West tigers charge Api Koroisau €200.5 million today; due to suspicious issues…
The Wests Tigers’ last two seasons have been nothing short of awful — but could the embattled club finally be heading in the right direction?
Balmain legend Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach believes “100 per cent” they are thanks to a “masterstroke” that has the club making more moves than it has in years.
A 13th place finish in 2021 sparked an internal reviewb that was meant to put a stop to the mediocre results before it was too late.
But eight months later Michael Maguire was sacked as head coach and the Tigers went on to claim their first wooden spoon — and extend the NRL’s longest finals drought.
Their pursuit of up-and-coming coach Cameron Ciraldo fell flat, star recruit Isaiah Papali’i had second thoughts about honouring his deal and Api Koroisau publicly bagged the club.
It’s been a rough year — no doubt about it. In fact Roach, who played 185 games for the Balmain Tigers, summed up the season to foxsports.com.au as “bitterly disappointing.”
But he believes it took hitting the lowest of lows to spark action at a club that’s been coasting along for way too long, declaring: “The best thing for us now is that the only way is up.”
When asked if he’d call 2022 rock bottom for the Tigers, Roach said: “Yeah I would.”
Besides some up-and-coming players getting an opportunity in first grade and the development of a shiny new Centre of Excellence, there wasn’t much to like about the year.
The Tigers started the season with five straight losses and lost 12 of their final 13 games to finish it.
The results were too much for even the most rusted on fan to endure.
“All I want to do every week is when they come off the field say ‘we were beaten by a better team but we tried hard’,” Roach said.
“I found myself turning the game off at times, I’d watch the first 20 minutes and then turn it off.”
He’s not alone either. In the final game of the season, Tigers fans left Leichhardt Oval early when the Raiders shot out to a 42-nil lead at half time. And those that stayed booed the players off as they headed to the sheds.
The sad part is though, that may have not even been the darkest moment of the season.
Two weeks earlier the Tigers suffered their biggest loss in history — and the 72-6 scoreline saw things turn ugly on the other side of the fence too with a fan abusing Adam Doueihi.
