MARK ‘SPUDD’ CARROLL: Wests Tigers NRL coach Benji Marshall under pressure despite gaining Jarome Luai

Benji Marshall will start the NRL season as the coach most under pressure.

Serious questions will be raised about whether he’s up to the job should there not be sharp improvement from the NRL’s biggest flops.

If they were to finish last again…well, we all know how that story could end.

Brilliant players don’t always make brilliant coaches and Benji’s track record so far isn’t exactly screaming “success story”.

He’s now into his second year as Wests Tigers head coach – his third season as a senior member of the coaching staff – and the time for talk is over.

I don’t care that the players love him and I don’t give a stuff that the Tigers have state-of-the-art training facilities or truckloads of promising juniors coming through the ranks.

Who gives a rat’s if your first-grade side’s not winning?

At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters to those who bleed black, white and gold.

The Tigers have not made the top eight since 2011.

Thirteen bloody years. Let that sink in for a while.

Every other club – apart from the two-year-old Dolphins – have made the play-offs at least once in that time.

Not only do the Tigers not make the eight, they rarely threaten to do so.

For the last three years they have run stone motherless last.

Travel agents around Campbelltown and Leichhardt must love September as they deal with a flood of Tigers fans booking their annual holidays.

Meeting Parramatta in last year’s “Spoon Bowl” was their biggest game of the year.

It was treated like a grand final. How embarrassing.

Talk about torturing your fans.

Tigers supporters are the most loyal in the game.

They continue to turn out in big numbers, dreaming of another 2005 miracle.

By Easter, its usually turned to slop.

Travel agents around Campbelltown and Leichhardt must love September as they deal with a flood of Tigers fans booking their annual holidays.

There are players who have pulled on a Tigers jersey in recent years who were simply not up to NRL standard.

Marshall has weeded out the majority of the no hopers and has now assembled a squad that should be more than competitive.

He’s landed Penrith duo Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva, Dragons veteran Jack Bird, Royce Hunt from the Sharks and Roosters powerhouse Terrell May.

Lachlan Galvin is a superstar in the making and Api Koroisau is all quality.

CEO Shane Richardson has been glowing in his endorsement of Marshall’s coaching ability and is giving him every chance to succeed.

Richo’s also promised an end to the headlines and dramas that has held the club back for years and turned them into the game’s punching bag.

The path is clear for Marshall to step up and really show the rest of the NRL he has what it takes to do the job.

And while I still think some of their forwards wouldn’t scare Santa Claus, Marshall has assembled a squad that should at least stay in the finals fight for most of the season.

I don’t expect them to make the eight but I do expect to see the Tigers push the opposition for the full 80 minutes each time they take the field.

Missing most of their stars they lost 20-14 in their first trial match on Sunday and the younger players get another chance to show Marshall what they can do against Parramatta on Friday night.

There are no more excuses, no more places to hide.

If the Tigers don’t escape the bottom four, the heat will be on like never before.

If they finish last for a fourth straight season, all bets are off on Marshall’s future as an NRL head coach.

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED

Cronulla is one of those clubs that is always there or thereabouts when finals football rolls around.

But it’s fair to say not many consider the Sharks genuine premiership threats due to a lack of potency and big game presence when it really counts.

The perception is they just can’t go with the top sides when it matters most and can be bullied and monstered out of contests.

That is all about to end.

The arrival of Addin Fonua-Blake will transform the Sharks from September wobbegongs to killer whites.

I watch props more than another position and this bloke is the “full package”.

He’s got size, he’s got pace, he’s got skill and he’s got a relentless work ethic.

But what I most like about him is he instils fear in the opposition.

He openly intimidates them.

I love the likes of Toby Rudolf, Tommy Hazleton and Braden Hamlin-Uele – all good, hard-running props – but AFB brings that menace and controlled madness and mayhem.

He reminds me of an Ian Roberts or a Sam Burgess – blokes you just want to go to war with.

No one wants to mess with you when you have enforcers like that to answer to.

Fonua-Blake’s departure from the Warriors is a massive body blow for them, but the best thing to happen to Craig Fitzgibbon’s side.