The Wests Tigers' woes continue to get even worse with a disappointing defeat to the St George Illawarra Dragons in the 'Battle of the Wooden Spooners'.
Not only does the loss make it the club's seventh in a row, but it solidifies that the Tigers will finish at the bottom of the table, earning themselves their second wooden spoon in back-to-back seasons.
The club were competitive throughout the entirety of the 80 minutes but struggled in patches which showed due to the lack of experienced skilled players in the halves. However, re-entering the team for the second time since Round 4, Daine Laurie showed promise in the five-eighth role.
Set to finish on the bottom of the NRL ladder at the end of the season, barring a miracle, Sheens was quizzed post-match on how he plans to motivate the squad despite a terrible couple of years.
โThey are professionals, and I understand what you are saying about motivation, but by the end of every week, they are ready to play,โ Sheens said after the game.
โThere is ups and downs and media and so on around our club, but as Benji and I have said to the players, you are paid to play professional football, and that's what you have got to do.
โYou can't bring your home to work, and you can't take your work back home. You have got to learn to be able to do those things and keep focused on what you are doing at the moment.
โIt's their living, and if they want to continue to make a decent living, then they have got to do better than that.โ
Adding to the Tigers' woes, Shawn Blore could be out indefinitely after he was ruled out of the game before kick-off with a quad injury he sustained during the warm-up. The club is yet to confirm the extent of his injury or how long he will be out on the sidelines.
โSome drama in the final minutes of the warm-up with Shawn Blore who was due to start at lock straining a quad muscle and his place will be taken by Fonua Pole,โ Warren Smith said on Fox League on Thursday at the start of the game.
Dragons showed some ticker last night. We knew the Tigers would be up for it and if Sloan hadn’t let the team down by being binned I think Dragons would have won comfortably. Can I just say that Sloan is possibly the worst defender in NRL history and I doubt he could tackle the women in the NRLW that ran straight at him. He technique is an utter joke and honestly I cannot see how his defense can improve given this is his second season. Lomax is killing it at the moment. Since Griffin departed Lomax is heading back to the form of 3 years ago. I’d put him to FB and punt Sloan to NSW cup until he can learn to tackle and show some ticker in defense. He just gives up when beaten. He should watch how other small guys like Reese Walsh defend. It’s up to Carr to either get his attitude right or punt him.
Give Sloan a pre-season under Shane Flanagan and see what he’s like next year.
Carr can’t change any player’s attitude because the players know he won’t be in charge next year – so they can safely ignore whatever he says.
Although the season is shot, Carr is probably loath to kick Sloan into the reggies in case he takes offence and demands a release etc ie Carr will want to avoid queering the pitch for Flanagan.