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.
Hereโs the best 17 of players that have been let go, released or not re-signed by the Tigers over the last decade.
2. Marika Koroibete
A flying Fijian, having Koroibete on the wing was like having another forward on the field. Best known for turning nothing to something, Marika scored four tries in one game โ in his second game in the NRL. He scored 12 tries in 15 games for the Tigers between 2012 and 2013, but the signing of Pat Richards and the uprise of David Nofoaluma spelt the end for Marika Koroibete in Leichardt.
A mid-season transfer to Melbourne in 2014 re-sparked his career, where he went on to score 34 tries in two and a half years for the Storm. Played in the 2016 Grand Final before switching codes to Union, were he played for the Wallabies.
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.
Beau Ryan in the 17? Youโve got to be kidding. Heโs a reggie at best, or more likely, belongs in the old 3rd grade.