By now, almost everybody has seen the video.

Of Benji Marshall, the once freestyled, flick-passing five-eighth, now entering his third year as head coach of the Wests Tigers and laying down the law.

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“We’re big on standards and if you don’t make your f***ing times consistently and you can’t perform and you’re not professional, you’ll be out of here,” Marshall warned.

Is that right?

“It’s happened,” Marshall continued, “trust me”.

“We’ve been through this s***. We’re not doing that anymore.

“At the Wests Tigers we f***ing now stand for something and if you’re not prepared to follow what we stand for, guess what.”

At which point, Marshall motioned towards the door. Message sent. Message received?

At that stage, he had no idea. It was early in the pre-season and would be at least a few months before his players were actually on the field playing for competition points.

And externally, even if there were some fans who were hanging on to every single of his words, for others they were just that: words.

False hope. Broken promises.

It wasn’t something that was lost on Marshall though. He knew he had to change. He knew this team needed to change. But he also knew none of it would matter unless the results did too.

The 44-16 win against the Cowboys was their first in their opening match of a season since 2020, and it was their biggest first-up victory ever.

Now, the Tigers have a chance to start a season 2-0 for the first time since 2019.

Five remain after Benji roster clean out

It is easy to forget this is a very different roster to the one Marshall inherited when he first started as assistant coach in 2022 and then took over from Tim Sheens in late 2023.

Jackson Hastings was the biggest of the 11 names to depart in 2023, while that season saw the arrival of one of Marshall’s now key figures in upholding his standards: Api Koroisau.

David Klemmer, Isaiah Papali’i and John Bateman were among some of the other high-profile players to arrive at the club in 2023, but they all were quick to move on.

Then, after more than a decade, Luke Brooks departed in 2024 along with another long-time Tiger in David Nofoaluma while Latu and Samuela Fainu walked through the doors, emerging as two key pieces in the rebuild under Marshall.

Fast-forward to last season and Marshall brought in two more premiership winners from Penrith to help drive standards in Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva, while Terrell May also joined the club from the Roosters.

There were still challenges and tough calls to be made. Jake Simpkin and Tommy Talau, young players who had debuted at the Tigers and were once seen as the future of the club, left for Manly before the start of 2025.

Papali’i, one of their marquee recruits from just a few years prior, departed too for Penrith, while former CEO Shane Richardson famously declared “we want people that are in for the fight” in the wake of Stefano Utoikamanu’s exit.

That was just the start of the drama for Marshall, who then had to deal with the Lachlan Galvin saga and Tallyn Da Silva’s early exit.

By the end of it all, just five players remained at the club through the duration of Marshall’s coaching career since first starting as assistant coach in 2022: Adam Doueihi, Alex Twal, Alex Seyfarth, Fonua Pole and Starford To’a.

But they, along with the fresh faces in the team, have seemingly bought into the new vision that Marshall has for the club: one that blends the high-wire act with hard work.

— You can read read more about Benji Marshall’s Tigers transformation on foxsports.com.au

Originally published as Brutal detail in Benji Marshall’s roster clean out