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.

 

12. Curtis Sironen

Curtis was destined for a future with the club as soon as his surname was mentioned. His father, Paul, was renowned as one of the best forwards in the game during his thirteen year stint with Balmain, and made the name 'Sironen' synonymous with the Tigers. Despite debuting in 2012 as an 18 year-old five-eighth, Sironen eventually shifted into the back-row, playing 65 games across five years of first-grade with the club, and three games for City. Jason Taylor dropped him to reserve grade in 2016, and with no return to the NRL in sight, Sironen opted out of his contract to sign with the Sea Eagles.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 18: Curtis Sironen of the Sea Eagles celebrates scoring a try during the round two NRL match between the Manly Sea Eagles and the Parramatta Eels at Lottoland on March 18, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/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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