AAA<\/p>\n
A contrite Adam Doueihi says he regrets his decision to sit out last weekend\u2019s loss to Canberra, conceding: \u201cI can be a hard player to deal with\u201d, as Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall refuted suggestions players were vaping in the gym.<\/p>\n
Doueihi returned to training on Tuesday<\/a> and addressed teammates, having clashed with Marshall over the coach\u2019s decision to move him from the halves for last week\u2019s game against the Raiders, which the Tigers lost 56-10<\/a>.<\/p>\n An irate Doueihi took the opportunity to speak his mind, telling the coach he was fed up with the lack of accountability and professionalism<\/a> that had led to another failed NRL campaign, and told Marshall he would not be playing against Canberra.<\/p>\n Doueihi raised several issues over standards at the club, though refused to elaborate on Wednesday morning as he reiterated that he is committed to his three-year deal with the Tigers and is not eyeing an early exit.<\/p>\n \u201cI should\u2019ve played,\u201d Doueihi said, conceding he took Marshall\u2019s positional call \u201cthe wrong way\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back on it, at times as a player I can be a bit stubborn. I spoke to Benji, and I know that at times I can be a hard player to deal with. But he knows, and I know, my love for this club. That has never wavered\u2014it has only gotten stronger now.<\/p>\n \u201cExternally, it is hard at times for people to see that. Looking back on my actions last week, I definitely should have played. I was wrong in that sense. In terms of my conversations with Benji and speaking to him after the game, there was just a bit of miscommunication. I got into a headspace where I lost my head a bit and was off for a short period, and I accept that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hurt watching the boys over the weekend. It really did\u2014knowing I couldn\u2019t be out there for my brothers, for my teammates, for Benji, and especially for the fans. That hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Minutes earlier, Marshall denied suggestions of double standards among the playing group, as well as reports that Tigers players have been vaping in the gym, claiming the stories were \u201cfabricated\u201d, but acknowledged players using e-cigarettes is an issue for the club.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are issues that if they are issues, we\u2019ll definitely address internally among the players,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cI can tell you now that no one\u2019s vaped in the gym, that\u2019s actually fabricated or misinformation.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there a vaping problem? Probably with players, but like with young men, you can\u2019t tell them whether to vape or smoke or whatnot, and I definitely can\u2019t control what they do 24\/7, and I\u2019m not with them all the time, so I don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a culture problem.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about standards and that, there\u2019s probably a few things we might have walked past recently that we need to address … whatever the concerns were from Adam\u2019s perspective, they were all dealt with in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Doueihi said there had been a \u201cmiscommunication\u201d with Marshall, but apologised to fans and said he was particularly disappointed about the situation he left debutant playmaker Javon Andrews in. The former Rabbitohs utility added that his agent, Isaac Moses, was not orchestrating an exit behind the scenes and he was committed to seeing out his contract.<\/p>\n \u201cAs for my future, I\u2019m here for the next three years,\u201d Doueihi said. \u201cI\u2019ve never walked away from a contract in my life. My love for the club is evident in how I\u2019ve been over the past six years here.<\/p>\n \u201cMy love for Benji and for this jersey has only grown stronger now. I said when I signed in 2020 that I wanted to bring this club success, and my stance hasn\u2019t changed. Did I want success to come earlier? Of course. But it hasn\u2019t happened yet, so we just have to keep fighting harder, grinding harder, and raising our standards to be a successful club. That\u2019s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Marshall said his decision to recall Doueihi immediately into his starting side against the Eels, at the expense of rookie Javon Andrews, was the best call in pursuit of a win.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t feel disrespected [by Doueihi\u2019s withdrawal],\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I could see was a young guy who needed support and wasn\u2019t in the head space to play \u2026 I saw a guy who was hurting and who wasn\u2019t in the position to play. You can\u2019t force that.\u201d<\/p>\n The development came just 24 hours after Doueihi held peace talks with Marshall, chief executive Shaun Mielekamp and football manager Pat Richards<\/a>, with the rugby league news cycle dominated by the latest drama to engulf the joint-venture.<\/p>\n Marshall denied it was a case of the tail wagging the dog after he slotted Doueihi straight back into his preferred halfback position.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to say anything [about that],\u201d Marshall said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing is enough because, like I said to you, when you\u2019re coaching, you have to be able to put your ego aside for what\u2019s best for the club and the team and what we need right now. What we need right now is all our best players playing and our senior players playing. We actually need a good performance against Parramatta to give our fans something to cheer about, because we\u2019ve had nothing to cheer about in the last 10 weeks. It feels like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/50b17990d91ac8956bece2c03c5a11faf3f8b9b9.jpeg\")
Adam Doueihi returned to Wests Tigers training on Tuesday.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d8129ad7bef0104f2c571d2600830fcf9dc004a5.jpeg\")
Adam Doueihi and Benji Marshall at training on Tuesday.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785220274_553_1893292baed78cda64338fb24fcf18dba66d3c5e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773949213_774_c6acc0581c14a7477781e092516e1810bef13f2c.png\")
Dan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 29, 2026 \u2014 10:29am,first published July 29, 2026 \u2014 9:29am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-830138","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\/830138","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=830138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}