Benji Marshall & the Wests Tigers demanded control, now they must own the chaos
The Doueihi meeting solved absolutely nothing
The Adam Doueihi meeting solved absolutely nothing
The Adam Doueihi meeting was theatre. My understanding is it was not an apology, very little was said and nothing was resolved about his future at the Wests Tigers.
Benji wanted Doueihi to front his teammates and explain himself. Doueihi agreed. They established they could still sit together without another flare-up, which might get them through the season, but I see that as crisis management rather than leadership.
I don’t think Doueihi stays beyond this season, although I also don’t expect open agitation before it ends. I think claims that the relationship is somehow untenable are overcooked because football clubs are not normal workplaces, and elite players develop a far greater tolerance for conflict, pressure and public scrutiny.
I believe Jarome Luai mocked the drama at training to puncture the tension. Fine. But jokes cannot conceal the real issue: Doueihi is unhappy, the Tigers look rudderless and I think both sides are already considering what comes next.
Benji blinked because his selection gamble failed
Putting Doueihi back at halfback was the only football decision available, but it also exposed Benji’s inexperience.
Doueihi had refused the bench-lock role, so the obvious display of authority was to leave him there or return him to No.13. That became impossible once the gamble on rookie Javon Andrews backfired and the Tigers looked ineffective against Canberra. Andrews is regarded inside the club as its future halfback and all reports say he is highly talented, but he did not get the job done on debut.
Benji probably had to accept privately that he made an error, even if he will never admit it publicly. Naming Doueihi at seven alongside Luai at six was not surrender. It was reality.
The smarter move might have been using Luai from the bench to relieve Andrews from running the side. Instead, the Tigers produced another muddled plan, and now Luai has only five or six games left in their jersey while Doueihi has signed for another two seasons.
Absolute control means absolute responsibility
Benji demanded command of the Tigers and got it. He has a say over almost everything, his representatives secured clarity from the board during management upheaval and he now occupies an enormously powerful position. That kills the rookie-coach alibi.
A coach cannot demand the keys, steer into trouble and then claim he is still learning the road. Benji understands football, but dealing with managers, contracts, internal disputes and the machinery around a modern club is new territory, and he has nobody sufficiently experienced beside him to stop problems before they explode.
That is the deeper disease. Rugby league keeps confusing business intelligence with knowledge of the rugby league business. Following football does not qualify somebody to run it any more than drinking Coca-Cola qualifies somebody to run Coca-Cola.
Nick Politis, Johnny Furner, Frank Ponissi and Phil Gould understand the trade because they have lived it. Ponissi gets the tone right and kills trouble early. Gould understands recruitment, negotiation and player movement.
The general manager of football should control recruitment and the salary cap and, in a properly constructed club, hold authority over the coach. Rugby league will eventually get there. Right now, it remains trapped in the childish fantasy that only 13 players and a coach matter.
Start writing Melbourne’s eulogy
Melbourne are just about busted. Harry Grant is missing with a hamstring injury until around Round 24, Cameron Munster probably returns later and Jahrome Hughes has been left trying to animate a side stripped of its key operators.
The difference Grant makes is brutal. Melbourne looked slicker and suddenly dangerous when he entered the game last week, then reverted once his hamstring failed. Without him, their attack loses its pulse.
This does not erase Craig Bellamy’s extraordinary achievement. Melbourne last missed the finals in 2010 amid the salary-cap scandal and, I think, the previous miss was 2002. Bellamy arrived in 2003 and they have made the finals every season since.
His secret is not tactical wizardry. I think it is unmatched honesty and loyalty. He backs players, disciplines them, tells them exactly what they must fix and makes them responsible for fixing it. His famous honesty exercises could be ferocious, but they built standards that survived for more than two decades.
This season, everything that could go wrong did. The great run is finally cracking.
Newcastle’s top-four charge has collapsed
Kalyn Ponga’s return is desperately needed, but it cannot repair the damage caused by losing Dylan Brown and Dylan Lucas for the season.
Lucas suffered a fracture and dislocated ankle in an injury that was awful to watch. Brown’s loss cuts even deeper tactically because he had fitted Newcastle like a hand in a glove, suited Justin Holbrook’s coaching and ignited an attack that could barely score in first halves last year.
I thought Newcastle were genuine top-four contenders. Their recent losses have knocked them backwards and I think they have fallen to seventh, leaving them fighting merely to remain in the eight while Canberra have regained their middles and rediscovered some of last year’s form.
Four points can still be recovered with enough football remaining. But without Brown and Lucas, Newcastle are no longer hunting the leaders. They are looking over their shoulder.
Webster is right to hold his nerve
Andrew Webster is right to keep Te Maire Martin at halfback rather than panic and recall Luke Metcalf.
The Warriors have spluttered and their attack has lost some of its early-season bite, but Martin carried them this far after Metcalf signed with St George Illawarra. Loyalty has to mean something, particularly when it is being shown to the player who remained committed to the club.
Metcalf is a quality player, but he is not a guaranteed cure. I would invest more work in Martin and give the current combination every chance to recover its rhythm.
There is a deadline. The finals are getting closer and Webster cannot wait until the last moment if the attack remains stuck. I reckon the decision point arrives within two or three weeks because whoever owns the jersey then must carry the Warriors through the finals. For now, Webster has resisted noise and rewarded loyalty. Good coaching demands exactly that.
