Over 160 have tried, but Luai can be man to save Tigers

Apisai Koroisau couldn't be blunter in welcoming the renewed expectations around Wests Tigers this year.

"There should be expectations, because we're not a park football team," the Tigers captain asserted earlier this month.

"We're in the NRL.

"And if there aren't expectations around what we can do, then there is something wrong."

The reality though is that for more than a decade, the Tigers have been guilty of over-selling and delivering only near-misses and wooden spoons.

It has now been 13 long seasons since the joint venture played finals football, making for the longest active drought in the NRL.

Since they were knocked out of the 2011 finals by a young Shaun Johnson, a whole generation of players have come and gone in the NRL.

Some 167 men have run out for the Tigers, from James Tedesco's painful debut at the start of 2012 to the last of the 2024 rookies in Tanous Sukkar last September.

There have been seven coaching stints split between six men, overseen by four separate CEOs.

But no man may be more important than the Tigers' biggest recruit of the decade in Jarome Luai.

"He knew he had to do things to change this club," Koroisau said.

"He has come in and hasn't held back. Everyone looks up to him, everyone loves him. I think he has really taken that role on and done really well.

"His footy IQ, the way he can convey what he wants to get out, his ideas or what we think we should do are incredible.

"He hasn't been shy about anything. If he needs to say something then he will, and that takes real leadership and courage."

Luai is the latest in a long line of Tigers charged with turning the club around, ahead of his first game against Newcastle at Campbelltown Stadium on March 7.

Koroisau himself was one of them when he arrived as a three-time premiership-winner in 2023, before it became painfully obvious he couldn't do it alone.

Now-coach Benji Marshall was meant to turn things around when he came back in 2018, while Robbie Farah's dream return also ended in disappointment.

And no man has been burdened more by the pressure of having to revive the Tigers than Luke Brooks, who shouldered the expectation for 11 years before moving to Manly in 2024.

But even Brooks can see a difference in the way Luai will be able to deal with the weight of saving the Tigers.

"For him he's going off the back of winning premierships," Brooks has told AAP previously.

"He's got that confidence. He doesn't have that baggage behind him.

"He's someone who seems to me that he likes that spotlight. He will probably enjoy it. He's come from success, so he knows what it looks like."

The other aspect for Luai is that to many of the Tigers' youngest players, he has been a bona-fide superstar since their mid-teens.

Already fielding the youngest side in the competition last year, the likes of halves partner Lachlan Galvin were aged 14 when Luai began to help lead the Penrith dynasty.

"The first couple of days he came in, it was like 'wow he is a superstar'," Galvin said.

"He's already (lifted standards). In the change rooms and walking around the joint, how much fun he is but also how much he wants to win.

"I'm just learning off the back of him. I can't wait to get out there and show the competition what we can do."

Galvin himself has the most to gain by Luai's arrival.

How those two combine could be crucial for the Tigers' future, given Galvin has previously requested releases from the club and is a free agent in November.

More than anything the 19-year-old wants to win, having come through the junior grades lifting titles and going nowhere near wooden spoons.

"He knows what it is to win comps," Galvin said.

"He will control the team and just let me play my game. He's said 'you do you' and I play off the back of him.

"I can't wait to just get on the field and play with him. (Once he got here) I felt like I had my best sessions of the summer with him."

Luai is also not alone in his bid to turn around the joint venture.

Terrell May has arrived as an off-season gift from Sydney Roosters, needing to combine with Royce Hunt and Fonua Pole in laying a platform for Luai and Galvin.

Jahream Bula has all the potential at fullback, while Sunia Turuva offers both strike and power out wide that the Tigers have long been missing.

And Koroisau remains one of the best hookers in the NRL, shining at a club that has only won 10 games in the past two years.

"There are expectations on the outside, but we know as a club that is going to get you nowhere," Koroisau said.

"All we can focus on is the week to week and the process of what we do."