Three coaches, three philosophies at Wests Tigers

The Wests Tigers have been the story… look, I’d say this week but when have they not been in the rugby league headlines?

I generally steer clear, because there are more than enough negative yarns being rammed down their long-suffering fans’ throats.

This past seven days however, I’ve watched with fascination as the Tigers – sorry, Wests Tigers (quick aside: a former editor had a thing with us about calling them just ‘Tigers’, as it pisses off the Western Suburbs side of the partnership) – laid out their coaching plans.

In short: Brett Kimmorley now, Tim Sheens next, Benji Marshall later.

With the amount of coaches they go through, a three-man plan is probably a wise idea.

And each has their own philosophy when it comes to the coaching game.

Tim Sheens: Supremo
‘Supremo’ is perhaps the word I hate the most in a sporting context. What does it even mean?

Context gave me strong clues but I didn’t know for sure, so looked it up, with Merriam-Webster (via Google) telling me this “chiefly British” saying means “one who is highest in rank or authority”.

All right.

Now, by my estimation, the rugby league media have conferred this title upon three men.

The first is NRL chair Peter V’landys, who can apparently just go out and buy a $25 million pub for the game on a whim, so I guess he deserves the title.

Then we’ve got Nick Politis who has been chairman of the Roosters for going on 30 years and has a reported net worth more than the game of rugby league itself. So, yeah, he can be one too.

Next is Phil Gould, who is now Supremo at the Bulldogs – although his status as “highest in rank” anywhere has to be in question given he was sacked by the Panthers after Ivan Cleary decided he’d had enough of Gus meddling with his roster.

(Gus says it didn’t go down like that, but then if you listen to Gus, he’s never sacked anyone, never been sacked by anyone, and such is his disdain for the word, he believes the entire hessian industry is fake news.)

This year however, we’ve had a fourth added to the mix: Tim Sheens.

And if you want evidence that he’s earned the title, you need only look at the weight he’s thrown around since returning to Concord almost a decade after getting the boot and then suing the club.

Hired as the club’s head of football, he was in a position of sufficient power that he effectively fired coach Michael Maguire, then hired himself to take over as top clipboard-holder from 2023, with the head of football role being put on ice for two years so there’s no one looking over Sheens’ shoulder. Then in 2025, when Benji Marshall takes over as head coach, Sheens will revert to his former job as head of football.

How’s that for professional acrobatics? Take the job above coach, sack the coach, take over as coach, suspend the role that can sack the coach until you’re not head coach anymore, then go back to being the guy effectively in charge of the coach when you hand over the reins.

Basically, he’s created a new job title at the Tigers: ‘Tim Sheens’. Guess what qualifications you need?

Honestly, I don’t think ‘Supremo’ comes close to the level of authority that shows.

Benji Marshall: Old player
Set to head up the Tigers (look, I love the Magpies, but let’s just get on with things, shall we?) for three years from 2025 onwards, club legend Benji Marshall has precisely zero experience as a first-grade head – or even assistant – coach.

Or, at least, that’s what a fool would believe. You ask Benji, he’s been at it for years.

“Me not having any coaching experience, the last five years of my career I felt like I did more coaching than playing,” he said on NRL 360 last week.

“That doesn’t resonate to what an assistant coach does but I’ve seen the ins and outs.

“I know how to plan an attacking structure, I know what it takes to be successful in attack and that’s what my job is going to be.”

Just to recap, the last five years of Benji’s career were spent at Brisbane (one season), the Tigers (three seasons) and Souths (one season). Sure he’s the legendary Benji Marshall, but he’s also ‘Johnny Come Lately’ for three of those years, even at the Tigers, where he was returning after a four-year absence.

I also struggle to believe he was doing “more coaching than playing”. For sure he would have mentored some young players and I don’t doubt for a second that he knows “what it takes to be successful in attack”, but that’s a long way off being an assistant coach – let alone the head coach of an entire club.

I know it’s his job to talk up his skills and inspire confidence, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to also admit that he’s got a lot – like, just so much – to learn in two short years.

(Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Brett Kimmorley: Storyteller
As for the guy who’s got the gig at Concord right now, Brett Kimmorley is currently 0-5, his charges experiencing none of the post-coach-sacking sugar-high after Maguire was removed.

On Sunday, they missed a golden opportunity to take down the reigning premiers as the Panthers rested all seven of their State of Origin representatives, which Kimmorley highlighted by saying “it wasn’t respectful”.

“They’re a very good organisation that are entitled to rest their players and do whatever they want. We thought it wasn’t respectful,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“They’ve been premiers, their guys are playing big minutes, [but] they were the only club that rested their players before the team sheet came out.”

You’d say he’s not wrong – the Panthers could have staggered their rep players’ holidays over the next few weeks – except the score is really all that matters, and on that count, Penrith finished 18-16 ahead.

So, yeah, maybe it was about the amount of respect the team coming outright first can afford to show the team coming equal last.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

To be fair to Kimmorley, he wasn’t in a huff, smiling throughout the conference and trying to be careful with his words.

He even said, “I don’t want you to make a headline that I’m disrespecting what Penrith are doing” and that his job “as a coach is to be a storyteller and I used [Penrith resting players] for us during the week”.

“It’s my role as a coach, sometimes it’s not black and white, sometimes you need to say some things that create a story, create a reason why we’re going to prove people wrong,” he said.

Except, again, his team didn’t prove people wrong. And despite Kimmorley saying he’d really rather it wasn’t a headline that he said Penrith resting players “wasn’t respectful”, guess what the headline was out of his press conference?

“That was a bit of a journey I went on this week,” he said.

Looking back on that journey, I hope he learnt the difference between creating a story and creating a headline.