Wests Tigers insist Tim Sheens will remain head coach until the end of 2024 despite speculation the struggling club could fast-track its succession plan after the 74-0 capitulation against North Queensland.
Sheens transitioned from head of football back to coach this season with the view to preparing club legend and assistant coach Benji Marshall to take over from 2025.
The club saw the succession plan as a chance to rediscover the winning DNA of the 2005 season, when Sheens guided Marshall and the Tigers to the premiership, and to finally break a finals drought dating back to 2011.
Despite patches of promising form earlier in the season, four-time premiership-winning coach Sheens has failed to rouse the beleaguered joint venture from being on its knees.
The Tigers sit last on the ladder through 18 rounds with only three wins - as few as at this time in last year's wooden spoon season, albeit having played more games by round 18 of 2022.
The 74-0 loss to the Cowboys was the heftiest in competition history since 1935 and prompted speculation Marshall could take on head-coaching duties sooner rather than later, in a bid to inspire the dressing room back to form.
But the Tigers remain committed to the plan they hatched 12 months ago, while conceding Marshall's voice will become louder as his apprenticeship continues.
"Benji will be parachuted into the head-coaching role but in 2025," Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis told SEN.
"The (74-0) result was embarrassing and unacceptable. We will own it. There's nothing that I could possibly say that would adequately placate the disappointment that we all feel.
"(But) we remain absolutely committed to the path we are on. Tim will be the head coach in 23 and 24. Benji fulfils the role of the assistant coach and that will continue.
"As Benji progresses and continues to learn his craft, he will assume a more senior posture. We've seen that already and he exceeded our expectations to this point."
Sheens described the Cowboys loss as a "disaster" for his rebuilding side but conceded he was always expecting difficulties this season.
"We did run last last year," he said.
"So if anyone thought we were going to go from last to first ... we were aiming at trying to make the semi-finals.
"Our focus isn't on that (the finals) at the moment, our focus is just on getting through next week's game and recovering from the disaster that we dished up this week.
"The amount of ball we had, we really shot ourselves in the foot multiple times with the amount of ball we squandered, and therefore the amount of ball they had.
"We spent most of the day tackling, or missing tackles. Once they smelt blood in the water, they just unloaded and unloaded at will.
"You have to look back though, over the last five weeks we haven't been too bad. We've just got to find our feet again."
