Wests Tigers Collab Pod with Adel and Rob: Revenge on Galvin

In this episode of the Collab Pod, Eddie and Garry are joined by Rob and Adel from the Wests Tigers Life Podcast to celebrate the significant victory over the Bulldogs.

The guys discuss the team's performance, coaching strategies, and key player contributions from the wet and wild game at Commbank stadium. The discussion delves into the importance of player support, game plan adjustments in challenging conditions, and the implications of injuries.

The team also look ahead to future prospects for the team, including recent signings and the overall direction of the club as they aim for improvement in the coming seasons.

They show is closed out with a quick fire game of Buy, Sell or Hold!


Chapters
Celebrating a Victory: Wests Tigers vs Bulldogs
Reflections on Team Performance and Player Support
Game Strategy: Analyzing the Winning Formula
Key Players and Their Impact on the Game
Game Plan Adjustments in Challenging Conditions
The Role of Coaching and Player Development 
Injury Concerns and Their Implications
Looking Ahead: Future Prospects for the Team
Signings and Team Composition for Next Season
Final Thoughts and Predictions for the Season



Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wests-tigers-podcast--6660380/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to another collaboration podcast from the West Tigers Life
Podcast and the West Tigers Podcast. This is episode number three.
I guess we're from the coming from the micd Up
Studios Again, don't worry about micd Up. We are pumped
up today after the Tigers thumped the Bulldogs at Combank
Stadium twenty eight points to fourteen. I'm joined by Robi Shara,

(00:33):
Gary Watson, and the coach Adele has Is joining us
from the screen somewhere in Brisbane. He's like the cat
that got the cream tonight. I can see him smiling
from all the way there. But first off, Gary, never
go against a winning combination. It was the same four
of us two weeks ago. We've produced another victory. What
does that say for poor Joel.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
And Steve, Poor Jol and Steve.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
They may have run out of their time in the
mic up studio if we're going to continue with that
winning formulae going forth.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
No, no, thank you to those two boys. That was
a great episode last week. Caught it on YouTube and
did some good numbers. But Rob, I know you were
crying after the Titans game. Man, I felt like crying
after that win today.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Don't get me started. Now, Yeah, it was. It was
magical today. The text messages I was getting.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
From all my family, friends, relatives, just watching social media.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Everyone was absolutely elated. So yeah, over the moon with.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
A win coach. Last week you and Rob got into
it a little bit on your show on the West
site on the West Tiger's Life podcast. But today you're smiling.
You must be you must be delighted.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
Absolutely, I'm delighted. I feel a little bit vindicated and
very very proud of the effort today. Obviously we'll get
into the press conference, but I agree with Benji Centiment's
about we've got to find a way to be able
to perform like that every week. Bit of a tradition.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Boys. One word I'll start with you, Gary.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, I'm just going to go with ambush.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
We came out today with a game plan to really
rad all the Bulldogs, to get up in their face,
and and we put them off their game.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
It was an ambush from the West Tigers today, rob My.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
One word's karma, and not for the bad reasons, for
the really good reasons. We've put effort in all year
that hasn't been rewarded too much. We've only won three
out of our last eleven games, and there was a
lot more effort into those eleven games than the actual
results that we got from it. So just great karma
for the team, for the club, for the coach, and
for the fans, the fans, the fans that braved it

(02:27):
out there, the fans that were we won't mention names,
but still doing a certain player in the aightfth minute,
like the passion and the determination to go out in
these putrid conditions to support the team thinking we were well,
I thought we were going to get thumped and it.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Was the other way around. So bravo to all our fans.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Just quickly, Gary, before I throwed a coach, you were
out there today, that must have been sweet.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
I sit right behind the Bulldogs bench at come Bank,
so it was really great to see that performance, to
see that the guys really give.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
It to an opposition side that was more answered them.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Where you were and the crowd out there today when
I had to look around, the ground was a lot
of blue and white, but it sounded like just as
much West Tigers fans there and it was our home game.
But yeah, it was a great performance from the fans.
It was a great performance from the club and it's
a really big day for the club today.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Do you have one word, coach, Yes, satisfying. I'm a
petty person. I've said it openly and at the end
of the day, for me, being competitive and winning is
so important, So you know, I feel like there was
we went through that period during the year where we
almost felt like the Bulldogs started looking down at us

(03:39):
as a club, and beating them today was satisfying.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
My word, boys, was God. And I talk about God
a lot for a person that's not very religious, but
there must be a football god somewhere out there because
the amount of bad shit that has happened to us
the last decade. I just thought today finally Rob sort
of stole my word Calma, but I'm going to go
with football God. Great victory today, but boys, was it
our most important winner of the season. Gary.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
It was incredibly important to our club.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
It gets us away from that Wooden Spoon race that
you've been talking about all year ready. But what it
did for me is has been a number of times
where our players have come out and spoken about being
supportive of the coach and we've then gone out and
we've had a really poor game, the game against Paramatta
as an example.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Today, the players showed up for their coach. The players
showed up for this club.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
And I can't be happier than the performance we got today.
And that's why it's so important to me, is those
players finally came out and stood up in a way
that really showed what this club can be made of.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
I'm not going to say it's the most important win
of the year because looking back at the season and
obviously wanting to play finals, I felt the Cornulla game
was huge that got us back to fifty to fifty,
and especially after what had happened with the Galvin drama
before that. And then we go and win Magic Ground.
We're five and four, so we're back in the season.
Then we go on that terrible run of losses and
then I thought the Rooster's win, even though it was
against Arthur New South Walest Cup back, that was the

(05:09):
most important win. So this was really really important for
a lot of reasons. But I don't even know if
we would have got to this point if we didn't
beat the Roosters, you know, if we don't lost eight
in a row or something like that, or nine year
old whatever the hell, it was the amount of pressure
that would have been under the club. I think that
Rooster's win just gave everyone a little bit of time
to grab some oxygen, make a deep breath, you know,
just just sort of regenerate.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
But the message that today sends to our supporter base,
that sends for the rest of the NRL is massive.
It shows that we're not we don't want to be.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Pushed around anymore. We don't want to be bullied anymore.
And the club really.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Stood up today and I'm very proud of what we
saw out in the field today.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Coach. Biggest win certainly was our biggest scalp. You'd have
to say, I know, we beat Cronulla, but we've beat
Cronulla at Chat a few times.

