Benji Marshall “hates” the term ‘Benji-ball’.
In fact, he finds it “a little bit annoying”.
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“Because we’ve got so many players that bring a lot of strengths to our team,” the Tigers coach told Fox League a fortnight ago.
“And I don’t like it being about me because it’s not.”
But it is hard not to see the 2005 premiership-winner’s fingerprints all over this Tigers team.
From the moment Patrick Herbert “channeled his inner Patrick Mahomes”, as Andrew Voss put it in commentary, to find Sunia Turuva in the corner for a try on the weekend to even in the way the Tigers players are speaking during their media commitments.
Take Adam Doueihi.
When asked about the ‘Benji-ball’ term, he called it a “name the media has made up”.
But what about that win against the Warriors in New Zealand? The one without Jarome Luai? Surely, that rates the best yet in the Marshall era?
“That’s for you guys to decide,” Doueihi flatly said.
Which is why the term ‘Benji-ball’, along with Marshall and Doueihi’s reaction to it, best sums up this Tigers team.
Yes, they play with a flamboyance and flair which is emblematic of their own coach’s playing days. But they don’t let it define them.
There is no buying into media-driven narratives or even the very noise that on Sunday afternoon was impossible to shut out with 15,221 people crowded into Campbelltown Stadium.
And the noise is set to be even louder on Saturday night against the Broncos, with general admission already sold out and less than 1,000 tickets remaining as of Thursday.
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‘Gotta be right once in ten years’ | 03:59
It is an energy that the Tigers players feed off during the 80 minutes. But outside of that, it’s business as usual.
Marshall himself said on Thursday that the joy his team is bringing to a fanbase that hasn’t had many reasons to celebrate in recent years is “probably the most exciting part”.
“But in reality, and in my head, I’m very well aware that there is a long way to go in this competition,” he added.
“And if you start thinking you’re going better than you are, it’s very easy to fall off. We haven’t done anything yet.”
It may seem simple, and almost clichéd, but for a team that finished 13th last year and previously ‘won’ three-straight wooden spoons, it says something that under Marshall winning alone is no longer enough.
It is the expectation. And expectations are high in Tiger Town this year.
You only have to look at Marshall’s press conference last week, where he called their last 20 minutes “unacceptable”.
It is all about setting standards. The same standards that were set in the pre-season, and weren’t just for show or for the cameras that followed him around.
It is only early, and as Marshall said, “there is a long way to go”, but the numbers suggest that this may actually be the year the Tigers break their finals curse.
Of the teams to win four of their first five games in the NRL era, 81 per cent have gone on to finish in the top eight while 55 per cent made the top four.
So dream big, Tigers fans. Here are a few more reasons why this year is different.
A PLAYING STYLE THAT SUITS THE 2026 VERSION OF THE NRL
This year, the NRL has changed.
Regardless of where you sit in that debate, and most people including Raiders coach Ricky Stuart don’t seem to be fans, it has meant faster rucks, more points, and more blowouts.
There has been an adjustment period for several teams in the competition, with the Cowboys being one of the more notable success stories after a poor start to the year.
Todd Payten told reporters it took his playing group time to get used to the quicker pace of the game but now that they have, they are rocketing up the ladder.
The standards Marshall set in the pre-season, however, seem to have put this young and athletic Tigers team in a better place than most to thrive under the new rules.
Their forward pack is fit and able to hold up for far longer, with Terrell May (122 metres per game) and Alex Twal (120) leading the way while every player in their back five for this week’s Broncos clash is punching out over 120 metres per game as well.
All up, the Tigers are leading the NRL in run metres, post-contact metres, tackle busts, offloads and tackles inside the opposition 20. The last time they ranked first after six rounds in run metres was 2010.
In fact, the numbers speak to just how dominant the Tigers have been in dominating field position and the go-forward they have created allows someone like Apisai Koroisau to scheme from dummy-half and keeps the defence backtracking.
Koroisau is averaging 47 run metres per game this year, which ranks third in the league, while his 13 tackle busts top the lot.
