{"id":339749,"date":"2025-12-10T16:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339749\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T16:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:20:20","slug":"wests-tigers-stunning-development-with-ofarrell-on-verge-of-return-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339749\/","title":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers\u2019 stunning development with O\u2019Farrell on verge of return"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, the biggest news for long-suffering fans will be revelations that Marshall will remain coach in the long term. Sources not authorised to speak publicly have told this masthead that club officials are deep in negotiations with Marshall and his management. While a contract has not yet been signed, all parties are hopeful of finalising an extension shortly.<\/p>\n

It has been a baptism of fire for Marshall since taking over as head coach<\/a> from long-time mentor Tim Sheens. The Tigers earned the wooden spoon in the former champion playmaker\u2019s first season in charge, but there were some positive signs as they climbed the ladder four spots to finish 13th this year.<\/p>\n

That has been aided by Marshall\u2019s ability to help attract talent, with Jarome Luai recently reiterating<\/a> that playing under the former Golden Boot winner was one of the reasons why he chose to switch from four-time premiers Penrith. Terrell May, Sunia Turuva and Taylan May also said they were attracted by the opportunity to learn and play under the Kiwi international.<\/p>\n

In making an early call on Marshall, Tigers officials hope several big-name stars \u2013 Luai and Jahream Bula in particular<\/a> \u2013 decide to also commit to the club long term. Luai has a clause that allows him to leave the club at the end of 2025 if he chooses, while there is a mutual option in Bula\u2019s contract for his services beyond next season.<\/p>\n

The vacant board positions will be filled at a meeting of directors on December 15.<\/p>\n

The HBG has also moved to assure all stakeholders that Balmain will remain a part of the joint-venture.<\/p>\n

Tigers utility Adam Doueihi on Wednesday spoke glowingly of Marshall\u2019s evolution as an NRL coach since playing alongside him at the end of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play for Benji, he\u2019s our head coach,\u201d Doueihi said at a promotion for El Jannah chicken. \u201cHe steers the ship every day so we follow his lead. Benji\u2019s been good to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been under him for a few years now and he\u2019s really grown every week.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really started to grow into a really solid head coach. I\u2019m starting to learn a lot under him. He\u2019s learned a lot from the past few years working under Sheensy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueihi, who has played every position except prop and second row in his eight-year career, has been training in the halves this pre-season, having finished 2025 at halfback when Latu Fainu was injured.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old declined to comment on Richardson\u2019s exit and the boardroom upheaval at the club beyond insisting the Tigers are on the right trajectory under Marshall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have gone backwards from where we were [as 2024 wooden spooners],\u201d Doueihi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep trying to climb that ladder. We don\u2019t really have time to think or worry about any external noise or anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you get distracted mentally and physically, you won\u2019t last throughout these pre-season days because they\u2019re that tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, the biggest news for long-suffering fans will be revelations that Marshall will remain coach in the long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-339749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}