Speaker 5 (05:56):
Yeah, for the season, I'd say it is we haven't
had the most important win for the year because until
you're in a finals race, you can't really define something
as a really important win. So I think what we're
doing is we're proving that we've improved. That's probably the
biggest component of these wins and the biggest thing I'm
taking out of it at the moment. But yeah, I'm

(06:18):
not going to say it's obviously when you have a
season where you do make finals, you can reflect back
on and talk about significant moments throughout the year, But
the chance of us making the finals are pretty much
not there, and so it's hard to really say it's
a great win. Yeah, every win's important for us, but
I think what it does is it feels a bit
of confidence to finish off this season, and I think

(06:40):
that's really important.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
The narrative was there that the club wasn't improving the
last couple of weeks. The game last weekend against panrif
the narrative was started to be formed Adele, and I
agree with what you just said that this club is
in the same position it was twelve months ago that
we're looking at another Wooden spooner before in a row
hundred percent correct. Today shows that this club is turning

(07:03):
around and it is starting to go in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Just a little bit more big picture stuff before we
get into nitty gritty of the game. I think I
mentioned during the week that this season could be determined
a success or failure based on the last five weeks.
Rob We're now eight and twelve with four weeks ago.
Does ten or eleven wins make the season of success.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
It's an improvement. It doesn't make it a success. You've
got to be playing finals football, and our goals are
high than just being up there. But granted, coming from
last three years in a row to potentially ten or
eleven wins is a big step up from what six
wins last year.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Coach, I think there's maybe six teams scrapping around there
at the bottom. If we could finish eleventh, I think
that's realistically as high as we could finish. Some people
could dream and say if we win our last four,
we could scrape eighth or ninth, But would eleventh be
a success?

Speaker 5 (07:49):
No success is winning a comp for me, So I'm
not going to go down that path. I guess the
way to describe it is not a failure overseason, and
like Rob said, it's an improvement for us. You know,
the chances of turning a season around or going from
three wooden spoons to top eight, you know, is significant.

(08:10):
So if we got that, that would I think you could,
you know, without being too over the top with my
sort of thoughts around you know, if you know, when
a comp it's not really a success, but that would
have been a significant achievement. But yeah, I think it
just shows that we have definitely improved. The recruitment has

(08:31):
made a big difference and if you want to reflect
back on it without the disruptions, and it was a
bit more luck with injuries, especially with Duram. You know,
who knows what the season could have brought. But you know,
you take that, You've got to cop it on the
tin and you just got to look to be better.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
I'll stay with you for a second, coach. You're big
on fundamentals. I've heard you ad nauseam with Rob this
year talk about things like line speed and kick chase
and intent. Could you tell from those first fifteen minutes
day that we had him rattled?

Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, And I think that's part of the reason why
in the press conference Boeragie was a little bit puzzled
as to why we can't do that every week, Like,
surely this back, you know, back the end of the year.
I know the loading would be down at training, so
they should be able to get up and really be
able to back up their performances ever each and every week,
especially in the first thirty minutes of games, with their physicality.

(09:27):
We had lions back today, we had aggression and BENI
talked about it before the game. He specifically said, we're
going to be aggressive the narrative around the Gallant thing,
and I reckon the media trying to push it. I
think the club, the boys Benji did a good job.
Thats what I deflected. But whether it was Benji, and
it probably wouldn't have been I reckon, would have been
the boys within themselves. They had an intent about them today.

(09:48):
I've seen some of the attitudes Forna's first touch and
he might not have had a good game. His first
impact in the game was a hit and he got
up yelling at the blow. I think it was seem
Hughes playing the So they were all fired up. Twali
today looked angry, they were fired up. I think they
took today personal and at the end of the day,

(10:09):
it is a local derby for US, I mean from
whether people know this or not, Like Concord de Bellmore,
it's a ten minute drive, you train not far from
each other. Like I know, the demographics and the geographical
component of US is not is a little bit all
over the shop, but that's the closest club to US
at the moment, and right now there's a bit of
competitive betweenness between the two clubs, and I think there

(10:31):
will be for a while.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Not often robed the dogs get beaten in those areas
of sort of lines beeding in ten.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, it was incredible to see. Look, I thought, I
don't want to put a dampener on our win. I
thought in the second half we kind of struggled to
make ground. It was quite significant we getting.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Drive that's only ten meters.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, some sets were really poor, and that's where creditor
Adam Dowey's kicking game. You know, even like one kick
he put from the twenty went forty five to fifty meters.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
So we definitely need.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Some troops in the fours. But I don't really want
to have half on the needy stuff. But yeah, definitely
that line speed was good. Coach messaged me privately today
he said, the number one thing we've got to work
on in the off season is our kickchase. Okay, so
that was still not to the level that we need.
But they played thor all heart today. They never gave up.
I mean, since when do we win a sinbin period
down a man too nil? You know, there's some significant

(11:19):
moments that we haven't done before. So we've just got
to find that intensity every week. But as coach always says,
they're humans, they can't be up every week. We've just
got to find that consistency. I hope they can. You know,
in a fortnights from now when they play their next game,
can they come out with that same intent.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Coach mentioned Adam Alex Weill's game today. He was actually
immense today. That line speed in that opening twenty minutes.
He was really leading that for us, and it's something
we really haven't seen in his game before. He was
get to be up really quick and putting pressure onto
those Dogs players. He drove that line speed in that
opening twenty minutes for me, and I thought he was

(11:57):
fantastic all game, ran for one hundred and seventeen and
thirty odd tackles. An immense performance from him that they
really impressed.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
So del has always said all year, we've got to
defend our areas defense, And how many areas did we
make in the beginning? Eryl made bad play the ball,
Teryl made, yeah, a bad play the ball.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
A lot.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
We defended it, defended, defended, and we actually made our
breaks off their errors. So it was a different West
Tigers performance today and it was built on defense.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Coachat do you go about putting together a game plan
when there's four or five days of rain? I mean
people might say, oh, it's easy to just simplify your plan,
but what do you make of the game plan today?
Before we get into the actual specific changes in the team.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
Yeah, there were a couple of things that were specific
in what they look to do. I'm not going to
go on to the whole rock thing because you know,
part of the reason that second half White Raymans ten
became shorter the play the ball has just slowed down.
You know, we won't go down that path because I.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Will literally lose it be known for that. Aren't they
like once they give way a few penalties, they'll just
cheat a little bit and think, I'll see.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
What we did do today, I'll see. One of our
big plans was and Canabury. I It's not sure if
you noticed this. Canabry are the number one chasing team
from market, so their first marker will chase really hard
on every single carry. Right, So our forwards actually worked
the pairs and a lot of times we look to
play some X plays between each other and then we'd
throw some dummies and what that done. Was that to

(13:24):
hold the market defender up, we're able to actually carry
the ball. Early on in the game, it looked to
me like there was a plan to shift the ball,
but not so much to shift to attack, to shift
to carry out Burton and Galvin, because I think they
thought that Samueler and SIONI and I think that's why
he only played back row. We could actually make some
ground on the back of those guys, and in the
second half we didn't actually do that really well. So

(13:47):
that's what I think the plan was. Look, they trained
in the rain all week, so they would have come
up with a plan. You know. The coaches for me
also would have noted. And I commented about this on
our podcast on Wednesday night. For some reason, the dogs
don't enjoy the wet. You know, they've bet they got
beat by I remember that the game at some court
they got yeah, and the Dolphins. It was the same
thing at the core right day. There was another game

(14:10):
they lost this year in the Web, but they don't
enjoy the wet, so I think they would have taken
a bit of confidence out of that. Can I give
Benji a rap?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
You know?

