{"id":826855,"date":"2026-07-27T11:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826855\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:43:20","slug":"nrl-2026-adam-doueihi-saga-reveals-culture-issues-at-wests-tigers-benji-marshall-contract-isaac-moses-player-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/826855\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Adam Doueihi saga reveals culture issues at Wests Tigers, Benji Marshall, contract, Isaac Moses, player agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ongoing Adam Doueihi saga<\/a> has shone a light on the depths of the Tigers\u2019 cultural problems and prompted a brutal call on the star halfback\u2019s future at the club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Doueihi sensationally withdrew from last Saturday\u2019s showdown with the Raiders following a reported dispute with coach Benji Marshall.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season 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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After winning at the judiciary earlier in the week, Doueihi assumed he\u2019d come back into the Tigers team at halfback for the Raiders clash.<\/p>\n

But when Marshall told him he\u2019d be playing in the forwards so young gun Javon Andrews could make his NRL debut in the halves alongside Jarome Luai, Doueihi opted out of playing entirely.<\/p>\n

The Tigers went on to be smashed 56-10 and journalist Brent Read, speaking on NRL 360 on Monday night, slammed Doueihi\u2019s attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve read stories for days about how Adam Doueihi was trying to shine the light on this football club and help this football club. He has smashed this football club with his behaviour. Smashed it,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Adam wants to go at the end of the year, I\u2019m telling him \u2018there\u2019s the door, don\u2019t let it hit you on the way out\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to go and front those players who he let down at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wests Tigers player Adam Doueihi has been slammed for his actionsSource: Supplied<\/p>\n

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CRAWLS: \u2018Get over it\u2019: Why Tigers, and NRL, must draw line in sand with Doueihi<\/a><\/p>\n

NRL great Gorden Tallis said if Doueihi was so willing to help change the culture at the Tigers, he should have done what Marshall asked him to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to change the culture, if you want to be leading, and if you want to be a leader of that organisation, you play wherever the coach wants you to play,\u201d Tallis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that there\u2019s a lot of players that didn\u2019t want to play in certain positions, but they did it for the blokes beside them. I was disappointed that he didn\u2019t play for his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Dean Ritchie argued that Doueihi was a \u201chighly principled\u201d man who would stand his ground if he believed he was being treated poorly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he wants to be a martyr here. I think he wants to try to help the club change these perceived issues,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n

Read fired back: \u201cYou don\u2019t help the club by sitting on the sideline when they\u2019re going to Canberra and getting walloped like they were on the weekend. That does not help the club. That damages the club, and it damages the club immeasurably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Adam wants to change that (culture), you don\u2019t change it by not playing football. You don\u2019t change it by walking out of the footy club. You change it by staying there and driving standards. That\u2019s how you change those sort of things,\u201d Read said. <\/p>\n

“Tigers players are vaping in the gym?” | 01:12<\/p>\n

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Read went on to highlight perceived culture issues at the Tigers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s long been rumours that certain players get treated differently and Ritchie even suggested that some players are vaping in the club gym. <\/p>\n

Ritchie said the next six weeks of the season were a defining moment for Marshall\u2019s career. <\/p>\n

He said the coach needed to draw a line in the sand and let everyone know who the boss at the Tigers is. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an ideal moment for him to really show his power and to show the fact that he is in charge of this club,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n

When host Braith Anasta asked Tallis what Marshall\u2019s next move should be, he said he needed to fall back on an old mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe rings Wayne (Bennett),\u201d Tallis said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe rings a couple of old coaches that have been around, and I\u2019m pretty sure they\u2019d help him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueihi to return to Tigers training | 01:43<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, with Jarome Luai already headed out the door and Doueihi a chance of following at the end of the year, naturally questions have also been asked of the Tigers\u2019 recruitment and roster management. <\/p>\n

To that extent, the next challenge for Marshall will be on what kind of players he potentially brings into this youthful core to help them take the next step towards the finals.<\/p>\n

Ritchie called for Marshall, for example, to start signing players with character like Penrith\u2019s Liam Martin who is free to talk to clubs on November 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019d be ideal for that club,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n

Anasta, meanwhile, said it was important the Tigers handled the next period in the right way and showed strong leadership in order to be able to attract players from rival clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve always got to hold your integrity in these moments, and that\u2019s why the Doueihi situation is a tough one because you don\u2019t want anyone doing that at your club,\u201d Anasta said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why they probably should take a strong stance and not play him this week because there are punishments for your actions. If you\u2019re not putting the team first, you get punished for that. The club looks strong if they do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ongoing Adam Doueihi saga has shone a light on the depths of the Tigers\u2019 cultural problems and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-826855","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\/826855","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=826855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}