{"id":818245,"date":"2026-07-23T07:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818245\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T07:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:10:12","slug":"breaking-tigers-star-walks-out-refuses-to-play-after-benji-blow-up-over-shock-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818245\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Tigers star walks out, refuses to play after Benji blow-up over shock decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things have gone from bad to worse for the Wests Tigers with star halfback Adam Doueihi sensationally withdrawing from Saturday\u2019s showdown with the Raiders following a reported dispute with coach Benji Marshall.<\/p>\n

The club has confirmed Doueihi won\u2019t play in the nation\u2019s capital, with young gun Javon Andrews now firming to make his NRL debut in the halves alongside Jarome Luai who will join the Eels next year before he moves to PNG.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Daily Telegraph first reported the bombshell news, with Doueihi not training on Thursday after he was told he\u2019d be playing lock instead of in the halves where he\u2019s shone as their best player this year.<\/p>\n

Adam Doueihi won\u2019t play this weekend after a disagreement with coach Benji Marshall. Picture: Brendon Thorne\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam won\u2019t be playing this weekend,\u201d Tigers chief executive Shaun Mielekamp told the Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam and Benji met this morning to discuss a plan for the weekend. Benji made a call on what\u2019s best for the team but as a result Adam has asked for some time off and we agree to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueihi signed a contract extension back in March to remain at the Tigers until the end of the 2029 season, but it\u2019s unclear if this latest development will affect that. <\/p>\n

The Lebanese international was originally named on an extended bench for Saturday\u2019s game but was cleared to play after a successful night at judiciary where he avoided a one-match ban for a high tackle<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He sounded like a guy who was keen to help his team pull off an upset in Canberra. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love being out there with the boys,\u201d Doueihi said after the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to help turn our season around again. It\u2019s a good opportunity to go down to Canberra this week. They\u2019re on the back of a few wins so we\u2019ll go there with an ambush mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueihi has been the club\u2019s best player this year. Picture: Brendon Thorne\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was expected that he\u2019d simply slot in at halfback to partner Luai, but Marshall had other plans which led to him leaving the club\u2019s Concord facilities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest drama for the Tigers who have lost five games on the trot and made the call to let Luai leave early despite him being contracted for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Latu Fainu is also unavailable after he copped a three-match ban at the judiciary. <\/p>\n

They can\u2019t afford to lose Doueihi who has been a key cog in their attack, with Marshall remaining coy when asked about team selections on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou always want your best players playing, and for us, it\u2019s no different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things have gone from bad to worse for the Wests Tigers with star halfback Adam Doueihi sensationally withdrawing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-818245","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\/818245","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=818245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}