Speaker 5 (14:22):
The change to put Adam at half is a significant
one and I think they identified the fact that we
needed to. You know, whilst ever Lapto is growing and
developing as a player and he needs to improve his
long kicking game because we can't have one kick option
and that will come over time, he'll improve it, will
become better at it. We needed someone that we needed

(14:44):
to be able to kick the ball to both sides
of the field and to be honest, today Adam did
all the kicking, So yeah, a bit of a point
of difference, and it's hard to do. You do a
review all week as a team and all you're concentrating
on is little Hiki pressure, little kikick pressure, Louhiki pressure,
louw wiki pressure. They're gona ki our right corner and
you turned up with another plan throws away your whole

(15:04):
plan all week. So a big credit to the coaching
staff and to Benji to make that change, and it
was a ballsy change to make as well.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Just quick one on that coach. Do you think that
change was purely based on conditions or do you think
that would have been made on the Tuesday And even
if it was a fine sunny day that Adam would
have been starting in the half today.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Well, Benji said it post game. He said that he
thought Adam deserved the role and for him, there's no
rush with Latu. It was funny. I he used the
same words when we're chatting previously on a different thing.
But that's the thing for me, like there's no rush
with Latu and Adam has been really good the last
couple of weeks, so why not build his confidence? And yeah,

(15:42):
I would have probably done the same thing today because
of a kicking game perspective, but I think we exceeded
what we expected it to be with more than giging game.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Wasn't it was he the best player on the field today,
Rob Adam.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Do you by the length of the Flemington Straight?

Speaker 1 (15:54):
It's a big straight.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
It is a big straight. He was.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
He was near the finished before anyone came around the
last turn.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
So I wish I backed horses like that.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Our kicking game today was by far our best kicking
game of the season. It wasn't just hoisting it high today,
which I know is a tactic and I know it's
game planned for. Our ability to find the ground today
really made a difference. And it was all Adam doing
today that kicking game so big props to Adam doing.
I know I can be quite critical of him at times,

(16:26):
but I thought he was absolutely outstanding today, and not
just the kicking game with the.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Ball in hand as well.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Is he a half?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Gary, Well, he showed today you can play half.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
But I think we're seeing games like this from him
before and the really important thing for Adam is consistency
in that role. I thought he was absolutely fantastic today,
So I don't want to take anything away from that.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Can I ask a question to Adele back to one
of something you just said a bit earlier? So Adele
Eddie asked about if we finished the season with another
two or three wins. Perhaps what confuses me is the
way this side was presented today in that structure. If
Adam stays at half and hypothetically Adam leaves, does that
help our cause if he's not with the club next year.

(17:09):
So I'm trying to say to like, you know, we're
talking horse analogies here. I want to be that horse
that's hitting the line strongly for next year. And knowing
who we are and knowing that we're settled on certain combinations,
do we stick with Adam at seven for the rest
of the year. Do you think Adam will stick with
Sybe Benji will stick with Adam at seven for the
rest of the year.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
I think he'll hindworld where he's going to go week
to week on it. I think he's found the fact
that he finds confidence that both of them can do
a specific role to what you need. Look for example,
when you play the Titans, I don't think kicking game
is as important. If you want me to be straight
and honest with you like I don't. I think we're
playing playing the Cowboys in a couple of weeks again,

(17:49):
another team who you can make good ground on, So
kicking game long, kicking game isn't as important. You probably
want to be able to shift the ball a little
bit better. So yeah, I think it's going to be
horses for this type thing. In regards to moving forward, No,
not really, because you know paramatter. Everyone thought let's not
use paramatter as an example because they're a sensitive topic

(18:11):
at the moment. But I think at the end of
the day, you know, Bulldogs have just shown that you
can make changes throughout midway through a year if you
need to in your spine, and it's up to the
players to get the job done. Look for me, the
biggest thing is going to be the fact that I've
learned this week that the specific championships were on again
this year, So we're not going to get a full
pre season of a latt Jerome together anyway. So yeah,

(18:34):
it's not going to make a real difference, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, maybe rest and Richer pull them out of that
and have a full pre season. But anyway, Gary, we
mentioned Adam do his fundamental game was very, very solid,
but a couple of really opportunistic plays footballer away for
a try he probably threw a forward passt a little
bit lucky there and then almost went the length of
the field off a loose ball from Cambry.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, and played a big hand in the first ry
we scored as well, So.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
He took those chancewers when they came up. Showed a
fair bit of pace today.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
I'm quite often critical of how quick he is, but
he got across the ground for that length of the
field try.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I thought you were going to say he's pace in
Canterbury chases that he got there.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Look, I'm I'm all on Adam Dewey today. I thought
he was absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
You are right. I think that ball to Buller may
have floated a been thrown a little bit forward, but
he deserves a call like that. Gary. It was clear
we don't get many like that.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
The wonder Sam was forward as well, and Benji said
in his press conference, what I actually really liked about
that anyone who hurt. Jerome Law's interview on Behind the
Roar this week, he spoke about one rule he'd like
to see change.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, I did hear that, and he said one forward
passer set so he.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Lives in a wacky world.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Made love him, he predicted it.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Comment from Adam do you after the game? I didn't
hear a rob but apparently on radio he sort of
gave a bit of a shout out to Richo and
now are you watching rich O? You think that's passion.
I think that's passion slash ego.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
It's both, it's both, but I think it's obviously he's
been low balled with an offer to stay at the
club and he probably wants a bit more money. He
shouldn't go about it that way, but I can see
Adele shaking his.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Head there in the background. You want to have something
to say there.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
On the coach I've thrown you a part of the game.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
I didn't hear it, so but I'm not gonna say Adam,
because then until I hear it, I won't believe that
it happened. But any plan that does anything like that
is an idiot, Like, well, why what are you? What
are you doing? You know that wouldn't happen at a
big club. You're part of the problem if you're doing
that at our club, Like are you doing it because

(20:34):
it's the West Tigers and you know you're you're you're
pouring on the narrative of us being a low rand club,
Like if you want to stay at the club, to
go about it the right way, you know, go and
see him privately and do it, but don't do it publicly.
That's that's He.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Probably had a microphone shoved in his face made straight
after the guns.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Come on, man, Rob, there's.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
No excuse, there's no excuses.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Sorry, I haven't heard of myself. I probably shouldn't have
bought it up.

