‘A massive week for us’: Spoon talk causes a stir with Tigers’ Bateman

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John Bateman has never been on a team that has received a wooden spoon, and he doesn’t intend to give up that record this year.

In the England international’s first season at the Wests Tigers, the club has been plagued by off-field turmoil, on-field shortcomings and an ANZAC Day jersey bungle. But if they are to turn things around, Thursday night’s clash against fellow strugglers the Dragons is the place to start, said Bateman.

“It’s been tough times,” Bateman said. “We haven’t been able to get a win and stuff like that. To me, obviously, I think you watch me week in and week out, and I’m pretty competitive – I want to go out there and get the win.

“It’s a massive, massive week for us this week, obviously, playing the Dragons just above us. And no doubt about it, no one wants to finish at the bottom of the league, so that’s the exact same for ourselves. We need to go out there and get the win this weekend.”

With 206 Super League games under his belt, and a 2019 grand final appearance with the Canberra Raiders, Bateman has had his fair share of success. But never has he been part of a team that’s finished at the bottom of the ladder.

“Never. I don’t want to either. As simple as that,” Bateman said.

John Bateman at the Tigers’ Concord HQ on Monday.Credit: James Brickwood

The Tigers have won just three of their 17 games this year and sit last on the ladder with just seven weeks to go. Injuries to skipper Api Koroisau and Luke Brooks further derailed their season.

“It’s about working hard. Things aren’t going well for us this year, obviously injuries, etcetera. We put a decent little patch together throughout the year, but we’ve just for some reason not been getting the wins over the line,” Bateman said. “The last couple of weeks have not been acceptable as a playing standard and as a club.”

Off-field drama at the club was close to breaking point on Sunday, with tension between assistant coach Benji Marshall and recruitment manager Scott Fulton continuing to highlight the lack of cohesion at the joint venture.

Marshall’s manager was moved to deny what he believed was a suggestion his client owned a share in the management company trying to lure Aidan Sezer to the club.

But Bateman said the team weren’t bothered by the ructions in the front office.

“You hear whispers. We [the team] had a little bit of a chat this morning, and that is literally the first I’ve heard about it,” Bateman said.

“That’s not my job at the end of the day. My job is on the field, and at the moment, we’re not doing our jobs, so we need to focus on that. When the noise surrounds certain areas and stuff, that’s [for] the people in the board area. They need to sort that out.

“The boys are a bit blase about it all – like you’ve got to be in this game. Obviously, you can’t let stuff get to you because if you do that, you’re too busy worrying about that than worrying about what our job is.”

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