Sad news for West Tigers: He will never play again..

“Protected species”: The board of the Tigers’ “circus” is charged with hallucinations and “Stockholm Syndrome.”

The Wests Tigers announced today that coach Tim Sheens will retire at the conclusion of the season, drawing criticism and calls for the board and front office to be a “circus.”

In line with the Tigers’ widely reported five-year plan, Sheens was supposed to take the team’s reins in 2023 and 2024 before giving it to Benji Marshall, his replacement, for the final three years starting in 2025.

The Tigers’ five-year strategy will now be effectively punctured by Marshall’s 12-month tenure as head coach, as Fox League’s James Hooper has provided some insight into Sheens’ choice.

Hooper said on NRL 360, “Well, Braith, send in the clowns. The Wests Tigers have unveiled their latest circus act.”

“The five-year plan, which was formulated during an opulent meal at Grappa restaurant, has been reduced to a four-year duration.

It follows from Sheens’s worries about how long he could continue to serve as head coach and front-man for the Wests Tigers.

The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis added that Sheens, who held the club’s head of football role in 2021, wanted to scale back and “transition back” in to that position next year, to which the Tigers nixed.

“The club has used this opportunity to fast track him out the door and keep him on as a potential ambassador or sounding board but Tim Sheens won’t have a hands-on role,” Sheens’ agent informed Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis last week about his belief that he was no longer in the right state to remain the club’s head coach, so bang, Benji Marshall has been saloon passaged straight in.

It wasn’t expected when Sheens joined the Tigers in 2021 that he would ever serve as head coach. However, a few weeks later, at the aforementioned lunch, veteran journalist Phil “Buzz” Rothfield asked Sheens if he would ever want to be head coach again following Michael McGuire’s firing in June 2022.

Sheens won a championship in 2005 during his tenure as the Tigers’ coach from 2003 to 2012. Before rejoining the merging club in 2021 and taking on the role of head coach once more for the 2023 campaign, he hadn’t been back in the NRL since.

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Carayannis remarked, “When Buzz asked the question, I almost fell out of my chair when Tim said yes.”

“I found it difficult to understand how they intended to return to Tim.”

Braith Anasta, co-host of NRL 360, attacked Hagipantelis and Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe, criticizing his former team for the hiring process of Sheens as head coach.

You spoke with Lee Hagipantelis today, Hoops. For the benefit of your Tigers supporters, Justin Pascoe didn’t even respond to our attempts to have him on the show, Anasta stated.

You mention that Sheens lacks experience in the current game and isn’t prepared, among other things. Don’t the club’s leaders have anything to answer for? Can they continue to circle in circles and make these terrible decisions? It’s a circus.

They keep doing the same thing over and over again, and we get criticism for talking about them on our show. What was Lee’s personal statement?

According to Hooper, the Tigers chairman is “delusional” and the team failed to conduct adequate research on Sheens.

“Since Tim Sheens was fired the first time, it’s been a road to nowhere,” Hooper remarked.

“I’ll give Lee credit where credit is due; he came up and answered the difficult questions, but I do believe that Lee is somewhat deluded and suffers from Stockholm syndrome.

“That board is actually a sanctuary for endangered species; Pascoe, the CEO, is also a protected species; Lee acknowledged this to me during our interview this afternoon, saying, ‘Look, we are a private entity, we don’t answer to anybody.'”

They obviously want to succeed, but they have no idea how to get there or what success looks like. In the hopes of hitting something, they are flinging darts into the darkness.

Regarding Lee, he’s a fantastic speaker. He is able to speak