Speaker 5 (21:01):
But Rob did say and I'm saying this generally, not
just about Adam, but because I haven't heard of it.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
So yeah, but it doesn't make him less more likely
to be signed, does it. Like you come out with
that one man, he's gone and any chance you had
of being signed, you're throwing that out the window.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Or shouldn't have been.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
After his eighty minutes today, bretton a and Rob, my mate,
texted me yesterday he was at lid Kimov. He said,
Brett Nan sitting next to me having a pie and
I thought, oh, well that's great. Who cares. I thought
he must have been injured. I didn't assume he's playing
first grade today. He held his gloves up.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
Yeah, I heard he was playing yesterday and I was
absolutely mortified and I just thought that's I mean, Twa
hasn't been tackling.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Well, let's be fair about it.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
But you know his defense. You know, the last time
he played Santa was awful and he had a good
game on the wing for us to be fair when
we played Cronulla, I think it was in round it.
But that game against Melbourne he was just beaten seven
or eight times. So I was concerned. Given the form
chare he was in. He scored two tries last week
for Canterbury. I thought this was going to be an issue.
But to his credit, he may came up with a

(21:57):
couple of really big plays today. One one that you
mentioned where he died in the Indu That loose ball
was Matte loose ball. And then when he held tailor
made from getting stood over the sideline, he planted his
foot there like a large tree stump and just wouldn't
let him get over the sideline.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
That was huge general one on the conditions coach, like
obviously it was a bit of a swimming pool out there.
That Did that help us against the Bulldogs? You mentioned
they've been poor in the wet this year. Did that
allow maybe in the second half when they started to
look like they had lifted their energy sort of stopped
their role.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
Yeah? Sorry, can I just jump into real quickly. I
got a text message saying Jerome's hurt his shoulder.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, he heard it. He heard it when he took
that kickoff he was off.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
So yeah, the kickoff after the last try, he dived
to take the ball and he got up holding his
shoulder then and moved towards the sideline quite quickly after that. So,
and I watched him quite closely after the game. He
was carrying it after the game, so that's yeah. He
still had a big smile on his face. He's still joking,

(23:00):
but he was definitely carrying that after the game.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
Before I answer your question, and he's so big. One
with that is, obviously we know Jerom's had a shoulder
issues in the past. So two past that is you're
concerned that he's had sholder issues, but second that he
knows how to handle them. So there's a positive and
negative to that in regards to the conditions at the
end of the day, not an excuse for anybody. I mean,
you'd like to think with the defense like the Bulldogs,
the wet should help you. This is what confuses me

(23:26):
about the Bulldogs, like the top of the defense they play,
the wet weather should suit them. So you know, full
marks to us today for putting on the points that
we did. Rob not not quite the straight at Flemington
because there was someone that was actually just behind him
today and that was that was our hook Happy. I

(23:47):
thought that was his band. I know how Sydney game
was flashy. Today he was outstanding.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Well, let's mention those two, rob Appy and Jerome. On
our podcast this week, I spoke about we sort of
we've tied our mask to Benji Appy in Jerome, and
I think that's a good thing. But today was sort
of the confirmation I wanted that they can go out
and own a big game. And I thought the leadership
from those two captains out on the field, the body language.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Was good, it was very good.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
And I said last week Appy was our I thought
was our best player for fifty two minutes. I know
Tito had a magnificent game at fullback last week, but
that's two games in a row now that Appy's had
a really big game. But anytime Jerome's showing signs of improvement,
like just I mean, we know how competitive he is,
we know what he brings to the team. There's no
putting him down. But when we actually see him like
break through the line and just make a little dart

(24:35):
like he did in the first half, like that's what
we want to see. We want to see that attacking
Brilliancy's got.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
They're animated guys, Gary, but they were animated on the
field today, like I saw Happy when the Bulldogs made
a mistake, he was right in their face. Beautiful little
grubber for the third try, and Jerome obviously stood over
Lockey Galvin early in the game, got the penalty, and
that was a sign of our intent.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
I thought Yeah, we spoke about how we came.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well, I spoke about how we came and ambushed them,
and and the game obviously meant a lot to the players.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
That was driven by Appy and Jerome.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Today they were out in the field, driving us around
the park and instealing that belief in the players. I
thought they were absolutely fantastic happy. That's one of the
best games I've seen him play at the club. Defensively,
he was really strong last week. He was falling off
a few tackles. He was really strong in the middle today,
and he just let us around the park beautifully.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
We'll come back boys to specific individuals in the outside
backs and forwards. But coach just on Latu played thirty
four minutes today, maybe freshen up that he needed after
a month of tough footy.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Yeah, I actually thought it wouldn't come on today. To
be honest, I'm surprised he did come on in those conditions.
I didn't think it was the type of game that
would suit him as the thirteen. But yeah, at the
end of the day, you know, the one thing I
really like about when Latuo plays in the middlewes physically.
He enjoys the physical aspect of the game, so you

(25:55):
can tell he loves it. And I'm a big believer
in you watch pace people during the game on the
sideline when things are happening that don't involve them, especially
when good things happen, and every time we did something
good when Ratsu was on the field, you can see
him celebrate it. We've seen players in the past when
they are playing roles that they don't enjoy when things

(26:17):
are happening on the field, They just sort of just
lopeer around the field with poor body language. Latu is
not that player. He enjoys every component of being in
this squad and being a part of his team. So yeah,
it's I think it's really good management from the club.
They know more about his condition and his body than us,

(26:37):
so I'm guessing they've got a reason for why they're
also trying to manage him. On top of I think
Adam deserves to play in the halves. But yeah, good, good, good,
solid performance room today. We don't need him to be
a superstar today, do it?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Biggest win of Benji Marshall's coaching career.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Rob.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
I'm not going to say that, no, because I'd have
to think back to what the last couple of years
of him coaching.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
I think the Kronulla one was really big early last.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Year given the context though coming up against Galvin and
against the top four side, you don't think so.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
It's not the biggest bit. It probably means the most.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
It's the most emotional and the responsive players gave today.
Like they say they love beinging, their tryingk avengji every week,
but or did they try today? And that was led
by Jerome and by Appy and yeah, they look they
were getting beat up in the second half and they
just resisted it. They get resisting and resisting and you
look at both Canterbury's striders, they were like one was
the last minute of the game and one was in
the last five minutes of the first half.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
So effectively it.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Was twenty four nil for seventy odd minutes of total
game time if you had the first thirty five minutes
of each half up.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
But for me, that resilience in that second half was
huge for our club. Yep.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
The fact that we weren't making any ground out of
our own end for a big chunk of that second half.
The sin binning, yep, that's the type of fight we
haven't seen in our club before or for a long
time at least, that's what we need to build our
club on moving forward. Like Jerome and Happy of the
perfect guys to be building that into our club.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
That's the stylo club we need to be.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
So I think we've been fighting like that, we just
don't win the fights. I think the efforts been there,
it's just but today we got on top of it.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Because in the past we get that player SimBin. Even
this year the Bulldogs come back and scored two to
three tries during that time there was it was unrelenting
today for the fight in our club and that's what
makes me most proud is it wasn't a short stint,
but we didn't we didn't fight for three quarters of
the game. Today. We fought all the game and when

