, in 1793, used to be as soon as the previous Longbottom convict stockade – a barracks, safe haven and residential base for an extended line of rebels, escapees and enforcers. Together as a gang, those exiles labored the lands of what’s lately the economic hub of Tigerland, sharing each season of growth and bust and, when deemed ‘males of excellent persona’, profitable freedom.
Can West’s Tigers damage their shackles in 2023? On Friday they head to Melbourne for rugby league’s hardest task: beating Craig Bellamy’s Storm on house turf. Few give them a possibility of victory. The ultimate time this took place used to be 2018, once they defeated Melbourne two times in 5 weeks. Ivan Cleary used to be trainer, Benji Marshall used to be captain and the Tigers gained 3 immediately to begin the 12 months. They have not gained 3 in a row since.
Nevertheless, there’s something unhealthy effervescent in the back of the scenes at Wests Tigers: hope.
Hope arrived when Tim Sheens, 73, signed on as a second-coming trainer after his 2003-12 reign delivered a 2005 premiership, 2010 initial last and 2011 semi-final. Hope grew when the membership moved to a brand new $78m heartland base in November. And it sprang everlasting when 2005 name hero and prodigal son Marshall used to be introduced to prevail Sheens as trainer in 2025.
The pre-season rumblings out of Concord spoke of revolution as sorcerer Sheens and his apprentice Marshall took the Tigers via the tail and gave them again their enamel. Head workplace showed roadshow video games to Tamworth and Hamilton (NZ) and report memberships. The NRL draw talented them 3 winnable video games to begin, together with two at religious house Leichhardt Oval.
Alas, in opposition to groups that completed twelfth, thirteenth and 14th in 2022, the Tigers did not ship. Yet at this captain’s run, there is no 13-year finals drought or three-game shedding streak on display. Sheens strolls in the back of the backline like a kelpie together with his herd, barking orders. Marshall is out entrance, coaxing the gamers into assault on foot or with kicks, by myself or in combination. Spirits are prime.
So why will hope now not die in 2023 because it has ahead of? Because the brand new Tiger leaders may not let it. “Right now we’re working hard to get off the ground floor,” Sheens says with metal. “The most important thing I ask of my teams is effort, and effort has been there. Execution will come. There’s losing a game and there’s getting beaten – we’ve lost three but we’re not beaten yet.”
Sheens won three titles with Canberra (1989, 90, 94) but the Tigers in 2005 was the sweetest.
The last thing he did before leaving the club in 2012 was to sign local juniors Luke Brooks, Mitchell Moses and James Tedesco to form the backbone of the next Tigers premiership side. “They were only kids of 16, 17 at the time,” Sheens says today. “But they were the future.”
And, by 2017, the past. Tedesco left for the Roosters, Moses for the Eels. A third member of the Big Four, captain Aaron Woods, went to the Bulldogs, bemoaning the club’s lack of stability. “I never thought I’d be wearing colors other than orange and black,” he grumbled. Future Storm then Wallabies matchwinner Marika Koroibete fled in 2014.
Brooks stayed but, in becoming the NRL player with the most appearances to never have played in a final, was cursed as the club whipping boy. “I first met Luke as a child and he is a 28-year-old guy now,” Sheens seeths. “In that point he is been bullied to hell, together with via our personal so-called fanatics.”
The trainer stocks his playmaker’s ache of taking part in a 12-year first-grade occupation with no last. “But Luke is tough and he’s still got speed. He proved that again on the weekend. On the weekend Brooks sparked the lightning Sheens and Marshall are aiming to bottle in 2023. At 26-6 down to the Bulldogs, the No 6 scored, then set up three dazzling tries in four minutes.
Like the rogues in the stockade 230 years ago, the Tigers must become ‘men of character’. “We’re a young merger club with old DNA from Balmain Tigers and Wests Magpies,” Sheens says. “Every team is unique – different backgrounds and nationalities, all of varying ages from 18 to 35. As coach I believe I’ve got to be consistent by treating them all differently.”
On Friday Sheens has a base-salary pivot partnering million-dollar man Brooks in the halves. He’s moved an injured playmaker to fullback and punted a popular young star to the bench. But when I ask Sheens if his Tigers believe they can win the premiership, his old eyes smile. “Everyone desires of the trophies,” he says. “But there is two competitions: the common season then the semis. So we can combat our method during the first to get to the second one. We imagine we will do it.