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.

 

10. Andrew Fifita

Now this is a stuff up. A big one. Fifita played for the Wests Tigers Holden Cup side in 2009, before eventually making his NRL debut in early 2010. He would go on to play 39 games for the club, making his international debut for Tonga and being included in a New South Wales development squad - in just two years in the top grade. He was then released at the end of 2011 to make way for the Tigers' new star signing - Adam Blair. And now? Blair was labelled one of the worst recruits in history, while Fifita went on to win an Origin series and a World Cup before eventually scoring the winning try for Cronulla in the 2016 NRL Grand Final. Go figure.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 10: Andrew Fifita of the Sharks takes on the defence during the NRL Elimination Final match between the Cronulla Sharks and the North Queensland Cowboys at Allianz Stadium on September 10, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/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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