(28:34):
it got toughest, that's when we stood up again and
took it to another level. And that, for me, that's
the sign of a club that can start to build
and start to start to move forward properly.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
I loved how devo they look when Current scored in
the last minute. I loved that the players looked like
they just lost the game.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
That really meant a.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Lot to me, and that effort from Adam Dewey to
get back there, and I know he didn't save the try,
but he had no right to actually get into a
position where possibly say that his.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Hands on the ball.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
He got his hand on the ball, he knocked the
ball almost out of the way, yep, but Current still
came down and got his hand on top of it.
That's the fight we need to see in the club.
And one of the things I've been critical of Adam
doing in the past is in those situations he doesn't
chase like that. Today he showed that he had that
fight for it.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
He didn't need to say anything to which his actions
just spoke for thousands of words.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Coach I said, I didn't watch AFL last week, and
that's it's because a bit of a tough watch AFL,
but I am aware of the ladder. In the last
ten years, the Kangaroos have been like the West Tigers.
They've been right down the bottom. And they sign I
know it's not an AFL podcast. They signed Alys the Clarkson,
who won four premierships at Hawthorne, to a five year
deal and he was a messiah and he's won ten
games in four years. Benji Marshall has now won Ordeine

(29:46):
games in two years eight this year, he must be
You don't really have to say anything, do you. You've
been singing his praises all year.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Yeah, again, I'm not. I don't think I'm singing his praises.
I think the biggest thing for me is always giving
perspective and trying to give everybody a bit of an
idea about sometimes what the processes are, or what I
perceive to be the processes in how they make decisions
and what they do. I couldn't be more impressed with
his press conference today, to be honest, some of the

(30:19):
clapping back and some of the ways he's hand led,
especially the media. And don't forget, he's been involved in
the media before, so he knows what that's like. His
demeanor has never changed, has it. And the players have
openly shown their support for him and they've played for him.
And I've said this before, the number one challenge as

(30:40):
a coach is to make sure that you don't lose
a dressing room and to be able to recruit players,
and he's got that. Today was never going to be
the day to sort of show what our football is like.
But he also called the players out in the press conference,
didn't he he said to them, he said, it's all
good and where we win today, but you know, we've
got to be able to do this net two weeks

(31:00):
time when we play again.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
So your boys listened to the press conference and he takeaways.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
He was impressive, yes in the coaching inside a press
conference the last one I heard yesterday. So no, just
I'm happy for him, Like you know, no one's packed
him more than I have. And Adele will tell you that.
But you know, we want success and we want to
see something. I don't want to see your thunder because
he's going to go into it. But Gary's always harping
on about the fact that, you know, we seem to
lack a game plan.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Boy, did we have a game plan today.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
We made so many changes, even swapping the wingers around
from left side to right side and vice versa.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Like we went out with whatever.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
I don't know what that reason was, but we went
out with a specific plan and we executed it. And
Adele always says to me, Benji never changes his team.
He's pretty he's pretty good like that. Once he names
the team, that's what he runs out with. Well, he
just threw that manual out the book and he changed
everything around today and put you know, no one knew
about it except obviously those inside the club.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
You wouldn't have want to see my text before the game.
We would have been arrested when we saw the team changes.
But he got it right, didn't he?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
As I said to Adele?

Speaker 4 (31:58):
I said to Adele, how does his help Latoo's development
if he's starting on the bench. So I'm not going
to hide from that fact. But again, as long as
we're winning games and Benji knows what he wants out
seem to be and who he wants that personnel to
be and we're moving forward, I'm happy with that. But yeah,
if you're like if I said it last week, to
it Dell, if a guy's getting chopped in change, I
don't know how that works with your development, But I
trust A Dell's take on that.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
Can I just say and not to say this happened right,
but this happens in football. How do we know that?
You know, every week you do a review with the players.
This is the sort of stuff we don't know because
people always jump on that. How do you know? Because
Benji in the press conference said that LA two will
be our seven next week. How do we also know
that they didn't go to their review Monday? Benji in
a conversation with Latu, Mate, how are you feeling? How

(32:41):
you go? I'm a little bit fatigued. I'm a little
bit tired. You know, I haven't played this much football
a long time. I'm not saying it happened, but we
don't know what the conversations that are have in house.
No worries, but I'll protect you this week. We'll bring
you off the bench. We'll give you a couple of
weeks of playing less minutes and try to manage you.
And then when you're feeling good again, let me know.
Do you have these conversations with players? So without knowing

(33:03):
the information, it's hard for also us to make judgment.
That's where you've just got to trust your coach and
you've got to trust the coach. That's one of us
the most games since twenty nineteen right.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Now, we all want to see progress. Gary and I
saw progress today in the way they didn't overreact like
they did against Paramatta. They came into a game emotional
ill discipline. There was ill disciplined day. And we'll get
to that, but overall it was they looked like they
didn't center on you.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Know, yeah you and I spoke about it on the
West Tigers podcast on Wednesday night that I was a
little bit worried that we would overplay our hand in
this situation, that we would go out there and because
of all the stories around it, our players would go
out there and they'd take things over the top because
we're shown at times we're an ill disciplined team. I
thought they got the balance for the most part of

(33:52):
the game today exactly right. And the pleasing thing for
me is we did show a game plan today. We
show that if you get up into the bulldog's face,
if you play hard, tough football against them, you can
rattle them.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
They were rattled today.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
And I've been critical of not being able to see
a game plan from Benji Marshall. I think today Benji
Marshall gave you some of those top four sides, a
little bit of a blueprint on how you can actually
take on the Bulldogs that if you get up in
their face, if you hit them hard, that you can
put them off their game. And I know it was wet,
and the wet weather makes that sort of game plan easy,

(34:28):
but there is a template there now for other teams
to follow that. I think the Bulldogs are going to
have to have a look at.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Okay, Galvin struggled out there today.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Rob, but I think you're only as good as the
opposition lets you play it well. I don't think Galvin
was bad. I just think we were better. He did
put one of his traditional grubber kicks over the dead
ball line that goes to seven tackle.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Said earlier, but he wasn't too bad. I mean we
just smothered him.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
I mean, look, whether it's Galvin or it's anyone else,
we're going to target the opposition number seven. So the
fact is that just happens to be Locklin Galvin. I
don't think he was that bad that we absolutely smothered him.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
He didn't bite into the line today, so he was
passing well before the line today and I thought that
probably had an impact on how he played. I don't
know whether he was worried about going deep into the line,
but he definitely held back a little bit and he's
running game today and I thought that really hurt the Dogs.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Would there have be in any cues coach on the
tip sheet that we got right in terms of containing
him today, Oh yeah, they.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
Would have done their due diligence on every player playing
against someone you know would have been pretty significant. But look,
Galvin has changed the way he plays now that he's
at the Dogs. He's got to fit into their system.
So the stuff that makes him a little bit unpredictable
has somehow come out of his game. Forget what the
narrative has been over the last couple of weeks and

(35:48):
some of the players he's come up with the way
he's played the game, he's had to change and he's
had to change that because the Bulldog player specific, I'm
going to call it a one dimensional system. And so yeah,
today tells me everything I said originally about the Bulldogs.
I don't think they are aside that are going to

(36:10):
threaten the top teams in the competition because when it
comes to the crunch, they just don't have the class
in the key positions. At the end of the day,
their best player, if you said everybody playing at their
best in that team, their best player is Stephen crun.
When it's a center, you cannot win a competition.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Okay, we've got an interesting little by selling hold later
and one of them is a question around who's going
to win the compat We'll save that team stats for today.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Boys.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Nothing really stood out. Eighty one percent completion could bet
of the Dogs sixty seven percent Gary. That was big
in those conditions. We only made nine errors to their
thirteen and we forced two dropouts. Run meters were down
for both sides, But overall the completion rate was a standout,
was it?

