Wests Tigers have locked in their coach for the 2022 NRL season but that certainly doesn’t guarantee the club will improve on this year’s 13th-placed finish.
Attention now turns to the playing roster, with a number of members already on the way out but not many coming in to improve the team’s quality for next season.
The club recently confirmed Russell Packer, Billy Walters, Michael Chee Kam, Moses Mbye, and Joey Leilua will not return to Concord once their contracts expire at the end of October.
The Tigers have largely struggled in the rugby league marketplace in recent years, missing out on a number of quality players and now they face entering next season without a marquee signing.
This week, respected league figure Phil Gould urged the Tigers to focus long-term rather than look for a quick fix and spend big on one or two players.
NRL legend Andrew Johns, however, says the club needs to hit the market to find a specific type of recruit.
Storm workhorse Dale Finucane snubbed the Tigers to sign a multi-year deal with Cronulla from next year, but Johns says they must now look for his doppelganger.
“If I was at Wests Tigers the first guy I’d buy would be a Dale Finucane. But the challenge is, to buy Finucane at this stage of his career you might have to pay $700,000,” Johns told Wide World of Sports (watch video above).
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“They’ve got to find a Dale Finucane who is 20, 21 (years old). Who does all the dirty work in the middle that you don’t see, pressuring kickers and all that.
“They need to find that sort of player. Selfless, hard working, who will do anything possible for his team and his teammates to win.
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“They’ve got to change the roster, they’ve got to get some guys are that hungry for success.
“To do that you’ve got to have players who buy into the club, who love the club and would do anything for the club. The model is from Penrith, to see what Penrith has done the last five or six years, bring all those players through.
“(The Panthers) really care about the place and they care about winning, and that’s what the Tigers have got to do.”
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Finucane may be off the market but there’s another experienced forward up for grabs who the Tigers wouldn’t have to pay big money for.
Tariq Sims has been told by the Dragons he is free to look elsewhere, and so is very much looking for a new immediate.
“I think Tariq has got two more really good years in him, and he’s a real pro, a really good fella,” Johns said.
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“I think he would really buy in, he would be a good influence on some of those young backrowers, those young forwards coming through.
“They need to find that style of player or players, which is in that Dale Finucane mould. (Scott) Sorensen from the Panthers and Jack Williams from Cronulla are two of those. They just work and work and work and do the work no one sees, but the players see it and the coaches see it.”
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