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.

 

7. Mitchell Moses

Once part of Westsโ€™ โ€˜big fourโ€™, Moses was released midway through the 2017 season after the Tigers decided to try and retain the likes of Tedesco, Brooks and Woods instead. Moses was picked up by Parramatta, whoโ€™d won five games and lost five at the start of the season, sitting in 9th. Moses made his Eelsโ€™ debut in Round 11, and went on to win 11 of his 16 games in the blue and gold that year, guiding Parramatta to a top four finish, their first finals berth since 2009. Heโ€™s been mentioned in Origin circles, and having already played international football for Lebanon and a game for the NRL All Stars, his future away from Concord seems bright.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 30: Mitchell Moses of the Wests Tigers runs the ball during the round 25 NRL match between the Wests Tigers and the New Zealand Warriors at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on August 30, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

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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