Speaker 5 (36:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (36:48):
The completion rate was pretty good. The errors we did make,
we made them at bad times. Those two eras on
the back of kickoffs when we'll starting to get on
top of the game. I thought they could have been crucial,
but we defended them fairly well for the most part,
so keep.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
It up around.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
It was low ladies, and have a better completion rate
than the Bulldogs, who are aside that kind of prides themselves.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
On a high completion rate. I thought it was a
pretty good effort today.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Anything stand out there, rob In terms of team stats.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
I haven't seen the team stats Eddy so like quickly
after the game, but it's so quick.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Individual performances made like a tough day for the outside
backs conditions wise, but like I think we anticipated, they
went after Skelton. I thought he handled it well.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
I thought Skelton was very good. So you don't ever
let us down dream baller. We you know, if we
had a doll if every time we waxed on about
how important he's to our team and what a difference
he makes. He is incredible and I was concerned when
he was off the field for that Hia even I
thought Naden did well. If you don't mind me touching
on a forward, I thought it's the only Faine.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Who was really good today. He absolutely stood out.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
So a lot of good performances, but you need a
lot of good performances, you know when you're trying to
beat a top fourteen.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
See, he only played seventy odd minutes today, which is
something we really haven't seen. And I know you played
a lot of that time on the edge, but that's
a huge effort from someone who's not used to pushing
out those minutes. So I thought he was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Coach. Darene Buller touches a class today on return obviously
looked like he was gliding in second gear when he
scored that try. But a couple of really intelligent bits
of player, I thought in the wet where he sort
of trapped the ball like Christiano Ronaldo.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
Yeah, it is outstanding. He I texted the rob during
the game. What I learned when he come off for
a HIA is if you actually noticed that the moment
he come off, we stopped making yards, we stopped having
attack shape. He is the most important player in our team,
absolutely no doubt about it. In my mind today, it's
no coincidence that he's come when he comes back into

(38:42):
the team that we've won a game of football. So
so impressed with him.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Yeah, our shape all comes off what Dream Buller does.
That's why the last couple of weeks we've been shifting
side to side a little bit more. The importance to
our attack that he provides can't be underestimated in our team.
He he is as big a in for our team
as anyone we could have.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
And he's coming on the left side a bit today
more than normal too. Did you notice that, Adel, Yeah?

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Absolutely, And then you know what it's to Gary's point,
when you don't have him in the team, it's like
when you know those years when merely had Turbo and
when Kaylen Ponger plays those of your indicators for other teams.
So if Dream's on one side of the field, and
you've got Luai on the field, and you've got Adam
on the field. Not all of them are going to
be on the same side at once. You cannot defend

(39:31):
one side of the field when you've got too hard
to respect it to Tito at fullback or Stafford Towell
was playing a little bit of that shape for us.
Teams can load up the side of the field that
we load up with our main helts. It's a massive difference.
He just he's getting more and more confident each and
every week. Are we going to touch on Jerome Loui

(39:53):
anytime soon? I want to talk Yeah, I want to
talk about because the little kick to Jeram puts where
Steven Crichton catches the ball. I want to give Jerome
Leui a massive credit on that because he runs the
play and the next plan. I know everyone we'll talk
about that. It's a forward pass. I don't really care.
We've copped bad for that. But Stephen Crichton on that
play actually sits on his heels and waits for the kick.

(40:16):
On the Deram Buller one. Jerome Lewi had that in
his head. So what he does on the next time
they run that play. He actually goes to the line
the show to put a kick in behind. Crichton does
the same thing and at the last second he throws
the most bravest pass he'll ever see. That is such
a brave pass to throw out the line and he
hits Samuel well the on the fly. That is such
good football, like you, because he obviously knows Crida really well.

(40:41):
Crit has done that so many times in the past before.
I remember him doing an Origin game once, so he
does sort of anticipate the little kick he's seeing Jeram
do it. He waited for the next occasion, were going
on the same side and Jerome premeditated that Creta was
going to do it, and he hit that pass to
Samuela and that locked up the game for us. So
a really big goy moment in the game there from.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
Jerome, and that connection between sam and Laua is really
starting to build really nicely. I think it's only going
to get better over the next twelve months. That whole
That was a great line he ran for that, and
you are right, it was a forward pass. But yeah,
us all the time, but it's just not even close
to being square. It'll need another decade.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Also, the way.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Sam finished that try, like he got down low early
and slid across the line. That's just really smart football.
He could have went into the tackle, but getting down
low sliding across the line made sure that he was
going to get across there.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, a beautiful try to slide the forward pass.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Quick shout out to I know we mentioned Skelton, but
a couple of his finishes today in the wet I
thought were really good. The forward pack rob we mentioned.
I thought Alex Twiler, big game.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Yeah, he mentioned Twila already. He was fantastic. I still
think May chugs out the yards and puts in those minutes.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
We just take it in for granted, he looked like he.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Was struggling today coming out of our own end yep.
But you have let the stats after the game, and
he still ran for one hundred and thirty three meters,
which over the past couple of years that's all we've
been getting out of any o our forwards. So if
that's a game where he struggles to make meters and
he's making one hundred and thirty three meters, you can't complain.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I may be out of line saying this.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
I thought the first twenty five minutes, even though he
had a couple of their as he ran the ball
harder that.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah, there was a lot of intensity and then he's
running game today.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Just amazing him the second half. Coach, I don't want
to focus on negative say, because it's just a great
day for the club. But was there something we could
have done differently? I know they would have got a
spray at halftime and they're getting in our face, but
like we would just going one out. In some sets
we were literally making eight to ten meters.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Honestly, think I would have kicked early, even when we're
forty meters out from their line. You don't want the
ball in that condition. Those are the type of games
if you think back, you know, most of us are
old enough to remember the nineties, like when there was raining,
teams would kicked the ball on tackle two and tackle
three because in the old days it was muddy field,
so having the football actually wasn't a positive. You'd attack

(42:52):
the game with your defense, and today the conditions were
almost the old school without the field ended up. So
even in those sets of six in the back end
of the game, their wingers are up, just kick the
ball on tackle two. On tackle three into the corner
and just go defend.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
To be fair, there was a period we had a
man in the scene and we couldn't do it when
we had twelve men, and.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's what we are getting did We actually did do
it a couple times when we had twelve men. There
was a tackle though, yeah, tackle four, Yeah, a couple
of times four.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
You know what, rob in the wet when you have
got twelve Sometimes it's easy because what you want to
do is you want to should seemed like Canterbury, who
don't like to come, they don't want to throw the
ball around. Just absolutely you almost dare him to do
it in this sort of conditions and you just turn
the ball around you and you make them go around,
go back. Because Canterbury started attacking us with their defense.

