Api Koroisau doesn't have any regrets over his move from the Panthers to the Wests Tigers in 2023 - but the star hooker is fully aware of the changes necessary in order to return to the club to its former glory.
After winning two premierships in a row with Penrith, the 30-year-old was forced to take his talents elsewhere due to salary cap restraints and found himself as the new captain of a sinking ship at Concord.
Koroisau was among the club's best players during their second-straight wooden spoon campaign, but it wasn't enough to take them up the table or save the job of Tim Sheens, who was sacked less than half-way through his deal.
In an exclusive interview with The Sporting News/YKTR EBBS AND FLOWS, Koroisau opened up on a litany of issues at the Tigers and his desire to build them into a premiership force once more.
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Why did Api Koroisau leave the Panthers?
All good things must come to an end, but after two stints and two premiership rings at the foot of the Mountains, the tough call had to be made by the Panthers to allow their star No.9 to start fresh at a rival club.
Despite the tough transition from one end of the table to the other, Koroisau holds no ill will towards his former side and is fully committed to bringing success to the joint venture.
“Penrith couldn’t keep me, so it was easy to understand that I wasn’t gonna be there," he said.
"It’s not like I had trouble leaving, I was really excited for the new chapter and I really wanted to bring this club up. I love the Tigers and wherever I go – no matter what jersey I have on – I’m all in, I’m going balls-out.
"The vibe around the place is great – we were losing as well, but sometimes when you get those losing teams, you really start to fracture as a playing group… it wasn’t like that."
Koroisau's determination to turn things around at Wests was clear when he opted to extend his contract less than 12 months after arriving, with the crafty dummy-half committed until the end of 2026.
Api Koroisau explains major issues at Wests Tigers
With just three wins in his first season at the helm, Koroisau has already recognised a number of major concerns facing the club that will need to be addressed in the pre-season.
The captaincy being thrust upon him just weeks after arriving for pre-season was also a spanner in the works for Koroisau, who admitted the responsibility left him at a crossroads.
“We didn’t really have the go-to guy at the Tigers," he said.
"A lot of our game plan at the start of the year was free-flowing footy… we just weren’t gaining any momentum. We didn’t know who we were as a team, we didn’t have any identity.
“I hadn’t really built that relationship with everyone and then a couple of weeks into pre-season, we all voted for captain and I got the nod. I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to come across.
"I had some good advice from someone that said ‘you got picked as captain for being yourself, so don’t change who you are’. I battled with how do I bring my point across?
"I would love to just get angry, but at the same time, our team is so young and inexperienced and if I do get angry, I’m gonna lose a few blokes without a doubt.
"When you watch from the outside perspective, you could easily say they’re not putting in the effort and they’re playing horribly – it was never it, we just didn’t have the footy down right and the mentality of how we wanted to play."
The departure of Sheens from the head coaching role will allow Tigers legend Benji Marshall to move into the pressure-filled top job a year earlier than anticipated and leaving him plenty of work to do.
But according to Koroisau, the football smarts of the Kiwi legend should hold him in good stead.
“Sheensy’s footy mind is crazy… he has obviously been there for years - he wanted to play that style of footy where we were passing the ball and had lots of shape, but we didn’t have a Benji to sort of execute that for us," he said.
"Benji is the opposite – he is really strategical and has been in the game a lot more recently and played under different coaches like Wayne Bennett.
"He’s more about the structure and understanding the feel of the game... these days, for the first 20 minutes you’ve just got to kick to the corner.
"He sees the game so differently and because he played the game so differently as well, it’s a big asset."
Can the Wests Tigers improve in 2024?
With a handful of talented young stars coming through the grades and the likes of Jayden Sullivan and the Fainu brothers joining the club next year, there's reason to believe the future is bright for the Tigers.
And with a season under his belt in his new surroundings, Koroisau is more than ready to crack the whip and ensure premiership-level standards are in place at their multi-million dollar training facility.
“A lot of what I learned was if I want something done, I have to pull the trigger on it – whether it’s game plan or how I want to play," he said.
"A lot of the time, coaching staff will come up with game plans but at the same time, you’re not gonna beat Penrith by game-planning. You’re gonna beat them by literally doing what they do and trying to do it better.
"We didn’t have a very fluid attacking style, so we’re not gonna beat them by trying to go around them.
"We have really good middles and fit middles… when we put some good games together, we put it on our middles. If we started with that from the start of the year, we could have built from that.
"All I want at the moment is to enjoy this off-season and when we do get into pre-season, just a full change in everything. This time around, from day dot, this is how it has to be – there is no ifs or buts.
"All it does is create discipline that everyone buys into and if you can get that into a team, that’s just one step. I’ll be bringing that whip and no one is safe."
Ebbs and Flows: API KOROISAU is available now on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.