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.

 

14. Te Maire Martin

Martin never played an NRL game for the Tigers, though he dominated for their Holden Cup side. He spent the 2014 and 2015 season with the club's Under 20's side, being named in the Holden Cup Team of the Year in both seasons at five-eighth. However, the club decided to let go of Martin, already having Brooks and Moses in their squad. Moving to Penrith ahead of the 2016 season, Martin scored a try and kicked a winning field goal on debut for the Panthers, before going on to play for the Kiwis at the end of the year. He moved to North Queensland mid-way through the following year following an injury to Jonathan Thurston, and took the side all the way to the Grand Final.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 24: Te Maire Martin of the Panthers runs the ball during the round four NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and the Newcastle Knights at Pepper Stadium on March 24, 2017 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.

Comments are closed.