TIGERS’ ATTACK IN NUMBERS
Run metres: 1602 (1st)
Post-contact metres: 531 (1st)
Tackle busts: 48 (1st)
Offloads: 15.6 (1st)
Linebreaks: 6.4 (3rd)
Tackles in opposition 20: 42.4 (1st)
THE ‘BIG DIFFERENCE’ BEHIND TIGERS’ RED-HOT START
Of course, while the Tigers have a dominant forward pack and attacking flair that plays into this quicker version of the NRL, it is not just about the speed of the game.
As former premiership-winning halfback Cooper Cronk told foxsports.com.au, “possession is king” now.
“If you catch fire for a two or three minute period where you have multiple sets restarts, then you can really dominate possession for a period of time,” he added.
“I think completion rates and good kicking game when you have possession is the absolute key to maintaining possession.”
The Tigers have one of the highest completion rates in the NRL, ranking third behind only the Warriors and the Storm while they rank around middle of the pack for handling errors.
That is despite topping the league in offloads and ranking third in total passes.
Marshall doesn’t discourage this Tigers team from throwing the ball around. Kai Pearce Paul’s resurgence after his stint at Newcastle is proof of it.
But he has clearly stressed that the need to earn the right to play some footy. It’s not just that either. This Tigers team, unlike previous ones, has become better at defending errors.
That is the “big difference” for Balmain legend Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach.
“If they make errors and with that flamboyant style of footy that they’re playing you’re going to make errors, but they’ve been able to defend them,” he told foxsports.com.au.
“That’s the big improvement. You have a look at the history of rugby league, the best couple of sides in the competition in defence generally win the competition.”
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And it has been a stunning turnaround on that side of the ball from the Tigers, which explains why Marshall was so disappointed with that final 20 minutes against the Knights.
The Tigers’ defence ranks second best in the league this year only behind Penrith, while they have conceded the fewest metres and post-contact metres per game, which tells you that there is strong contact when they make tackles and that if there isn’t, they are turning up for each other if a teammate slips off a tackle.
The improved defence is why former premiership-winning playmaker and Fox League expert Luke Keary is telling Tigers fans they can “dream big” this year.
In fact, he pointed to three plays from second rower Samuela Fainu against the Warriors earlier in the year as proof of just how far the Tigers have come.
First, Fainu batted the ball dead after fullback Jahream Bula was caught out of position before then backing up to catch the short dropout and, five minutes later, trap the Warriors one metre out from their own line on a Jock Madden kick.
“These are plays we don’t accustomise the Tigers to,” he said on James Graham’s podcast.
TIGERS’ DEFENSIVE TURNAROUND IN NUMBERS
Points against: 18.4 (2nd)
Metres conceded: 1231 (1st)
Post-contact metres conceded: 349 (1st)
Linebreaks conceded: 4.0 (tied 3rd)
Missed tackles: 30.4 (2nd)
Forced turnovers: 6.0 (3rd)
‘SHACKLES ARE OFF’: THE NEW… AND OLD TIGERS EXCELLING
It’s not just Fainu either, who Keary said has been the Tigers’ best in 2026.
There are a number of players, both pre-existing and new to the club, who are in career-best form or look revitalised under coach Marshall.
As already mentioned, Pearce-Paul is thriving with greater freedom to play his natural game.
“Benji has sort of given me that sort of freedom that I like to play with and told me to just express me on the field and that’s the way I like playing,” Pearce-Paul told NRL 360 this week.
“He puts trust in me and lets me do what I do.”
That means more second-phase play and the Tigers second rower is averaging 2.6 offloads compared to 1.3 at Newcastle in 2025.
It is not an eye-popping difference, but that also speaks to the fact Pearce-Paul isn’t necessarily just offloading for the sake of it. He is still being smart with when he gets his arm free and looks for a teammate in space.
Take the win over the Eels, where he had two linebreak assists and a pair of try assists to go with four offloads.
“The shackles are off,” Roach said.
“Maybe Benji’s given him the green light to actually play. There’s a lot of times coaches put the shackles on and you’re not allowed to offload the ball in your own half.
“But if you’re a natural ball player and you get that ball away… that’s gold.”
Meanwhile, Alex Twal has gone from a one-try cult hero to genuine Origin bolter.
It isn’t common for someone to add an extra wrinkle to his game at 29 years old, but Twal looks a man transformed in a more prominent role this season.
