{"id":884638,"date":"2026-09-08T16:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884638\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:34:17","slug":"nrl-news-2026-john-morris-leaves-wests-tigers-benji-marshall-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884638\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: John Morris leaves Wests Tigers; Benji Marshall shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/benji-marshall-25ao\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benji Marshall<\/a> is about to put change through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/wests-tigers\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a> has come with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/john-morris-25sx\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Morris<\/a> departing as assistant coach. <\/p>\n<p>Morris has been at the Tigers since 2024 after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2023-paul-gallen-calls-out-really-really-poor-antics-of-south-sydney-coaches-after-dramatic-week-sam-burgess-jason-demetriou-john-morris-20230826-p5j6ro.html\" class=\"sc-iRgEWu hHENWX\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leaving the Rabbitohs the previous year during the messy Sam Burgess exit<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6a0e534e2606083f16fcfb11e30b16b3a2b2d7bad5d2eb6df626c4dec97a80c9.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">John Morris and Benji Marshall.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n<p>Marshall\u2019s tenure as head coach at the Tigers started with Morris joining the club as well, having been teammates during their playing days. <\/p>\n<p>The former Sharks head coach was signed on a four-year deal but won\u2019t see out the contract as Marshall looks to make change after another disappointing season. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBomber\u2019s experience and professionalism has been invaluable to me and the team, especially as a new head coach. I will always be thankful and grateful for his support,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;John is a very accomplished coach, and I wish him all the very best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wests Tigers chief executive Shaun Mielekamp was thankful for the former hooker\u2019s contribution to the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn\u2019s a great family man and someone we\u2019ve really enjoyed having in our program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re grateful for his contribution to the Wests Tigers over the last three seasons and wish him all the best in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn has a long history with the Wests Tigers and remains a valued member of our alumni.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Tigers boss added a review was under way into the men\u2019s program to ensure the club could turn around its fortunes. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re currently working through a review of our men\u2019s program \u2013 which is standard practice after any season \u2013 led by our senior manager of NRL, Pat Richards,\u201d Mielekamp added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a process that will look at all elements of our program and set the foundations for the 2027 season and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marshall\u2019s team around him has become a point of scrutiny since he took charge as head coach, with a distinct Tigers old boys flavour in coaching positions. <\/p>\n<p>His former teammates Chris Heighington and Brett Hodgson hold assistant coaching roles while Richards played in the 2005 grand final with that group too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first sign Benji Marshall is about to put change through the Wests Tigers has come with John&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-884638","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\/884638","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=884638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}