Icon rips 'weak excuse' for latest chapter in Tigers soap opera

Wests Tigers' decision to open the doors of their plush, $78 million Concord headquarters and let highly touted hooker Tallyn Da Silva walk free mid-contract is the latest bewildering chapter in the joint venture's never-ending soap opera.

Legendary Balmain hooker Benny Elias voiced what many aggrieved Tigers fans are thinking when he described one of the reasons given for the decision to let the 20-year-old No.9 pack his bags early as a "very weak excuse".

Chief executive Shane Richardson explained to The Sydney Morning Herald that Da Silva would be opposed to seeing out his contract if the Tigers' chief hooker, co-captain Api Koroisau, was to extend his stay at Concord, and said the club didn't want to stifle his wish to be a starting dummy-half in the NRL now, rather than in years down the track.

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Richardson was honest with Da Silva, telling him a new deal for Koroisau was in the works, and the precocious talent, a product of the club's junior system, was soon out the doors, en route to Parramatta this week.

"Look, letting him go I think is a very disappointing move from the club," Elias told Wide World of Sports on Tuesday afternoon.

"If it's too hard and they can't make first grade, well, what, you let them go?

"You've got to invest your time in people like Da Silva. He's the bloke that you invest in for the future. You've just got to find a way to make it happen [keeping both Koroisau and Da Silva].

"If it was because it was too hard and he was too impatient to sit behind Koroisau, I find that a very weak excuse."

Richardson also said letting Da Silva walk would free up "significant" room in the salary cap.

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Former Tigers playmaker Braith Anasta is just as baffled as Elias.

"It's OK if that's his [Da Silva's] prerogative, if that's what he wants to do, but we all want to do things in life that we can't because we've signed contracts, or we've made deals with people, or it's just too bad — but you don't just get out," Anasta said on Fox League's NRL 360 on Tuesday night.

"I mean, they [the Tigers] have let him go, so it's not his fault; it's the club's [fault].

"You don't need to play Api for 80 minutes, either. You can play him [Da Silva] more.

"Api's getting on, there's still a year and a half to go [in Da Silva's Tigers contract], Api can get injuries, he [Da Silva] is the back-up hooker.

"It doesn't make sense to me."

In the same week the Tigers have allowed Da Silva to flee mid-contract, highly rated Storm playmakers Tyran Wishart and Jonah Pezet, back-ups to Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes respectively, will suit up for Melbourne in first grade.

Munster's Origin duties have opened a door for Wishart to wear the No.6 jumper, while Pezet, who's overcome a knee injury, is ready to play off the bench.

The sight of Wishart and Pezet running around in the top grade this week will be testament to Melbourne's admirable retention of star back-up talent, and a bleak reminder of the Tigers' bemusing handling of the Da Silva situation.

Da Silva, whose Tigers contract was due to expire at the end of 2026, signed with the Eels until the end of 2029.

The Tigers' long-suffering fans were still reeling with the exit of another blue-chip former club junior in 19-year-old playmaker Lachlan Galvin, albeit in vastly different circumstances, when Da Silva slipped away.

"You'll see the kid (Da Silva) running around for Parramatta and you'll be thinking, 'Oh my god, this is a bloke that the Tigers should never have lost'," Elias said.

Unfortunately for Tigers fans, the sight of top-class talent swapping orange, black and white for rival colours is far too familiar.

The exits of James Tedesco and Mitchell Moses will haunt the Tigers faithful forever. Aaron Woods and Ryan Papenhuyzen were also stand-out Tigers juniors. The departures of Galvin and Da Silva have opened old wounds.

Josh Addo-Carr, Marika Koroibete and Andrew Fifita didn't play junior football in the Tigers system but ended up at Concord, only to leave and play scintillating football elsewhere.

Elias, the tough and terrific Balmain hooker from the 1980s and '90s, has as high an opinion of Da Silva as anyone.

"I think he is a superstar," Elias said.

"I would say he is already in the top six best hookers in the game today."

The young hooker has only played 22 NRL games, and almost all of those games were played off the bench, but Elias has seen enough.

"He's got terrific vision, he's got a kicking game, he's got the whole lock, stock and barrel, and the little [bit] you've seen of him in first grade, he's excelled, and he's spot on with his defence," Elias said.

"They're all the things that tick the boxes for a good No.9."

The Tigers announced in March that a $400,000 funding boost had been committed to the club's junior system, courtesy of Wests Group Macarthur.

"Wests Tigers players such as Lachlan Galvin, Tallyn Da Silva and Heath Mason are all products of the Macarthur and Group 6 regions who have graduated to the NRL," a club statement said at the time.

Only a few months on, it makes for grim reading.

Not all is doom and gloom in Tiger town. The club's $78 million centre of excellence, which opened in 2022, is considered among the best rugby league headquarters in the world.

And Richardson recommitted as the club's chief executive on a four-year deal last year (his handling of the Da Silva scenario may have been questionable, but the former South Sydney, Penrith and Cronulla boss is held in high esteem).

And the club recruited well in the off-season, luring premiership-winners Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva from Penrith, and gun prop Terrell May from the Roosters. His younger brother Taylan, the troubled but talented outside back, joined him at Concord on a train-and-trial deal last month.

And there appears to be far less headbutting in the board room after a host of major personnel changes were made, beginning with the nuking of the entire Tigers board in December 2023.

But the mid-contract exit of Da Silva is a fresh drama, the club is in a fight to avoid its fourth consecutive wooden spoon, and club legend Benji Marshall's job will soon be in grave danger if the team doesn't start stringing together wins.

The team is only one win clear of the bottom of the ladder, is riding a six-game losing streak, and will start as heavy underdogs against the Roosters at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Five Roosters stars will be missing because of Origin, and the glamour club has a few other stars out injured, but the Tigers will be missing Luai (Origin), Koroisau (concussion) and Jahream Bula (hamstring).

Staring down the barrel of seven straight losses and battling to avoid the wooden spoon is a dire position for any club to be in, but especially a club that's copped the last three wooden spoons, hasn't played finals football since 2011 and has sacked four coaches since then.

"Six losses in a row, that's off the dial, especially with the side we have. The players we have are very, very, very good players," Elias said.

"It frustrating," he said of the endless turmoil.

"I only want the best for the club."