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| Taylor has made a decion that could define his time a the Tigers. |
The Wests Tigers
must show they’ve learnt their lesson and back Jason Taylor to the hills. Almost
12 months ago the Wests Tigers board sacked then Head Coach Mick Potter, ending
his two-year time in the role. The Tigers claimed that Potter’s contract was
merely ‘not renewed’ and that he wasn’t sacked. During a tumultuous term as
Head Coach in which he seemed to be under the spotlight from day one till the
end, Potter made critical decisions to move the team forward into the future,
similar to those Jason Taylor has now made. Potter was sacked; make no mistake,
but will last year’s lesson allow Taylor to survive the current scrutiny?
Coach Taylor
has made a ballsy call. Pushing your club captain out the door, publicly, is as
big as it gets. When your captain is a club-stalwart, life-member and fan-favourite,
it’s an even bigger call. But is it justified? Only time can really be the
judge of that, but Farah, at 31, has probably reached a similar situation to
that of Benji Marshall; he has become stale. On a huge deal, worth almost a
million dollars, with a couple of years to go, and with an indication from the
coach to let the club’s young halves’ take the reins, Farah has probably been
sitting back, knowing that the club is going to be able to get away with some
mixed results for the next year or two as they have a new coach and a young
team. A Tiger for his entire career, Farah will probably ultimately benefit
from heading elsewhere and starting fresh. But will the Tigers benefit from
losing him?
His contract
is obviously taking up too much space in the Wests Tigers’ cap, which is an
issue for a club that has focused on retaining its youth. Fair call from Taylor
if they need the space, he’s been appointed to make these decisions. The Wests
Tigers said in their statement following Mick Potter’s sacking that the new
coach would be ‘given complete control over the appointment of all key football
staff and his playing roster’. By golly they will be under some pressure to remain
steadfast with this position considering the current media show surrounding
Farah’s dumping.
Farah has
been a player that has attracted plenty of attention over the years, many a
time in the media. He had the ‘ambush’ with Matty Johns, the comments that ‘Mick
Potter can’t coach’ that Gordon Tallis revealed on live radio, and he’s had to
deal with his apparent poor relationship with Benji Marshall. Overall, Robbie
Farah doesn’t have the no-nonsense approach like a Cooper Cronk or Cameron
Smith, he seems to have an aura around him. A player happy to speak up on
player issues, even touted as a future administrator in the game, Farah just
always seems to be involved in something.
So maybe
Jason Taylor is right to try and let him go now, it will give himself and the
club the best chance to build a roster for the future, sooner rather than
later. Keeping a player around so they can finish their career as a one-club
player is a theory of romance, but it can only happen if that player is busting
their ass until the end. Robbie Farah is a fan of Liverpool Football club, so
he would know that Steven Gerrard and The Reds parted ways because the club had
to plan for the future, and Gerrard didn’t want to take a backward step by
staying with them. Gerrard is now living the dream on the west coast of the
United States. Liverpool, are now trying to climb out of the post-Gerrard era.
They parted ways, it was done, simple. Farah’s situation is a bit different
considering he has a couple of years to run on his contract, but the
comparisons are there.
Where would
the Wests Tigers be if Mick Potter was still their coach? He made the courageous
call to get rid of Benji Marshall, to improve the culture of the club, and look
where that got him. Taylor has made virtually the same type of decision, and
club chairwoman, Marina Go, has stated that it’s to improve the culture of the
club, to build a winning culture. Her comments have done nothing but continue
the public relations disaster of the last week, but it will now be up to her
and the Wests Tigers board to back their decision, and their coach.
Last time
this happened, the pressure got too much and the coach was moved on. This time,
surely they’ve learnt their lesson.