Benji Marshall has planted his flag in the sand, declaring he’s not worried about winning with the Wests Tigers but instead is purely focused on bringing through a strong generation for the club.
Marshall just led the Tigers to 17th and a third straight wooden spoon in his first full season in charge, losing the much-hyped “Spoonbowl” to the Eels by 34 points. The NRL legend says he has no plans to change his strategy though—even if that focus on preparing juniors for the future leads to him losing his coaching job early.
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“I’m coaching to try and make this club better. I’m coaching to try and make these kids better,” he said. “I honestly believe I can do that and if that’s me for the next two years and we don’t get the rewards and I’m not here and someone else does, that’s how much I care about the club.”
He then added: “It [time] doesn’t worry me because I’m not coaching to keep my job. We’re looking at trying to have success for a long period of time, not just winning one year and go missing for the next three.
“The thing that people probably look at is success now and having ‘overnight’ success.”
🚨🏉 Benji Marshall has insisted he won't change his approach to coaching @WestsTigers despite winning the spoon in his first year — his focus remains on developing future stars pic.twitter.com/xMXVk8Ck7x
— The Sporting Base – NRL (@BaseNrl) September 6, 2024
Most of this, Benji explained, comes with a battle plan for the crop of incredible youngsters the Tigers have produced in recent years; Lachie Galvin, Jahrem Bula, and Samuela Fainu forefront among them. They still have a long way to go before they peak, and Marshall thinks he can guide them straight into proper NRL stardom and success.
Incredibly, the Tigers team that just lost to Parramatta on Friday night to seal the club’s third straight last-place finish were all teenagers, especially because most of them are already looking quite at home in the top-flight rugby league comp.
Now, Marshall’s taking the lessons he learned from his first 27 rounds and is already applying them to his young roster heading into the 2025 campaign. “The biggest thing is when you haven’t done the job, you think you know what the team needs,” he admitted, “and then when you’ve had a season doing it you get a real understanding of what it is.”
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The Tigers are now all wrapped up for the year. There’s been no indication from Concord that Marshall’s job is in danger, The Sporting Base understands: He’ll be head coach to start next season.
