Lachlan Galvin recalled to Wests Tigers team for NRL match against Cronulla Sharks
Lachlan Galvin’s exile has lasted all of one week with the Wests Tigers completing a 180-degree pivot and recalling the prodigious five-eighth to the club’s NRL side.
Seven days after being dumped to the NSW Cup, Galvin has been named to play in the No.6 jersey as the Tigers’ (3-4) NRL side face Cronulla at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday.
The teenager’s recall represents a remarkable backflip from Tigers coach Benji Marshall after Galvin’s representatives told the club he would not sign a new deal beyond the expiry of his current contract, which runs out at the end of 2026.
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Co-captain Api Koroisau said last Thursday that the Tigers players were not prepared to play alongside someone who was not pulling in the same direction.
“One of our values is team first ... when someone’s heart is not in it, it’s hard to take the field with them every week,” Koroisau said.
In the time since those comments, Galvin’s camp have suggested he was being bullied out of the Tigers after winger Sunia Turuva took a potshot at the five-eighth on social media.
Galvin may have remained in reserve grade if the Tigers had managed to defeat Parramatta on Easter Monday, instead Marshall’s men fell to an ill-tempered 38-22 loss.
Marshall and the club’s chief executive Shane Richardson, who jeered during Monday’s post-match press conference when the coach was quizzed on Galvin’s future, did not return calls.
It remains unclear if Marshall consulted Koroisau and fellow co-captain Jarome Luai before deciding whether to hand Galvin a recall.
Galvin is understood to have stayed away from CommBank Stadium for Monday’s NRL game.
Earlier that day he had turned out for Western Suburbs in the NSW Cup, was placed on a media ban and was chaperoned around Lidcombe Oval by security and Tigers staff.
But he will line up in the No. 6 jersey this week with Adam Doueihi reverting to the centres and Brent Naden bumped to the wing.
