The best there never was. The Wests Tigers are stuck amidst the longest current finals drought in the NRL, with their last top eight finish coming all the way back in 2011. Every other team has featured in at least one finals series between 2012 and now โ€“ except Wests.

While fans are quick to point the finger and lay blame on different figures within the club, their seven straight years of bottom eight finishes comes down to one single factor โ€“ retention.

Some of the best players of the game have featured in the Wests Tigers system over the last decade, yet somehow been allowed to walk away from the club. Internationals, Origin stars and club heroes, now wearing the colours of another club.

Hereโ€™s the best 17 of players that have been let go, released or not re-signed by the Tigers over the last decade.

 

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17. Junior Tatola

Similar to Martin, Tatola never managed to make his debut at the club, but won't they be regretting that now. Tatola spent the 2015 and 2016 season playing for the Tigers' Holden Cup squad, before stepping up to the NSW Cup side in 2017. After failing to get a crack at the top grade despite strong form in the lower grades and featuring for the Junior Kiwis, Tatola signed a one-year deal with the Rabbitohs. He made his debut in Round 1, 2018, and has since played 31 games. As a starting front-rower this year alone, he's making 110 metres and 22 tackles a game at over 95% efficiency. Having already made his international debut for Tonga, he's something special in the making, and one the Tigers will regret letting go of.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 23: Junior Tatola of the Rabbitohs is tackled during the NRL trial match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Penrith Panthers at Redfern Oval on February 23, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
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2 COMMENTS

  1. Ive lamented the retention and recruitment situati at the Tigers for years. It’s been woeful. The number of current players who used to be with the Tigers is astounding. Admittedly someone like Tedesco is hard to.keep given his price tag but many of the others were very affordable as fa review as salary cap goes. The previous management of recruitment and retention was woeful and with the departure of this management I hope things will stabilise. Of the seventeen listed here fourteen of them should have been kept on. There were only three that I thought were not as well performed as I would like.

  2. Beau Ryan in the 17? Youโ€™ve got to be kidding. Heโ€™s a reggie at best, or more likely, belongs in the old 3rd grade.

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