Tips: Only two players stopping Tigers from complete embarrassment

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A season of promise for the Wests Tigers hasn’t just fallen off a cliff, the club is in freefall as though it’s “fallen out of a plane”, says Andrew Johns.

Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ NRL Tips before Thursday afternoon’s bombshell Jahrome Luai news dropped, Johns expressed dismay at how poorly the Tigers have been playing in recent weeks.

He said he expected the Warriors to add insult to injury to kick off round 19 on Friday night, while Brad Fittler was horrified by the new season low he saw from Benji Marshall’s side against the Dragons on Saturday, when they lost 24-10 to a team anchored to the bottom of the ladder.

Alarmingly Fittler suggested the Tigers only escaped a thrashing because of the performances of just two players.

“Their loss last week, oooft,” Fittler said. “If it wasn’t for Adam Doueihi and Jahream (Bula) it would have been a bad score.”

Five days after the devastating loss it emerged that Luai would not be hanging around to see out the remainder of his contract next season, with the classy playmaker back on the market for a one-year deal for 2027 before joining the PNG Chiefs for their inaugural season in 2028.

Many believe Luai’s decision to trigger an exit clause so he could join the Chiefs was the catalyst for a downward spiral at the Tigers. They have gone from being a genuine top four chance when their star half jumped on a plane to Port Moresby to being well out of the eight and going backwards nine weeks later.

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Their record since Luai signed with the Chiefs is 2-6. It’s hard to see the latest twist in the $1.2 million a season star’s future being a morale boost, so things could be about to get nasty.

Despite the gathering storm clouds, star fullback Bula, who recommitted to the club long-term in May, said they just needed one confidence boosting victory to turn things around.

“When you lose a few, you probably lose a bit of confidence, but in my opinion, confidence comes from doing the hard parts of the game well,” he said.

“We know we can do it because we’ve seen it (earlier in the season), so that’s where you get the belief from.

“It takes one game to find confidence; it takes one play to find confidence.”

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