False equivalences
More opinions on rugby league's latest soap opera
Ed note: Apologies for missing last week. I did release two the week prior, plus my parents were in town visiting so I was time poor, I’ve barely had any time until now but let’s get back on the wagon.
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Rugby league fans love rugby league, but if there’s one thing rugby league fans love more than rugby league, it’s drama, and oh boy is there enough drama to fill an entire season of Jerry Springer with the Wests Tigers this week.
For what it’s worth, the Tigers are no strangers to things playing out in the media, and acrimonious exits for key players are almost woven directly into the fabric of the entire institution that is the merger. With every passing public incident fans raise the question, what deal with the devil did the Tigers make for 2005?
A lot has been said in the days since the initial breaking news earlier this week about Lachlan Galvin wanting to test the open market, followed by a confusing club statement flatly stating Galvin would not be at the club past the end of next season. At the time, it felt emotional and short-sighted from the Tigers to close the door so abruptly with so much water to pass under the Iron Cove Bridge. Why alienate any chance of Galvin extending, a lot can change between now and when Galvin hits the open market on November 1st (a ridiculous system by the way but I digress).
Then the media storm happened.
By now you would have seen the articles floating around which I can only really describe as a smear campaign by Galvin’s management against the Tigers, Benji Marshall and the senior leaders at the club. Doubts over Marshall’s coaching style and what he can offer Galvin appear flimsy rhetoric at best. As a 19 year old kid with barely a season of first grade under your belt, what would you know about the style you need?
The assertions that Galvin was frustrated at playing second fiddle to Jarome Luai also laughable and flat out false. For starters, Luai is the club captain, playing first receiver, and is a four time premiership winner, two time State of Origin series winner, and World Cup finalist as the driving force of a Tier 2 nation. A resume most players can only dream of boasting over the course of a career, and one Galvin is light years away from earning. The entitlement is one thing.
But…he’s also not been the backseat playmaker. In fact, Luai has done all he can to accommodate Galvin’s natural ball dominance and running style. The narrative emanating from the Tigers start to the season is how Luai hasn’t quite fired yet.
Galvin has averaged 56.8 ball receipts per game this season, compared to Luai’s 44.8. Receipts are an imperfect statistical measurement, but it backs up the eye test of Luai standing back and letting Galvin be more assertive in attack and living with the results. The Tigers have done everything they can to accommodate Galvin and make him feel like a leader in this team on the park. From Benji handing him the keys as an 18 year old last season to Luai’s comments last year after signing about his excitement to play with the Campbelltown product, you can’t accuse the Tigers of not trying to appease him.
As Luai mentioned today in his media availability, every player has a right to look after themselves financially. Elite sport is a short career, and athletes have limited earning potential. Luai himself acknowledged his decision to leave the Panthers dynasty to sign a big money deal at the Tigers to help set up his family for life.
As Jalen Rose famously says, keep getting dem cheques.
And it’s those comparisons that have annoyed me the most.
People have been quick to try and absolve Galvin and his team by using the history of Jarome Luai, Api Koroisau and Sunia Turuva against them. All three of them signed for the Tigers in advance, for more money or better job security. What they didn’t do is then use the media to indirectly criticise every key decision maker at the club.
Luai has emerged as a central figure in all of this given he signed for the Tigers before the start of the 2024 season (again, quality transfer system we have). At the time, there was a minor public spar between himself and Ivan Cleary around comments Cleary made about whether Luai was worth the money he was seeking, comments which Luai later admitted he took to heart but were ultimately fair.
Luai was excused from training one preseason day after signing the contract to process it. Sunia Turuva was dropped for a week after signing with the Tigers because Cleary felt he wasn’t in the right head space to play. Both then responded by having great seasons en route to helping Penrith win their fourth premiership.
Luai himself used the motivation of proving everyone who said he wasn’t a lead playmaker wrong by having his best season in first grade, stepping into his future halfback role a year early due to Nathan Cleary missing time with injury. He not only kept the Panthers afloat in Cleary’s absence, but he was a huge influence in NSW winning the Origin series, including a Blues decider win at Suncorp for the third time in history.
It’s a long bow to compare the exits of those three from Penrith to what Galvin is doing now.
Now to be totally fair, I am also fairly certain a lot of this is management driven. Isaac Moses is well known in rugby league circles as a…”fierce negotiator”, among other superlatives. He’s previously been de-registered by the NRL, while certain clubs flat out refuse to deal with him. He has his tentacles in at Manly, hardly themselves a pillar of organisational security, it’s not hard to believe a lot of the rhetoric coming from Galvin through the media is the advice Moses is giving.
Not even glancing at the Tigers record offer is a bit on the nose, even if all parties knew it was a lame duck contract. Sometimes a bit of performance goes a long way in the public eye.
There’s a certain element of naivety on Galvin’s part too. He may be getting some incendiary advice and burning bridges (Fonua Pole has been posting through it) at the behest of his management, but all it does is reflect poorly on him.
As for the bullying allegations and the idea of a pile on by the Tigers players in their antics on social media, spare me. In my mind, you lose all sympathy when those claims surface in the media, whether you intended them to or not. Forgive me for not feeling overly sorry for him that his teammates weren’t thrilled by the idea that he thinks the coach is an idiot and he feels stymied behind far superior players (which as I said above isn’t even the case).
We were all stupid, young 19-year-olds once, but this comes with the territory when you get into bed with Tony Soprano.
Given the Tigers have been a major rabble for the better part of 15 years, leakier than a paper mâché sieve, the united front from the players has to be refreshing for their fans. Too often players have used the Tigers as a doormat or halfway house to better things (Mitchell Moses, James Tedesco), or a chance at one last low effort payday. By signing guys from Penrith like Luai, Koroisau and Turuva, there’s a hope the shift in expectations filters down to those only used to losing, and this period is the start of that new beginning.
Luai has said Galvin would be welcomed back into the team if the coach feels he’s in the right frame of mind for it, but for now it’s in everyone’s best interests to take some time apart.
I do think people get too entrenched in their judgements on Luai from the immature player from earlier in his career, when it’s clear his last 12 months have seen a lot of maturation. Being relied upon at Penrith on a week-to-week basis helped, as did being handed the captaincy for Samoa.
It’s clear the players view him as a leader both on the field and emotionally, and that brash showman is evolving. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have the “fuck you” fastball, but the Tigers need confidence and direction, and his leadership this week has been a big part of it.
Wherever Galvin ends up in the future, he better be ready for an orchestra of boos from the Tigers faithful. Fitting that on the week of Easter, he’s nailed himself to the cross.