(43:42):
They knew they couldn't attack us with their attack because
they had good ball and they struggled with it. They
thought they'd bring an error out of us, cause a disruption,
get some transition ball and try to punish us. I
would have kicked it. I would have get the message
out even on tackle two, tackle three, kick him behind,
get all the wingers chasing. Like the kick where we
put to Kearra in the corner and you drop the bomb,
you know, make it a contest, put it into a

(44:04):
situation where they've got to make a play in the
wet weather. That's what I would have done.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Differently, I felt for Finu Apollo today, Gary because it's
obvious he's trying. He's an infectious character. But they were
They were two big errors, and they scored off the
back of both.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Yeah, look, there's two things to that. They were massive errors.
His intensity. You can't fault the way he went out
there and played from the opening of the game when
he got on. He was trying to change the game
when he got out on the field, which is what
you want from those replacement forwards coming on.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
But those errors were critical.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
But you've also got to turn around and it's a
game that you're going to have errors coming out of
your own end. The dogs had plenty, We had plenty
at other times, and you have to defend them. And
that's the biggest issue for me today is we weren't
able to defend those couple of mistakes that he did made.
And if those couple of errors that he made were
then defended, you don't really talk about him as much.
So I did feel for him a little bit, but

(44:57):
he does need to be better than what he showed today.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Alex safer for Robert, I'll give myself up here. I
said to you it might have been Gary during the game.
I was only that's the last time he should ever
play for that club. And I probably didn't mean that
because I know he puts in and he's on track,
but I would have said it, yeah, but like you
can't give a penalty away when you got the ball
for one and you can't get sinbin in the next
thirty seconds. And he looked like the kid that you know,

(45:21):
the teacher had seen him with the lollies and he
got caught and he felt sad. But I was just
like I was. I was apoplectic rob when that happened.
Like Benji must have been going, why.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Look it was a bad minute. Again.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
I'm sealing a lot of like Adele and I talk
quite a bit and message each other through the game.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
But like Adele said to me, what Alex.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
Swold did, they're holding the tackler down. I mean every
Flayer does in every tackle, you know, like the respect
done us in that situation, Like that's a bad thing.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
You shouldn't be giving away stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
It's more that I actually said to myself, the only
way we lose this game is if we have a
player in the sinbin. I just didn't want the ref
to give a sinbin and to do to hit that.
That was just a really careless tackle that went wrong
and that could have cost him victory today.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
The thing with Alex Afaf is he compounds errors. So
he made that error getting up to play the ball
where he rolled around like I don't know what he
was doing, and I know he got a clip on
the back of the head, but the reaction then after.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Your skilled the ball, he gets up, he throws the
ball in the face. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
He then thirty seconds later, first hit up after that
he goes too high and that hit does not deserve
to be sin binda. There was nothing in it, but
he still put himself in that position. And that's where
my criticism of Alex comes in is he compounds errors
by doing something stupid after it.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
And I don't like the core player stupid, but that
was dumb for me.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
But it was stupid because we just got a six
again when he had that ball, Like I was like, yes,
and then I think I messaged him.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
I messaged it all like a goal. We needed that,
and then suddenly it's against this.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
I see a penalty. I didn't even look at the screen.
I was texting on my phone. I thought we got
the penalty. I'm thinking, let's kick the two points.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
They got the penalty.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
I didn't know why I got that penalty. Happy he
was clapping, and I think it reversed.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
I could be wrong.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
What went on there the NRL bunker adele It's I
can't work it out, Like Stephen Crichton. How does he
not go to the sin bin? Like Okay, it was
wet and our player fell over, but it's direct contact.
He gets a cat one. He's out for eleven days.
Tailor made lucky.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
We got the buy.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Why is he not in the sinnin?

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Well, I'll say this. At the time, it's easy to
react on the emotions of the fact that we had
someone in the bin. The problem I've got is the NRL.
I've got a rule in place, and the rule is
you can actually sin in someone retrospectively, if someone was
knocked out or was about one. That's where I was
a little bit surprised in that once they realized that

(47:42):
once because it's the NRL, it's the independent doctor who's
in the bunker, so he's actually in the bunker. He's
actually ruled him out as a cat one. So surely
they've actually converted on that and said, okay, well you've
got to put him in the bin now. So I'm surprised. Look,
if you want me to be honest, if it was
one of our players, I would have said, well, what's it?

(48:03):
What else is he supposed to do in that situation
because of the fact that Taylor was low was coming
so low, So you can say it's mitigating the problem
I've got is I am so confident was the other
day around he would have went to the way our
player would have went to the bin.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
We lose our player of fifteen minutes crighton stays on
like I was scared there now I.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
Agree, But look, I hate that rule. It's such an
unfair rule. And let's be fair, Tailor was losing, losing
the ball as he was going down as well, so Cannery,
you know, would have got double whammy. But that's the rule.
Like if we get other it's not just us. There's
been other teams that have lost a player where it's
been accidental and it's just been a contact with the head.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
You're off for ten minutes. So it's just inconsistency of
the whole thing. But I understand that it was an accident.
But if we're going to be discretional with those decisions,
we've got to be discretional with all decisions.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
All right, boys, let's move on for the game. I
could talk for six hours about the game, but we've
been not a couple of signings during the week. Gary
Jock Madden back at the club and young Javon Walker.
What role do you think they play next year?

Speaker 3 (48:59):
I think Javon will be coming in I'd say playing
Jersey Flag most of next season. He's still only nineteen
years old. I think that will be his role next year. Madden,
I'm not quite sure about it. I do think for
the most part, at my thoughts are he's probably been
signed as that back up seven, but I could see
him coming onto the bench and playing a little bit
of a role on the bench. I think he can

(49:21):
make a go with Hooker, and I'm not really happy
about having Hope as that backup hooker playing as at fourteen,
so I can see a space for Madden in the
top seven eighteen playing in that fourteen role.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
I mean, he would have been watching that game today
going well, if Adam is not going to be next year,
why can't I start a halfback?

