Hooker and captain Api Koroisau will play his 250th NRL game when the Wests Tigers tackle Parramatta Eels this Sunday in round 22 of the NRL.
If anybody has earned a huge effort from his team is the little master, who has been putting in since arriving at the Tigers from Penrith.
Let’s hope the side lifts for Api and carry him off like the winner he has always been.
Coach Benji Marshall has also made some other changes from the team that went down to Canberra Raiders last Saturday in the nation’s capital.
Heamasi Makasini comes in at centre and Sione Fainu moves back to the second-row.
The new faces on the interchange bench are Heath Mason, Charlie Murray, Tony Sukkar and Tristan Hope.
And, yes, Adam Doueihi returns at half-back, despite the ignoramuses in the rugby league media calling on him to let play in reserve grade for a week.
It was important that Benji stayed strong in the aftermath of the Doueihi matter, and it looks like he has done just that.
It would have been easy for him to capitulate to the boofheads in the media – most of whom just think the club is a mother lode of content for them – but Benji is not a man to be easily intimidated into anything.
Only Benji and the inner sanctum know what’s the reality at the club, and are making decisions based on that, not NRL media hysteria.
It’s true the season has unravelled after a brilliant start, but again it’s only club insiders who know the true cause of that.
The Wests Tigers have a long term plan for success and just need to hold their nerve until results on the field start going their way.
Both their home grounds are about to undergo major upgrades over the next two years, which will give them an opportunity to upscale their marketing going forward, and reap the rewards from that.
MATCH SNAPSHOT
Parramatta Eels vs Wests Tigers
Sunday, August 2
CommBank Stadium, Parramatta
Kick-off: 4.05pm
WESTS TIGERS LINEUP:
1. Jahream Bula
2. Junior Tupou
3. Heamasi Makasini
4. Patrick Herbert
5. Sunia Turuva
6. Jarome Luai
7. Adam Doueihi
8. Terrell May
9. Api Koroisau
10. Fonua Pole
11. Samuela Fainu
12. Sione Fainu
13. Alex Twal
INTERCHANGE:
14. Heath Mason
15. Charlie Murray
16. Alex Seyfarth
17. Tony Sukkar
18. Tristan Hope
19. Starford To’a
RESERVES:
20 Javon Andrews
21 Ethan Roberts
22 Bunty Afoa
