Wests Tigers forward John Bateman is adamant the club’s latest civil war won’t hinder their bid to avoid successive wooden spoons.
The Tigers’ status as the NRL’s most in-turmoil club took a new turn over the weekend when reports emerged of a feud between assistant coach Benji Marshall and recruitment boss Scott Fulton.
Marshall is being groomed to replace Tim Sheens as the club’s head coach in 2025 but it appears he and Fulton, who was parachuted in from Manly earlier this year, are already at loggerheads.
The Tigers are on the hunt for a new halfback after Luke Brooks agreed a deal with the Sea Eagles for next season, with Fulton and Marshall’s apparent inability to agree on a replacement threatening to boil over.
Aiden Sezer, Brodie Croft and Jack Cogger have all been tossed up as potential solutions to the club’s playmaking dilemma.
Fulton and Marshall were set to meet on Monday, but neither they nor Sheens - who doubles as the club’s head of football - spoke to the media.
Bateman stepped up to face the music in their absence and revealed the squad had got together and agreed they could not allow the off-field drama to consume them.
“That’s not my job. My job is on the field and we’re not doing our job,” Bateman said.
“The boys are pretty blase, you’ve got to be in this game. You can’t let stuff get to you.
“It’s not our job … I don’t get paid to do that, if I did I’d be sat behind a desk.
“We’ve got more to focus on than what they have, to be fair.”
The off-field distraction will do nothing to lift the pressure for the Tigers, who face their most important game of the season on Thursday when they travel to meet second-from-bottom St George Illawarra.
The match looms as pivotal in the shoot-out for the wooden spoon as the Tigers stare at back-to-back last-placed finishes.
“It’s pretty s**t, losing,” said Bateman, who styles himself as one of the NRL’s toughest competitors.
“I came here to win and you go through the dressing room and everybody else wants to win.
“I don’t care how we win, I just want to win.”
While the club bicker over their next No.7, one man whose place at the Tigers is no longer up in the air is forward Shawn Blore.
Blore, who previously captained the NSW State of Origin under-18s, was linked with a move to the Super League earlier this year but the 22-year-old has been told he is seen as part of the future at Wests Tigers.
“As soon as I saw (the rumours of a move) I went and had a conversation with Sheensy and Benji,” Blore said.
“They reassured me my place was at the Tigers. That’s all I needed to hear.”