Speaker 4 (49:38):
Well, that's why I thought we got Madden. I've seen him.
We've lost Adam, so I really don't know what that's about.
But I'm happy with the Madden signing though.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
It's a good signing.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
It's a very good sign But I don't get any
if Adam is going to be another half and we've
already got Lats so we've got four halves again, it's
a bit perplexing.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
I don't think Adam will be their coach. But Javon Walker,
you know a little bit about him, can tell him
a little bit about his attributes.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
I never knew he changed. I probably his name is
Jefforn Andrews Andrews bad.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Sorry, I didn't think it was Walker. I didn't even
hear Walker.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
I just said Jon walkers on walkers on. Remember that
I was saying from LORI day. Maybe I'm copying Lrie
daily now lose my mind.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
So look, look, I know that Benji's a big fan
of his. I've got people that I know obviously he's
up here and they absolutely have massive wraps on him.
The only concern has been for people that the fact
that he had some injury worries in the past. Yeah,
I'm not sure. I think. I think Benji's shown very

(50:35):
clearly that preseason dictates who he will play and what
he'll do. So you know we've seen in the past, Gary,
I don't think you'll play flag. I think you'll come
and he'll either played couple first grade. He's playing Cup
at the moment. I'll obviously be keen to watching him
play for Tweed. He'll be there half for Tweed for
the rest of the year. We'll play five eight for them.
Once I knew he played the other week, I didn't know.

(50:57):
Actually went on the vision that I can access and
watched him play Cup. He was outstanding for Tweed last week,
So he doesn't He looks every bit of a first
grade of like a senior footballer, I guess is the
way to call it. So don't be surprised to see
him push for a first grade spot grow away.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
And he was in our system a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Is that wrong?

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Yeah, he was only really young at the time, so
it's when that Yeah, when we had a we actually
had a Queensland recruitment officer cruited quite a few blokes
up here and yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
All right, let's rip in boys by cell Held. Question
number one Gary, our forward pack is still a bottom
four forward pack by or Sell.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I wouldn't say they're a bottom four forward pack.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
I still think we're lacking at thirteen and in concrete
around who we're playing at thirteen and I still think we.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Lacked that impact prop starting prop, so.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
I wouldn't call it a bottom four. So I'm going
to sell that, but it still needs some improvement, don't it.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Question number two Rob, No top eight would be a
failure in twenty twenty six by or.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Sell only from the fans eyes.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
I think if we were closer it would be a
significant improven Again if we're if we were like two
points out of the eight now instead of six, it'd
be different. But I'm going to say, I'm going to say.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
It's not a phaseuse coach. Question number three Macasini should
debut against Manly by yourself bye for Naden.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
Yep, Well, yeah, it would have been ironic, right, if
Taylor May was actually out, because it would have been
perfect a playmate left center. But yeah, absolutely. I'm it's
gonna be hard though because we won, but I would
debut him. Yeah, absolutely, Gary.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
I'm not a big jerseys guy, but our two thousand
and five retro jersey, which we're going to wear twenty
year anniversary of the Grand Final, was our best jersey
by yourself.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
I'll buy it only because it's the one we won
the Grand Final in.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
So I've got a lot of love for that jersey
if I'm being genuine about which one I like the
look of the best, that's that twenty ten jersey, that
the completely almost orange one and the completely.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
That's sort of got back to the more simple jerseys
the last few year. Is that fair?

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Yeah, that they've gone back to the V style, the
Chevron style jerseys the last few years, and that the
club intends to have that as a classic design. I
don't know if it's changed since Ritro come across, but
when we went to the chevron style jerseys, that's what
they wanted to have as our jersey moving forward.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Just don't ever bring back that appalling white jersey we had.
That was a shock that was the worst. Rob West
Tigers have a top four fan base in the NRL
by yourself.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Wow, it's close.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
We've definitely got top four Sydney fan base. It's pretty
hard to compete against the Brisbanes and the New Zealands when.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
They've got you're just talking purely numbers or passion wise.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Or no numbers.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
I think it's US Canterbury, Paris and George in Sydney
and look for the fans to go out today.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
I wasn't one of them. Gary was. I know Josh
would have been very dropped today. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
Where is passionate as And you can see it by
numbers on Twitters, by the clickbait articles that the media
put out.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
I think we're a top four fan base definitely in Sydney.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
But I can't judge what after thirteen years of what
we've had of not being in the finals fourteen fourteen
whatever it is now and oozing Yeah, but after that
long for us to still sell out grounds, for us
to have sixteen thousand sharp at like up the other week.
I don't know how many were there today, but it
was a decent crowd there today. It was a vocal
crowd there for today. I'm not just going to go

(54:30):
purely on numbers. The passion and the belief in our club.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Yeah, we're I'm happy with numbers anyway.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
You go back to that two thousand and ten preliminary
final against George is like seventy four or seventy five thousand.
It's just our fans and George and West Tigers fans.
You won't get that for a Cronulla Manly preliminary semi
final if that ever happened.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Let's do two more boys. Coach Stafford Toa should be
re signed, bearing in mneties off contract the end of
twenty twenty six. I think by or sell for the.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
Right price, buy.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Of Landsa buy you agree?

Speaker 3 (55:01):
But Gary, Yeah, I think he's played for the majority
of this season really good football. He's really responded well
to getting nice early ball and his upper body strength
and being able to bus through tackles.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Needs to work a little bit defensively.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
He's fallen off a little bit of a cliff defensively
the last month, but at this point in time I
want to see him playback with Buller back into the
side to see if he's attacking Prus. Once he gets
some more time with Buller, so I wouldn't be making
a decision to let him go right now based on
the forming showed the last month.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Last one boys, I'll go round the table on this one.
Penrith will win the competition.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Role by yourself, I'm selling it, but they can.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
Who are your grand finalists? Come to your head?

Speaker 2 (55:45):
He'll laugh at me. Canterbury Cambury's going to be there
and whoever fires in the.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Next five weeks, whoever finds that form. I'm not confident
with Camber. I don't like what I see from Brisbane,
even though they can attack, I just think there's a
lot of soft defense. As soon as someone shows me
they can defend, that'll be the opponent. But I've got
Canterbury's one finalist.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
I think Melbourne will get get their play right. And
how long's he out for? Is he gone for the season?

Speaker 2 (56:14):
They don't know.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
They say he might come back for the semi finals
depending on how.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Look it is fairly important. But they've got Bellime his coach.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
I think they've got a style of play that will
suit finals football. So yeah, with a little bit of
a caveat of what happens ONHS, Melbourne will be tough
to be o coach.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
I heard you a couple of weeks ago he gave
out two Grand finalists and I sort of raised my eyebrows.
Are you sticking with them?

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Canberra Penrith?

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Okay, you said Canberra Brisbane two weeks?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Does he have changed?

Speaker 5 (56:44):
Yeah? I think the problem for Brisbane at the moment
is the injuries. Losing Xavier Willison again the other night.
Reese Walsh is not one hundred. I just don't think
they can carry that. They are the dark horse still,
but yeah, I think we've got a repeat of one.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
All right, boys, Well it's been absolute pleasure tonight. Me
and Gary are going to go and have a few
Vodkas and beers. Robin and Adele have got a back
up for the West Tiger's Life podcast. But thank you boys,
outstanding day West Tiger's defeating the Bulldogs twenty eight to
fourteen at Comic Lens Words.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Thanks boys, got.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Into adopt and sett.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
Enlopment and

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Enjoy