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BENJI Marshall should have stayed with the West Tigers.
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He has made a mistake moving to rugby union and that became clear to me watching the Tigers beat the Dragons at the SCG last Saturday.
The Tigers, at long last, have found a halfback who will fill the huge hole that Scotty Prince left when he went to the Gold Coast all those years ago.
Last Saturday, young Luke Brooks controlled the game, took responsibility for the result and simply let Benji be Benji.
It was Marshall's best game for 18 months.
I've always been a Benji Marshall fan and have monitored his career closely.
I was lucky enough in 2005 to be asked by then Tigers coach Tim Sheens to come on board as a kicking coach in the weeks leading up to the grand final and what a pleasure it was to watch this young exciting team at close range.
They played with so much confidence.
Benji was the star, he had a charisma about him, a healthy arrogance and his halfback was the much respected Prince.
In those few weeks I learnt a lot about both men.
Benji was as difficult to tie down at training as he was during a game.
You'd set up a kicking drill, Benji would involve himself for a few minutes and then he'd be off down the other end of the field joking with the forwards, or practising his footwork or one of his many tricks or flicks.
Prince was much more stable and focused.
He would practice his kicks over and over.
Kicks from 10m out, putting the ball in the in-goal, kicks from 20m, 30m out and long kicks, landing the ball in the corner of the field.
Benji was the maverick. Prince was the general.
In that 2005 grand final win, the highlight reel moment will always be Benji's miraculous flick pass for Pat Richards to score ... unforgettable.
What's much easier to forget is the man who constantly kicked with quality, keeping balls in the opposition in-goals, long kicks into space.
The man who put his forwards one on one with defenders and who talked his team around the park and to victory ... Scott Prince.
When Prince left 12 months later to join the Gold Coast, Tim Sheens turned the team over to Benji Marshall, it was time for Benji to go from maverick to general.
He has never quite been able to do it.
Sheens put in a number of halfbacks over the years, but none were able to do what Prince could do and that was take responsibility of the team, take responsibility for the result and let Benji be Benji.
So Sheens even threw Benji the halfback jersey.
He never looked completely comfortable.
The transition from being a 'flair' player to team leader is one that very few can make.
For Benji to go from being a player who prowled around the field picking and choosing moments to impose his brilliance, to being a player who talked the team into position, set up plays for others and controls what happens on last tackles, is a monumental shift in mindset, bigger than people think.
When Brad Fittler played alongside Greg Alexander at Penrith, Alexander took responsibility for the team while Fittler side-stepped his way through defences with carefree abandon.
Freddy would play with a rare confidence and a youthful smile.
Fittler's move to the Roosters in 1996 was successful but none-the-less very difficult.
Freddy was now team general and the winning and losing sat on his shoulders.
Playing against Fittler I saw how that weighed on him.
At times he struggled for form, the burden too much.
It took him a long time to really make that transition.
When the Roosters finally won the grand final in 2002, Freddy talked about the enormous weight being lifted off his shoulders.
In the past two seasons that same weight has eroded Benji's confidence.
Benji has not become a bad player, he is simply unable to be the player the Tigers needed him to be.
Last week, Luke Brooks took the team from Benji and the weight was lifted.
The more confident Brooks got, the more the old Benji returned.
Brooks the general and Benji the maverick.
What a shame a salary cap technicality won't allow Luke Brooks to take his place alongside Marshall on Friday night.
And what a shame Benji won't be around next year to play alongside a young man who was about to allow him to return to peak powers.
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