Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall wishes his side wasn’t involved in the first Spoon Bowl battle in nine years, but the Hall of Famer says the experience can be good for his young squad as they look to avoid collecting a third wooden spoon on the trot.
The 6pm Friday game can often be a hard sell, but the last tickets were snapped up earlier this week, with fans pumped for the showdown between the bottom-placed Tigers and the Eels who are in 16th after featuring in the grand final two years ago.
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The Tigers looked set to finish last a few weeks ago but back-to-back wins over the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles – plus the two points they picked up from the bye last round – has them only trailing Parramatta on points differential.
The Eels have also been competitive in recent weeks and are coming off a 44-40 shootout win over the Dragons, with the blue and golds looking to finish their horror year with a win before new coach Jason Ryles takes over.
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“I’d rather not be playing it,” Marshall said.
“It’s a big game atmosphere for some of our young guys to experience what that is like, even though we are playing at the bottom of the table.
“At the same time, when you have a season like we’ve had, you need to assess where you’re at and identify the things that probably need to be better.
“We will try and give our fans something positive to talk about.
“It’s a long off-season and all the fans will talk about either if you won the spoon or you avoided the spoon.”
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Tigers skipper Api Koroisau was involved in the most recent Spoon Bowl in 2015 when the Panthers beat the Knights 30-12 in the final round to jump four spots on the ladder, with the side to take confidence from their epic win over the Eels on Easter Monday.
“I love it. It’s put a bit of novelty on the end of the year,” he said.
“Sometimes you get here and there’s nothing up for grabs, but for us, this is pretty important because we don’t want to come last.”
While some of their veterans have struggled this year, the Tigers have been able to blood some exciting local juniors who have shown plenty of promise.
Tony Sukkar will join that list on Friday night, with Marshall hopeful that his young squad will benefit from the adversity they’ve faced this season going forward when guys like Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva arrive to strengthen the side.
“One thing that is clear to me is we want to build success long term, not just overnight,” he said, with the club looking to return to the finals for the first time since 2011.
“Hence why we’ve taken this approach with our local juniors and not making kneejerk signings to try and win now. It’s about the long term.
“The experiences from this year will put us in better stead for next year but again some of these guys are not going to hit their peak for another three or four years.
“Some of the guys, what they’re doing at 18 or 19, I couldn’t have imagined doing that.
“When they turn 22 or 23, this education they’re getting now is going to be invaluable.”
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