Billy Slater has stated that Luke Brooks should not be axed by the Wests Tigers despite insisting the club needs to change.
Sitting at the bottom of the ladder in 17th place, the Wests Tigers remain winless despite multiple player and coaching changes in the off-season.
While many critics and fans have put the Tigers poor performance on Luke Brooks and the Tigers' halves' issues, Slater has called on the club to not axe the $1.1 million halfback.
Speaking on his weekly podcast,ย The Billy Slater Podcast, the fullback insisted Brooks is not the primary problem for the club.
"The best part of the Tigers was when (back-up playmaker) Brandon Wakeham came on the field, and he actually sparked a bit of footy in them," Slater said.
"That actually ignited Luke Brooks, Brooks had a good last 10 minutes."
"But you can't just play well when there is nothing at stake, the game is gone and you're throwing the ball around and hoping for the best."
While Brooks has been the Tigers halfback since 2011 and has yet to play in an NRL finals game, Slater has instead placed the blame on the Wests Tigers defence.
"There is a bigger problem," he said.
"I've watched them live the last two weeks. They are really disappointing, I'm really disappointed in the Tigers at the moment.
"Their defence is not good enough, there is not enough energy or effort in their defensive line. Some of those long-range tries (from the Bulldogs)... there were people just standing around watching."
"That's pretty poor. That's just an effort and a choice. Then when they've got the footy there is no cohesion."
The Wests Tigers will be hoping to register their first win of the season against an injury-depleted Melbourne Storm team on Friday night in Melbourne.
