The Wests Tigers’ dismal attacking performances in their back-to-back losses to open the campaign have come in dire contrast to the off-season claims that they would be an attacking force this season.
But the team has been torn to shreds for their atrocious attacking effort against the Knights, with Paul Kent declaring the ‘rudderless’ Tigers failed to even understand ‘Football 101’.
The NRL 360 panel took aim at Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis for his claim that the side needed just ‘a little bit more in attack’, with Kent saying the struggling club was just ‘pretending and bull****ting to everybody’.
Hagipantelis said on SEN Radio on Tuesday: “It was very unexpected, it was disappointing.
“Let’s just give it a little bit more time, the performances were substandard both weekends. A little bit more in attack and we would have won both games.”
Kent couldn’t help but laugh at that claim, joking: “If my aunty had wheels, she’d be a bike! Of course if they attacked better they would have won the game – every team from the weekend could have said that!”
But the “It’s easy to identify, it’s hard to fix. The problem is the Tigers are rudderless in attack … their attack was awful. They look like a team that don’t know how to attack.
“There was a period there where Api Koroisau looked around and basically threw his hands up in frustration at dummy half, because he didn’t know what they were doing. Didn’t know who wanted the ball or where they were going.
“For a first grade NRL team, who are full time footballers, who are professionals, who are supposed to train every day, it’s unacceptable! It’s unacceptable that a team doesn’t know how to (attack).”
He echoed Cooper Cronk’s disappointment that the Tigers completely failed to capitalise on the battered Knights’ injury woes – with Wests never adjusting their approach to target the middle and grind down the undermanned opposition.
Kent said: “After 20 minutes, your opposition has got one player on the bench, you play through the middle, wear them down, because they can’t replace the big men in the middle.
“That is football 101!”
“That’s what made it so embarrassing too,” Crawley said. “The Knights, as courageous as they were, they weren’t that good! It wasn’t like they were playing the Broncos who caught fire.”
David Riccio urged the team to simplify their attack moving forward: “They’ve got to dumb it down. They have to dumb it down. The entire three months (of off-season) all we’ve heard is how Wests Tigers are going to be this attacking force. Clearly that’s not the case. They have to dumb it down against the Bulldogs. Strip it right back, get back to simply completing sets and getting through their plays.
“The side to side trip, it’s not working.”
Coach Tim Sheens’ decision to race down to the sideline to instruct his team in the closing minutes also raised a few eyebrows.
Crawley said: “The other concerning fact was Tim Sheens on the sideline carrying on like it was a grand final – the concern in his face.”
Braith Anasta said: “When I saw Sheens on the sideline, I thought it looks like a semi-final. There’s five minutes to go and he’s running down from the box.
“There was a sense of panic and urgency for a round 2 game, I thought it just looked a worry … he’s obviously desperate. I reckon he wanted to get the message to his players, he would have been so frustrated watching what they were delivering … He just looked quite desperate there.”
But Kent believes the problems aren’t restricted to the alarming attacking woes, saying Hagipantelis’ claim about simply attacking better was reflective of a lack of accountability at the club.
Kent said: “To what the chairman said today … Part of the problem is that they just don’t own up to their mistakes at the club.
“Until they start owning up and saying: ‘You know what guys? This is not good enough.’ And try to stop pretending and bullshitting to everybody about how well they’re going and what’s really happening at the club. And start fronting up and look at the bloke in a mirror and say ‘it starts with you’, which I don’t think happens a lot out there.
“Until that happens, they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing.”
