It would be fair to say the Wests Tigers' 2023 season fell well short of expectations.
The Tigers were simply too slow to make the correct calls in a 2023 season that was doomed to fail from the word go.
In a year that hit the ground crawling before laying flat on its back under new (and now past) coach Tim Sheens, the club were a shambles in more ways than one both on and off the field.
Winding up with their second straight wooden spoon and yet another season without finals, fans will be hoping things are looking up for 2024, but before they can go forward, they must look backwards and understand what went wrong.
In this series, Zero Tackle will run through each team's (in reverse ladder order) 2023 season, picking all the big talking points that summed it up, and look ahead to 2024 to understand what might be able to be taken forward.
The Tim Sheens experiment and a horror start that should have killed it
Tim Sheens was simply never going to work.
It should have been evident from prior to his appointment being made, but for some reason, the Tigers front office never saw through the issues.
Sheens had struggled in England prior to his move back to the Tigers, and when a director of football can ultimately appoint himself as after leading the interview process for the role, something has gone badly wrong.
The idea of Benji Marshall learning for a couple of years and then taking over was nice in theory, but again, in practice, wasn't a real route forward.
If there wasn't enough evidence prior to the season, then the opening stint for the Tigers should have been enough to prove a swift decision needed to be made on Sheens.
The season was realistically over before it started with losses to the Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights, Canterbury Bulldogs, Melbourne Storm, Brisbane Broncos, Parramatta Eels and Manly Sea Eagles before they were able to pull the pants down of the Penrith Panthers... But more on that soon.
The Luke Brooks saga finally concludes
Speaking of the Tigers making slow decisions, the Luke Brooks saga dragging on well into 2023 is another decision that should have been made before a ball had been kicked.
It was plainly obvious for all to see: Brooks needed a change of club. The Tigers needed a change of heart. The relationship between the player and club had reached its breaking point well before this year.
It has been written about at length, but Brooks has been the one costant over the last decade for the Tigers during a run that has seen them fail to make the finals once, and more recently, wind up with a pair of wooden spoons.
If he is ever to hit his potential, Brooks had to leave the club.
That it took an ultimatum for Brooks to re-sign within a set time period to end the affiliation between the veteran half and the joint-venture is somewhat farcical.
Brooks' legacy at the Tigers won't go down in the history books, at least not for the right reason, but there were times in the last 12 months where he had looked to turn a corner. What he is able to produce alongside Daly Cherry-Evans at the Sea Eagles in 2024 may well infuriate Tigers fans.
Jahream Bula and the momentum shuffle
While the season looked completely extinguished early on for the Tigers, a rally came on the back of their win over the Panthers in Bathurst.
The Round 8 performance was their best in years. Gritty. Determined. Words that haven't really been used in recent years when discussing the joint-venture.
The emergence of Jahream Bula was also on show in that game, and it saw the Tigers, for a brief moment, flip the script. They turned up to Magic Round and beat the St George Illawarra Dragons in a game which likely all but sealed the fate of Anthony Griffin.
Finally, the Tigers looked like they were on the right track, and, after a loss to the Rabbitohs, they ran up 66 points at home against the North Queensland Cowboys in what was their best performance in all seriousness since the 2009 preliminary final season.
But then, they had a bye, and the momentum disappeared. They'd lose three in a row before a hammering at the hands of the Cowboys, and their season went up in smoke, to the point it looked as if care wasn't really on the menu in a final round loss to Manly.
Signing flops and a 74-0 blowout
The Tigers were exceptionally busy in the player market heading into the 2023 season, but in hindsight, busy didn't neccessarily equal good.
Sure, they signed John Bateman. And sure, they signed Apisai Koroisau. David Klemmer was another player in the mould they desperately needed, while Isaiah Papali'i's form at the Eels in 2022 said enough to suggest he could have been the buy of the season in 2023.
But the quartet of signings, while harsh, didn't succeed.
A lot of that was made to look worse than it was though by the complete ineptitude of the Tigers spine to put points on the board or capitalise when pressure was there.
Time and time again, the Tigers looked like passengers in their own game when it came to putting points on the board in the red zone, and while the forwards can help, they aren't going to solve all the problems.
Adam Doueihi's injury - and others - didn't help, but the Tigers need to find a way to score points in 2024 if they are going anywhere.
Attack is one side of the coin, but the other is attitude, and as highlighted, the hammering at the hands of the Cowboys was the worst of the lot.
Coming off their big win over the Tigers, they leaked a staggering 74 points to North Queensland. If their season wasn't over prior to that, it sure was after it.
What to do with Adam Doueihi?
In all likelihood, this will be a talking point that will stick with the Tigers through the pre-season, and into the first half of next season until star five-eighth Adam Doueihi is finally back on his feet and at full fitness.
Yet another ACL injury cut his 2023 season short, just when he was starting to look like a player who might have been able to make a play in shifting the Tigers' fortunes.
Instead, he missed the remainder of the season and will be lucky to take any part in the first half of the 2024 season. If he has half of next season on the park, then it could well be a best case result for the joint-venture.
That said, you can't have your best player consistently watching on from the sidelines, as Doueihi has done for the most part in the last two seasons. He has played just 17 games since the start of 2022.
The Tigers can't afford to move Doueihi, but he also is beginning to look like a player you simply can't build your club around.
A tricky time ahead for Benji Marshall and his recruitment staff.
What can Benji Marshall take into 2024?
Speaking of Benji Marshall, and he will take over the toughest coaching seat in the competition at the start of the 2024 campaign.
While it all looks doom and gloom for the Tigers, there is enough to take forward if he can implement a new coaching style and modernise the joint-venture.
They have enough talent to make it work.
Apisai Koroisau hardly had a strong first season at the Tigers and yet was still their most important player, while the emergence of Bula, as discussed, is enormous.
The Fainu brothers signing across from the Sea Eagles will be a boost at the Tigers for years to come, while there is enough in their juniors to suggest the fact they are wanting to position as a 'development club' using their facilities at Concord isn't just pie in the sky stuff.
We have already seen the emergence of the likes of Justin Matamua, and there are others who will follow this year.
That is what Benji Marshall must work with. There is little doubt the Tigers will miss the eight again in 2024, but it's a chance to write the beginning of a new chapter.
It must be.
2023 must be the final chapter in the current tales ofย Tiger Town.
