Well it was bound to happen. The NRL expands the comp to 16 teams, and the West Tigers start whinging because they were “Forced” to merge.
When the ARL and SL merged in 1998 the goal was to cut the competition back to 14 teams. Because of this, some teams were forced to merge while other were simply kicked out of the competition.
But what gets lost in that is the fact that mergers were not forced by the new NRL competition. They were forced by long time market forces that saw some struggling clubs having to join forced to assure themselves of a place in the new NRL competition.
The Western Suburbs magpies and the Balmain Tigers were about as bad as you got get when it comes to struggling clubs. Even when they joined forced as the West Tigers it took YEARS for them to be any good and even now…their on field success is not matched by off field success.
For a team that has not cemented its place in the long term future of the NRL, the West Tigers seem to have a problem with their focus. Instead of threatening the NRL with legal action they should look at where their will be in 20 years time.
Currently the Tigers have FOUR home grounds!
One in New Zealand. One in Campbelltown. One in Balmain and the last at Homebush where they play some games at Telstra Stadium.
None of these grounds is a good long term prospect.
The club struggles with sponsorship and STILL struggles to get any reasonable attention from top of the line stars who are coming off contract.
In short, the Tigers need to stop whinging and get their house in order.
