It’s been a nightmare start to the week for the Tigers with concerns raised around the club’s signing of Tim Sheens and whether they did their “due diligence” on the 72-year-old.
In addition to that, dropped winger Daine Laurie has been caught ‘liking’ a video on social media of Broncos flyer Selwyn Cobbo scoring a try in during the Tigers 46-12 loss on Saturday night – a result which drops them to 0-5 to start the season.
With no signs of improvement across the park, it’s easy to see why questions are being raised, and Sheens and his players are in the firing line.
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Veteran journalist Buzz Rothfield labelled the Tigers “a mess” on The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday and questioned the signing of Sheens.
“They (Tigers) were blown off the park on Saturday and the draw doesn’t get any easier. I don’t know where they are heading,” Rothfield said.
“The club’s a mess at the moment. It’s a real mess.
“I’m not sure the Wests Tigers did their due diligence and looked at the facts regarding Tim Sheens.
“In England, prior to him coming home to Australia, he had been dropped from a couple of clubs over there (Hull Kingston Rovers, Widnes Vikings), one of which was a second division club (Vikings).”
“It’s just not working out.”
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Sheens has won four premierships in the NRL, with his most recent coming in 2005 when head coach of the Tigers during his first stint there between 2003-2012.
After a few years off and then in England, the Tigers hired him to coach the club for two seasons in 2023 and 2024 with a succession plan in place for Benji Marshall to take the reigns in 2025.
Rothfield went on to say that he doesn’t believe the Tigers should “abandon” the coaching set-up after just five weeks with the players to shoulder some responsibility for how the season has unfolded.
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“They are playing like a confused football team and there aren’t too many chefs in the kitchen it seems.”
Big Sports Breakfast co-host and Raiders legend Laurie Daley (who won premierships under Sheens) agreed with Rothfield, pointing to a number of “dumb and ill-disciplined” mistakes of late which prove they aren’t even close.
“The players need to take a long hard look at themselves,” Daley said.
“Some of them are trying as individuals but they just aren’t coming together as a team.
“In the last two weeks, they’ve lost a scrum against the field and been penalised for being offside on the kick-off.
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“If they can’t sort of stuff out, how can you sort the rest of it out?”
The changes the Tigers have made to their player roster since the arrival of Sheens has also raised some eyebrows.
NRL legend Gorden Tallis believes the club’s decision to trade away Jackson Hastings to the Knights for David Klemmer was puzzling.
“Based on the footy that I watch, I think Jackson Hastings can play football,” Tallis said on Triple M.
“He was there and then all of the sudden, he’s not good enough for them (Tigers).”
James Hooper went on to shed some light on why Hastings was sent packing, telling Triple M that the Tigers “didn’t view Hastings as a halfback.”
“For whatever reason, once Tim Sheens, Benji and Robbie (Farah) arrived, they decided they didn’t want Hastings to be their halfback anymore and wanted him to move to lock forward,” Hooper explained.
“And now look at the improvement of Newcastle since Hastings has arrived there.”
Rugby League greats Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler also joined in on the chorus of criticism directed at the Tigers but said the blamed should not just rest with the coaches.
Johns believes the Tigers ‘gave up’ against the Broncos.
“The Broncos were running around with fear on Saturday night and to me it looked as if the Tigers just gave up,” Johns said.
“For whatever reason, the combinations just are not working.
“I don’t know who to put the finger at. The easy one to point the finger at is the coaches but you look at Tim Sheens and his record over the years…he knows the game better than anyone.
“So I wouldn’t be blaming the coaches.”
Fittler added, “On both sides of the court, they are failing.”
“Defensively they can’t keep up with teams and when they get down to the other end they can’t execute or put pressure on teams.
“The can’t execute, they haven’t got the fitness or the discipline to put pressure on their opponents.”
The Tigers will next face the Eels in Round 6 at CommBank Stadium and will be hoping history repeats itself.
It was in the corresponding Easter Monday fixture last year that the Tigers got off the mark in 2022 with a nailbiting 21-20 win against the Eels.
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