‘I’ve got to apologise to our fans’: Marshall reflects on Wests Tigers performance

“There’s no one in our team that could probably say they played good.”

Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall has issued an apology to fans after the Cronulla Sharks decimated the club on Friday night 58-6.

Firming to claim their third consecutive wooden spoon, the Tigers remain on the bottom of the NRL ladder with a miserable points difference of -203 as they enter the final rounds of the competition.

Conceding 138 points in the past three weeks, they have been completely outplayed by the Sharks, Storm, and Roosters. They also continue to display and demonstrate a poor attitude and inconsistencies on both ends of the field.

Starting the game off strong on Friday night, it was all Cronulla after the opening ten minutes of the match.

Surprisingly, the Tigers even looked like taking the lead at one point after four back-to-back sets within the Sharks 20-metre line before an intercept from Jesse Ramien changed up the game.

The Sharks would end up scoring ten tries throughout the 80 minutes of play with a hattrick for Ronaldo Mulitalo and a double to Sione Katoa.

“I’ve got to apologise to our fans,” coach Benji Marshall said after the match.

“When you take the field, you’ve got to choose the right attitude, and tonight they ran harder and tackled way harder than us and it showed on the scoreboard.

“We haven’t seen that all year.

“When you take the field, you’ve got to take the right attitude with how hard you want to tackle and how hard you want to run.

“They ran harder and tackled harder than us and had way more energy than us.

“If it was a weekly occurrence then I’d probably know more, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it this year.

“There’s no one in our team that could probably say they played good.”

 

 

The West Tigers’ next few weeks don’t get any easier as they face the South Sydney Rabbitohs next week in Gosford before heading across the ditch to take on the New Zealand Warriors.

Lacking discipline, they could be without skipper Apisai Koroisau in Round 20 after he sustained a calf injury, while forward Alex Seyfarth will be absent due to the mandatory concussion protocols.

It won’t be surprising if Marshall makes a plethora of changes for next Saturday’s clash as they face a depleted Rabbitohs team that will be without the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Jai Arrow, Campbell Graham, Tyrone Munro, Isaiah Tass, and Tevita Tatola.