Former Wests Tigers winger Beau Ryan has backed his two former teammates, Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah to excel as leaders of the club going forward.
Marshall will officially take over as head coach from 2025, with Farah set to be his lead assistant in the same year.
The pair have been working with the club alongside new coach Tim Sheens and Ryan is confident their presence will help bring more players in.
“If anyone’s going to pull them (the Tigers) out of where they are now, it’s Benji and Robbie,” Ryan said on SEN 1170 All Talk with Hello Sport.
“You need the recruitment factor, when I went to Cronulla I met with (Shane) Flanagan and a lot of former players who pushed the club.
“People aren’t doing that at the Tigers, you go and meet with the recruitment manager and the coach. That's it, you’ve got to sell the club, you have to sell the brand and what it means to people, Benji and Robbie do that better than anyone.
“I don’t think Robbie wanted to coach, to be honest, he’s a smart guy and I think eventually he’ll run the club, but I think he’s doing the right thing by helping Benji.
“They’re going to have a tough two years still and they’ll have to tread water until Benji gets there (as the head coach).”
Ryan also noted how the Tigers' continual changing of plans has heavily affected their ability to recruit.
“A few changes were made and they’ve gone through a few coaches quickly. Everyone always wants to sack a coach, you’re taking steps forward when you hire a coach,” he said.
“Every time you sack a coach you take a big step back, a lot of people are at that club to play for that coach, whether you like to admit it or not players go there for coaches, that’s a fact.
“Every time they’ve taken two steps forward the Tigers, they’ve sacked the coach and taken two steps back, you can see now with (Isaiah) Papali’i and (Api) Koroisau going there, they wanted to play under Madge (Michael Maguire).”
.@therealbeauryan on getting decked by Paul Gallen at a Cronulla Mad Monday! 😂 🦈
— SEN Sydney 1170 (@1170sen) September 16, 2022
All Talk with @HelloSportPod!
Thanks to @NedsAus.
Listen to the full episode here: https://t.co/BXPP9Ifx0r#NRL pic.twitter.com/9LQoQ8yptO
Listen to the full episode on Spotify here!
All Talk with Hello Sport, powered by Neds Australia.