Tigers’ Doueihi far from happy at copping it for making switch call
ADAM Doueihi is privately gutted that he’s been portrayed as an big head for suggesting to Wests Tigers interim coach Brett Kimmorley to play five-eighth in NSW Cup instead of at centre in the NRL team.
Doueihi is only two games back from an ACL knee injury that he suffered last year and he has so far played both games off the bench.
He has now been selected in the centres for Saturday’s match against Parramatta with Luke Brooks remaining five-eighth and Jackson Hastings at halfback.
Doueihi made the point to Kimmorley in a private chat that he believed it would be in both his and the team’s best interests if he could get more game time in NSW Cup where he could play the full game at fiveeighth instead of constantly switching between positions.
But that conversation somehow found its way into the media.
It comes after Brooks also hit out at leaks within the club, while agreeing Doueihi’s best position was fiveeighth. But Doueihi has since copped it from some fans and even Tigers legend Steve Roach who took exception to Doueihi supposedly wanting to dictate which position he would play.
“Can you imagine a bloke saying he wants to play a position when he’s just a player, the inmates are running the asylum,” Roach told Fox Sports. “If Bob Fulton, Jack Gibson or Warren Ryan are running that club, you wouldn’t be telling them where you were going to play.”
There is no suggestion Doueihi, who is off contract at the end of 2023, is angling for a release.
But it’s more than fair to say Doueihi is upset over the fallout, and that he has somehow been portrayed as arrogant and selfish.
Doueihi is widely regarded as one of the most humble and decent young men in the game and he’s never previously had a bad word written about him.