To start with, the new six-again rules have only further highlighted just how fit the Lebanon international is and allowed the Tigers to get even more out of his huge motor, but it’s not just the sheer amount of work Twal is getting through.
It is the quality too, with the nine-season veteran adding a ball-playing dimension which almost seems to be mandatory as a lock forward in the modern-day game.
TWAL’S TRANSFORMATION IN NUMBERS (2025 vs 2026)
Minutes: 46.4 vs 70.4
Tackles: 28.3 vs 40.6
Metres: 81.9 vs 120.4
Possessions: 13.8 vs 22.6
General play passes: 3.2 vs 9.2
Jock Madden, meanwhile, left Marshall with a genuine headache this week and had been so impressive in his brief cameo at five-eighth that he even some people debating if there was some way to squeeze him into the starting side.
Then you had Patrick Herbert who was parachuted into the first-grade team after 965 days in the wilderness and had an immediate impact, to the extent that Marshall had no choice but to leave the previously suspended Luke Laulilii out of the starting side.
For Keary, the fact the likes of Herbert and Madden have been able to fill in so seamlessly speaks to the culture Marshall is building at the Tigers.
“You have to be a really good team with really good systems for guys to walk in and be able to do their job at a high level,” he said.
“It doesn’t just happen if you’re an average team.”
It is a culture that is built on connection. It is a word that has been mentioned, unprompted, by numerous Tigers players this season and has been a specific focus for coach Marshall.
“We catch up every fortnight and go out for dinner and things like that,” Twal told NRL 360 this week.
“It goes a long way when it comes to the weekend.”
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THE TWO LEADERS HELPING DRIVE BENJI’S NEW ‘HARD EDGE’ MESSAGE
Of course, that isn’t just on Marshall.
While he is the one setting the standards, he also needs his more experienced players backing him up on the field.
That is where Luai and Koroisau come in.
Both are premiership winners and proven performers at the highest level, which is important for a Tigers team that otherwise has a pretty youthful energy to it.
“When you’ve got a young team, you’ve got to keep their concentration going,” Roach said.
“They might win two or three games and all of a sudden start to listen to what’s been said.”
But based on what the players have been saying, at least publicly to the media after games and throughout the week, there is none of that happening.
It starts with Marshall, who Keary said has developed a “hard edge” this season.
“I love the way Benji is talking,” Keary added.
“Even after the game yesterday he said their defence at the end of the game was unacceptable, which is not something we’ve really seen from him (before).
“He’s been really hard on them publicly, which is good. He doesn’t want to talk about the past. He doesn’t want anything to do with Benji-ball.”
But going back to Luai and Koroisau, they came from a Panthers side that rarely showed signs of complacency in its four-year reign at the top.
They know what it takes to win a premiership and so for them, there isn’t any risk of getting carried away with early-season form.
“We’ve got a pretty good group where we’ve had a few players who’ve had quite a lot of success,” Alex Seyfarth told reporters this week.
“They keep us grounded, they’ve held us to a standard, and it’s just business as usual.”
Take Koroisau’s immediate response to one question from a reporter this week on if there was a “secret” to the club’s “revival”.
“I don’t know if there’s a secret. I don’t know if there is a revival either,” he said.
“We’re sort of just out there playing week to week and trying to play some good football.”
Meanwhile, even while injured, Koroisau said Luai was “really good” stepping into more of a “teacher” role helping some of the younger players.
‘Unacceptable’: Benji honest despite win | 07:23
“He’s been helping individuals and really lending his leadership in that way, so he’s been really important for us too,” the Tigers skipper added.
But as much as he is too humble to admit it, there is a gravity to Marshall’s voice because every time he speaks, the players don’t just hear Marshall the coach.
“He was a player once,” Latu Fainu told reporters earlier this week, “so he kind of understands us as players”.
Fainu said Marshall is a “big influence” to the entire team, revealing he “modelled” his game around the legendary Tigers five-eighth.
Koroisau, meanwhile, said Marshall’s tone “has not changed at all”.
“Which is really important,” he added.
“We’ve got a really young squad, and there hasn’t been much winning around the corner. So for us, it’s important to stay on track and make sure we do our job.”
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