The Tigers have appointed Tim Sheens as coach for the next two seasons with former club legend Benji Marshall to take over for the 2025 season.
Key points:
- Tim Sheens, Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah have been named as the Wests Tigers coaching team for 2023, with Marshall taking over as head coach in 2025.
- Sheens coached the club until its only prime minister in 2005 before being sacked in 2012
- The 71-year-old was a coach in England from 2017 to 2020 and previously won three first-place finishes with the Raiders in the 80s and 90s.
In a revolutionary coaching appointment, Sheens will return to the club from next season, a decade after he was shown the door, with Marshall and his also 2005 Premier League winner Robbie Farah to act as his adjuncts.
Marshall will then take over as head coach in 2025.
“It’s about the Wests Tigers’ DNA believing in the club and it’s about crafting a solid training plan for the next five years, ”Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe said.
“This is a very clear path for this club and we are delighted to have Tim, Benji and Robbie together for the next phase of our club’s growth.
“Benji and Robbie are two of the most talented players this club has seen, and Tim’s coaching memory speaks for itself.
“These three have achieved almost everything there is to achieve in the game and I know this partnership will be very, very powerful for our club.
Sheens will return as Tigers coach after 10 seasons away from the club. (Andrew Sheargold: Getty Images)
“It also shows that we are putting in place paths not only for our players, but also for our coaches.
“It’s a great day for our club.”
The Tigers fired former coach Michael Maguire last month and Brett Kimmorely is in charge temporarily.
Marshall played 201 games with the Tigers between 2002 and 2013 and only retired last year after spending the 2021 season with South Sydney.
He only brings a little coaching experience with him, having worked with the Junior Tigers since his retirement.
But Tigers midfielder Adam Doueihi said having former players like Marshall and Farah at the club was just what was needed.
“Both have played at the top of the game and are unconditional of the Tigers, they both love the club,” he told reporters.
Farah will help Sheens starting next season. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
“That would give a lot of confidence to the younger guys; we have a good young harvest over the next few years.
“If we get them to mentor people like Benji and Robbie, it’ll just go well at the club.”
Fellow Tiger Jackson Hastings agreed, adding that Sheens would be a great option to restore the jumper’s pride.
“He knows better than anyone the club’s DNA, the tissue of the joint,” he told reporters.
“It would be great for the guys who haven’t been here that long or for the kids who go there, to have someone to aspire to and admire, to have the Tigers’ DNA and to have built it over a few years. .
“He has shown he can bring a club to the top and that’s what we all want to do as players.”
Marshall, who has been working as an analyst this season, recently told Fox Sports that the role of head coach of the NRL would be his “dream job.”
“Being able to be tutored by someone like Tim Sheens and learn under him with a chance to get there … if that’s the route they want to take with me, that’s something I’d be interested in exploring,” he said.
“The dream for me would be to coach the NRL and the Wests Tigers would be an ideal situation.
“I love my job now, but it’s an opportunity I may never have again, the opportunity to try to become a head coach.”
AAP