After three-straight wooden spoons, Wests Tigers are holding out for new heroes

Through three straight wooden spoons, Wests Tigers have lost games in just about every way you can imagine.

They've lost shootouts and low-scoring grinds. They have been beaten by last-second deflections and refereeing blunders and their own ineptitude.

Some of those losses stand out among the rest, terrible islands in a sea of pain, like the ones where the record books came out. There's only been 12 occasions in premiership history where a team has conceded 70 points or more and it's happened twice to the Tigers in the past three years.

All told, they've lost 58 games since the start of 2022. That's almost twice as many defeats as new signing Jarome Luai has suffered in the entirety of his seven-year NRL career.

It's a lot of baggage for the Tigers to try and shed as they work towards what they hope is the end of this troubled run of propping up the rest of the competition.

They've been no stranger to January optimism throughout, much of which has turned to ashes along the way — there have been botched nostalgia plays, recruitment drives that turned out to be more mirage than miracle and assurances that things really will be different this time.

After all that it can be hard to trust much to hope, even if the summer is photos of players who have either slimmed down or bulked up send tongues wagging and elbow their way into cricket-stuffed sports sections as every fans tries to dream of a brighter future.

The Tigers are betting big that Luai can lead them to that future, which really is visible even if it's still far towards the horizon. It might not have seemed like it in the aftermath of the Spoon Bowl humiliation against the Eels, but the Tigers made genuine progress in 2024.

Despite finishing last, there were some bright spots for the Tigers in 2024. (Getty Images: Jason McCawley)

They won more games than either of the other wooden spoon seasons, blooded a host of youngsters and cleaned out a few players who weren't living up to their hefty contracts.

All told, it gave the club a bit of life but now Luai is being tasked with showing them how to live.

On one level, that's an on-field job — in his last two seasons Luai played with far greater control and he did so by using what he's always had. He spent more time at halfback in 2024 than any other season of his career while also running the ball more often and more effectively than ever before.

It allowed him to create more chances for himself and those around him and play-making nous will bring immediate benefits, both with how he runs the team around the park and the space it creates for the likes of Samuela Fainu, the club's reigning player of the year, who is expected to line up with Luai on the left edge.

"Playing alongside him, you don't need to do anything, he does it all for you, he tells you exactly what he wants. I don't know how to describe it," Fainu said.

"I want to be able to bring the club success and if he's going to take charge of that I have to help him out any way I can."

But as much as Luai can have an impact during the 80 minutes each week it's what he can bring the rest of the time that could go even further.

Luai's success has transformed him into one of the games icons. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer )

Much like how James Fisher-Harris gave Penrith their relentless intensity through their four-straight premierships, Luai provided the Panthers with their seemingly boundless energy and bulletproof confidence.

You can see Luai's impact on highlight reels and they're as impressive as you'd expect but he's become a spiritual leader as much as a footballing one.

He stands tall, fears nothing and bows to nobody and through the years with Penrith, New South Wales and Samoa he found a way to transfer that pride into others and his incredible success for club, state and country makes him a living legend to players like Luke Laulilii, who was the youngest player in the NRL last season.

When Luai and the Panthers began their ascendancy back in 2020, Laulilii was just 13 years old. He's grown up knowing nothing but Luai sitting on top of the world so it's no wonder he describes being around the new playmaker as "surreal."

"I couldn't believe he was standing there," Laulilii said.

"The energy we have is different. We have winners in our team now and I can see those changes."

Api Koroisau, who won two premierships with Luai, bore witness to his transformation into a leader of men first-hand and knows precisely what it can bring to the Tigers.

"First time I met him I was at Manly, and we played Penrith at Brookvale. He absolutely waxed me with a left foot , so I started spraying him," Koroisau said.

"I met him properly at the end of 2019, going into pre-season at the Panthers, and you can see why everyone loves him when they meet him.

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"Bloke was a full blown clown when I first got there, he was 19 or 20 and he was this young, flamboyant dude. He's still that guy but he has this other side to him, this leadership side, and he knows how to switch between the two.

"He can be the fun, lovable guy but when it's time to work? He's a great competitor and that's what this team needs, someone who can lead by example in how to compete on everything.

"His leadership and the way he speaks about footy, that's the biggest thing. He'll come into meetings and express how he feels, you want that from someone like him.

"He's never quiet, he's never hesitant, he's always ready to work and his ideas are helping the team."

Betting everything on one player to turn things around is a good way to end up heartbroken, but Luai aside the signs out of Concord have been good.

Much has been written and said about Lachlan Galvin's work in the pre-season and the but he's not alone — Koroisau nominated Tallyn da Silva and Laulilii as two more youngsters who have upped the ante.

Plus there's the rest of the recruitment class outside Luai, highlighted by wing duo Sunia Turuva and Jeral Skelton and tireless prop Terrell May.

On paper, it's the most well-rounded squad the Tigers have had in years and definitely the most exciting. That same pre-season optimism, which has turned to poison three years in a row, is back again.

Summer dreams always feel real while you're in them but this time there is something slightly different — a slight air of expectation, both inside the club and out, of getting a little bit more than what they've got in recent times.

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That's what the players are expecting at least, because that's what the coaching staff are demanding. When you're climbing a mountain the first thing you're told is not to look at the peak, but the Tigers are hell bent on raising their heads a little higher this time around.

"The expectations on this team are to do well. But that's the end result of what happens through the year, you have little wins — and I'm not just talking about winning games, I'm talking about winning at training — so you have to take it slow, be present, stay in the moment," said Koroisau.

"There's so much that can still happen and you have to try to be better every day.

"The young guys are getting more comfortable, they're starting to express themselves, which is exactly what you need if you want to be successful.

"They coaches have all been really nit-picky, which has been great for us. Day one they made a statement they wouldn't take anything, that the standards are up and that was just how it was going to be. The response from the boys has been incredible.

"The proof will be in the pudding, but we've turned a corner."

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