BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Experienced rugby league administrator Shane Richardson says Wests Tigers must get their recruitment strategy and long-term planning right if they are to rise off the bottom of the NRL.
Richardson has served as the CEO of Cronulla, Penrith, Souths, Gateshead and worked for the NRL. Wests claimed the wooden spoon in 2023 and have not finished higher than ninth on the NRL ladder, or made the semi-finals, since 2011.
Richardson believes the Tigers have too often gone for “big hits” in terms of high-profile signings, looking for star players outside of the club without already having the building blocks inside their roster in place.
He says the club has not had patience and put faith in developing their own players through their own pathways into first-grade.
“The Wests Tigers have got an unbelievable recruitment area,” he told The Bye Round with James Graham podcast.
“They’ve got an unbelievable mob of juniors coming through. They won the Harold Matthews Under-16s competition a few years ago, they’re more than competitive at SG Ball, so they’ve got all things in place like Penrith, like Parramatta, to come through.
“But instead of actually working towards a plan to get that through, they charge off and they chase players that they’re never going to be a chance of picking up.
“They might say well if you don’t try… but instead of looking at the next player down that will come, that will do the job, their recruitment policy is not about getting the middle right and then the specials, they never got this right.
“And they’ve not put the pathways through. No kid will leave a club if he thinks he’s going to be the halfback in three year’s time.
“He’ll leave the club when he shuts off to him. So when you bring players in you’ve got to think what opportunities you’re blocking off for the kids coming through.
“And if you do that, and you allow for that in your planning, those kids will stay with you and that’s where you’ll get your loyalty.
“But Wests don’t do that, they want the big hit. That’s why they get beat every week.”
The Tigers have had nine different head coaches since Tim Sheens was sacked in 2012. Benji Marshall has taken over for the 2024 campaign.
“At the end of the day Wests got to beat that so that the players they’re bringing in, which they’re doing at the moment, become that layer underneath,” Richardson says.
“The other ones will come.
“They’re not going to come unless you pay them for a fortune, or if they can see a pathway forward to be successful.”
