{"id":855195,"date":"2026-08-14T17:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855195\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:24:12","slug":"from-bad-to-worst-wests-tigers-locked-in-race-to-bottom-among-nrl-clubs-this-century-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855195\/","title":{"rendered":"From bad to worst: Wests Tigers locked in race to bottom among NRL clubs this century | NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collapse of the Broncos, the demise of the Storm: the NRL<\/a> has delivered a season of change. Even if some things never do.<\/p>\n

The Wests Tigers have lost seven matches in a row and, after a promising start in 2026<\/a>, their nosedive is taking them towards the NRL cellar, a place with which they have become familiar.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if the Tigers lose to the bottom side St George Illawarra on Sunday, they will be well down the path toward a new club record of 11 straight defeats this season, given they travel to Penrith, the Roosters and finals contenders the Cowboys in their final three matches.<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s turmoil around Lachlan Galvin<\/a> and the board instability<\/a>, this year there has been the shock, accelerated departure of Jarome Luai<\/a> and an ugly falling out with Adam Doueihi. Though coach Benji Marshall responded to reports two weeks ago by denying his players vape inside the club\u2019s gym, he admitted standards have slipped. From a place of promise at times in the past two seasons, the club is back at square one.<\/p>\n

The Tigers\u2019 absence from the finals will now tick past 16 years, and a fourth wooden spoon in five years is still not out of the question. Indeed, their collapse has taken the merged entity\u2019s win rate below the modern NRL low-water mark from the Northern Eagles\u2019 brief existence \u2013 39.5% over their three seasons until Manly was reborn in 2003.<\/p>\n

It means the Tigers and the Gold Coast Titans<\/a> are locked in a duel to become the worst NRL club of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Table showing the 21st century\u2019s worst NRL club<\/a><\/p>\n

A string of high-profile recruits<\/a> in the past few years including Luai, Api Koroisau and Sunia Turuva has been unable to shift the Tigers\u2019 fortunes. Under more stable ownership of the Holman Barnes Group this year and a new chief executive in Shaun Mielekamp, however, there is now a focus on building the club\u2019s foundations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club has continued to shoot itself in the foot,\u201d Mielekamp told supporter group the Ambush earlier this month, committing to a new focus on pathways which has \u201cnever been unlocked properly\u201d at Concord, Campbelltown and Leichhardt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big project, right, it\u2019s a lot of coaches, it\u2019s a lot of stability, it\u2019s facilities and there\u2019s a shit-tonne that\u2019s in there,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s my message and that\u2019s my focus, there needs to be a long-term fix here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Doueihi and Wests Tigers teammates look dejected during their NRL clash with the Parramatta Eels. Photograph: Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In Sol Saukuru, Mielekamp might have a model for the club\u2019s future. The 21-year-old is top scorer in NSW Cup this year with 20 tries \u2013 four more than anyone else \u2013 and was named to debut by Marshall against the Dragons in the centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been driving some standards around his weight and his fitness, and he\u2019s been meeting them to a tee,\u201d the Tigers coach said. \u201c[He] deserves his opportunity and everyone loves him here, the boys love his personality and now he gets to go and live out his dream and make his debut.\u201d<\/p>\n

A debut club is never easy for a player, but it also affects the team. Simon Strachan, co-founder of Gain Line Analytics and a former Wallabies analyst, has found developing cohesion between players is under-appreciated in both rugby league and union.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Wests Tigers<\/a> are trying to do is, because of bringing in that external talent, it just can\u2019t produce that high level of in-game cohesion, and that influences the ability of the players to execute,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, even if you might have a highly talented player, if they are playing a game with a lack of understanding with those players around them, they\u2019re not going to be able to perform, and this manifests itself strongly in defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing in Saukuru means the winger on the outside and backrower on the inside have to develop connections from scratch. Yet there may be no better time to do it than when a team is out of finals contention, with the longer term payoff making up for short-term pain.<\/p>\n

Jarome Luai was brought in to help change Wests Tigers\u2019 fortunes but will leave the club for Parramatta next year. Photograph: Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Equally, there is an argument that Luai\u2019s presence in the side is preventing others who will actually be at the club next year from gaining experience. Yet Luai engineered the Tigers\u2019 most recent victory, a comeback against the Titans in round 15\u2019s Leichhardt Oval send-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a lot of outside noise, and if you listen to the outside noise, you\u2019ll end up there,\u201d Marshall said, confirming Luai would still play against the Dragons despite the much-vaunted signing leaving for Parramatta next year. \u201cIt\u2019s what I think is best to win the game this week, Jerome\u2019s still going OK for us so we just want him to go and do his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the longer term, the Tigers face a difficult task to not only end their finals drought, but to keep their noses ahead of the Titans in the all-time table. The Gold Coast franchise have won just 38% of the NRL matches they have played since joining the competition in 2007, but in recent years have unearthed promising talents in fullback Keano Kini, lock Cooper Bai, centre Jojo Fifita and halfback Zane Harrison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve gone a more junior, younger route and not necessarily gone with significantly higher-profile signings, so what this enables them to do is create more of a stable environment, and that will allow the players to start playing more to capacity over time,\u201d Strachan said.<\/p>\n

Rugby league\u2019s formula is elusive for all but a few. For now, the Tigers are still looking. \u201cYou can have a butcher\u2019s shop,\u201d said Mielekamp. \u201cIt can have the best marketing, it can have the best people, it can have everything, but if your meat\u2019s rotten, your meat\u2019s rotten, and you\u2019ve got to fix your meat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The collapse of the Broncos, the demise of the Storm: the NRL has delivered a season of change.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-855195","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\/855195","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=855195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}