Balmain legend Ben Elias has slammed the Wests Tigers for their bizarre decision to name a five-man captaincy group.
The Tigers – who have been the NRL’s laughing stock for a decade and have not played a final since 2011 – announced this week that James Tamou, Adam Doueihi, Luke Brooks, Tyrone Peachey, and Ken Maumalo will share leadership duties in 2022.
It’s not the first time the system has been adopted by an NRL club. Newcastle did the same last year after Mitchell Pearce had the captaincy stripped from him.
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But the decision has been largely hammered by Tigers fans, highlighting the dearth of genuine leadership at Concord and adding heat to coach Michael Maguire, who narrowly avoided getting sacked at the end of last season.
“I can’t work it out for the life of me,” Elias told Fox Sports.
“I was very vocal on Doueihi being the captain. I just can’t believe there are five different people.
“There should be a leader in any organisation, especially a football side where you have a captain that you respect and follow through good and bad.
“When you go into a board room to make a decision, you look for your CEO to make the decision. When the referee wants to talk to the captain, who’s he going to talk to – the five of them?
“Why is it five captains? Why not three or nine? How did we land on five? It’s embarrassing.”
The merged club debuted in 2000, after the amalgamation of Wests and Balmain.
The Tigers won the title in 2005, but have only made the finals twice since – in 2010 and 2011.
Maguire was brought in to turn the battling club around, but the team has gone backwards under his tenure – slipping from 9th to 11th to 13th in his three seasons to date.
“I feel so sorry for the supporters,” Elias said.
“I have so many people ringing me, texting and asking ‘what the F is happening at the Tigers’ and I continue to makes excuses, but it runs out. And the five captains just blew me over.”
The Tigers lost 28-4 in a trial game against Manly at the weekend.
They open their season proper on March 12 against Melbourne.
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