An 11th-hour resolution has ended a public standoff between star Wests Tigers playmaker Adam Doueihi and club leadership, with the disgruntled halfback confirmed to resume team training on Tuesday following productive negotiations held Monday morning. The outcome has quashed widespread speculation that Doueihi had turned out his last match for the struggling NRL side, after he was sidelined for the club’s lopsided 56-10 defeat to Canberra over the weekend.
The conflict erupted after reports emerged that Doueihi, the Lebanese international who has been the Tigers’ standout performer throughout the 2024 season, refused to take the field when asked to shift from his usual halfback position to play lock or come off the interchange bench. The unrest prompted an urgent sit-down between Doueihi, his agent Isaac Moses, head coach Benji Marshall, and senior club officials at the Tigers’ Concord headquarters. The closed-door meeting wrapped up in less than an hour, with no details of internal discussions released to the public.
Following the negotiations, Wests Tigers chief executive Shaun Mielekamp released a brief, upbeat statement confirming the positive outcome. “It was a very positive and productive meeting,” Mielekamp told reporters. “Adam will be at training tomorrow, which is a very good sign. What’s really important is that what was said in that meeting stays in that room. That’s important for us as a club. We’re all doing what’s best for the club. I’ve got no further comment, thank you.”
The resolution comes amid one of the most turbulent stretches in the Tigers’ recent history, a stretch that has seen the club plummet to 16th place on the NRL ladder — far outside finals contention, with the club’s last post-season appearance dating all the way back to 2011. The side got off to a promising start to the 2024 campaign, but a cascade of key injury blows and off-contract drama has sent their form into a nosedive. The unrest has been compounded by star playmaker Jarome Luai’s high-profile decision to sign with the PNG Chiefs starting in 2028, ending his planned tenure with the Tigers beyond 2026; Luai is now set to join rivals Parramatta for the 2027 season.
The Doueihi drama dominated headlines this week, overshadowing the NRL debut of young Tigers prospect Javon Andrews, who made his first senior appearance in Canberra. All attention now turns to how Marshall will adjust his halves combination ahead of this weekend’s match against Parramatta, where Doueihi is now in line to return to the side.
Speaking after the Canberra defeat before the meeting, Marshall acknowledged the situation had been a difficult unexpected challenge for the first-year head coach, who has openly described this current slump as the hardest period of his coaching career to date. “That situation was a tough one to deal with this week, unexpected to be honest,” Marshall said. “As a coach, I always try to make decisions on what I think is best for the team… for Adam, I can understand his disappointment, we asked him to play a different role and he just wasn’t in a good headspace to play this week, you have to respect that. We’ll try and get to a resolution next week some stage and put the noise to bed.” That resolution has now come to fruition, bringing a temporary end to off-field turmoil at the struggling club.