Even before Lachlan Galvin, Benji Marshall, the lawyers and all their not-so merry men, Tiger Town was already one of the most fascinating watches of the season.
Marshall’s coaching of a new playmaking spine, in a team that’s picked up three wooden spoons in a row, was pass-the-popcorn stuff.
It still is. For all the wrong reasons, and a couple of right ones as well.
In terms of pure X’s and O’s, Marshall the young coach, bears similarities to young Marshall the young player when the Tigers have the ball.
On April 1, 2024, (after Galvin and his management had already made release requests), the Herald ran a double-page spread titled “Marshall and the apprentice: how would Benji coach his 19-year-old self?”
Stressing that the comparison was not between Marshall and Galvin as players, but the free-wheeling ideology both teen sensations brought, the Tigers coach sounded a lot like Tim Sheens circa 2005.
Benji Marshall runs his eye over Wests Tigers training.Credit: Sam Mooy
“The one thing we like about [Galvin] is he just plays footy, and he plays what he sees,” Marshall said.
“So you’ve got to try and not put too much emphasis on making mistakes or trying to take away what he does well. I just tell him to go and play what he sees and don’t think too much.
“Whatever is your first instinct is the right instinct for him.”
The Tigers rightly prioritised defence. Across the first month of 2025, it came on in leaps and bounds, as they conceded just 14 points a game.
Recent blowout losses to Brisbane and Parramatta have presented the same wobbles of years past. Two post-half-time tries in three minutes against the Broncos, and three in seven minutes against the Eels, were the stuff of a wooden spoon side.
But Marshall wasn’t wrong in celebrating the defensive grit of a 20-4 win over Newcastle in between – the kind of game the Tigers would have previously found a way to lose.
Nor was Brad Fittler – hardly a conservative during his NSW and Roosters tenures – when he points to the Tigers growing defensive resolve as a team playing for their coach.
With ball-in-hand and a spine still coming together, the Tigers have most resembled a young Marshall.
They are at their best in ad-lib situations, rolling from offloads and quick play-the-balls from Terrell May and Fonua Pole. Galvin and Jarome Luai thrive on the chaos.
Their structured play has been a struggle at times. This was particularly the case without Galvin against the Eels, which hardly surprises given the 19-year-old is one of the most involved playmakers in the game.
Galvin’s average of almost 57 touches per game is up on the 52 he averaged last season, and ranks him fifth in the NRL when regular dummy-halves are excluded.
The dynamic between he and Luai (48.5 receipts per game) intrigues given they have both almost exclusively played their whole careers on the left edge.
Marshall pointed this out after the Knights win two weeks ago, and notably some of Galvin’s best moments this year have come when he has worked his way to the right edge.
Galvin’s right-foot step naturally sees him straighten the Tigers’ attack in that role, whereas on the left it can lead to he and his teammates drifting sideways for easy defensive pickings.
It’s an issue Luai has wrestled with as well throughout his time at Penrith (not to mention a budding Benji as well).
Luai’s footwork is among the most dangerous in the game when applied with forward momentum, but can frustrate when he tries to skip to a defender’s outside too often.
Marshall described the Tigers attack as “average” in the Newcastle win, but there were above-average moments as well, including when Galvin and Bula both popped up on the right for scoring plays.
As noted in commentary of the Tigers first try, a cry of “he’s back, he’s back” rings out on the last tackle as winger Greg Marzhew’s retreat for the expected kick is picked up. Galvin duly goes to the line, draws two defenders by straightening – only slightly – and simple hands send Sunia Turuva over.
Bula’s grubber and regather for himself later in the half came from similar cues being noticed in the defence, with Andrew Johns questioning Kalyn Ponga’s positioning as fullback afterwards.
Both plays speak to the instincts Marshall spoke of a year ago, and instances where the Tigers worked their way into position to take full advantage.
As the Tigers are painfully aware, Galvin’s manager Isaac Moses has no less than a dossier of issues with Marshall’s coaching, as well as gripes that extend beyond his handling of the prodigious teen.
The Tigers erratic, but improving, efforts to structure their attack under Marshall might feature too in Galvin’s apparent lack of faith in the coach.
It might all be rubbish too. Though the answer, as it so often is in rugby league, is probably somewhere in the middle.
The whole thing still makes for a fascinating watch. And an even more galling one for long-suffering Tigers fans, given the promise Benji Ball holds with Galvin as its focal point. Right up until he leaves.
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