Tigers: Player walkout no issue

WESTS Tigers halfback Luke Brooks has weighed into the controversy surrounding teammates Russell Packer and Josh Reynolds after it was revealed the pair left Saturday night’s match during half-time.

Brooks revealed he only found out the club’s highestpaid players, who weren’t part of the matchday 17, didn’t stick around to see the Tigers gallant come-from-behind 34-32 win against Manly.

But the 25-year-old Brooks said neither player had anything to apologise for and if the Tigers weren’t fighting for their season the walk-out would not have made the news.

“Not at all. They weren’t required to be there so they don’t have to be there. It doesn’t affect us playing, you don’t even notice that they left. To me personally, I don’t really care,” Brooks said.

“They have our full support so it’s a story that has been blown out of proportion.

“Because of where we are on the ladder, little stories become bigger stories and that’s frustrating.”

Balmain legend Gary Jack has called for the duo to be stood down but veteran forward Elijah Taylor doesn’t believe the players, who trained on Monday morning, broke any rules that warranted punishment.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen (to them),” Taylor said. “We just had training. They were training hard… it was a pretty tough session.

“They’ve both got families .... it’s a game of footy. We watch footy every day, we live and breathe footy. Some of the squad sometimes don’t come to the game because it’s on the other side of the city.”