Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall says it’s not up to him to tell fans whether they should boo Lachlan Galvin on Sunday afternoon when the Bulldogs halfback takes on his former side for the first time.
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Emotions will be running high at CommBank Stadium when the premiership fancies take on a Tigers team that is battling to avoid the wooden spoon.
The ladder implications have taken a back seat to the Galvin narrative that has dominated the season from the moment it became clear he wanted an early release from his Tigers contract.
Fans have vented their frustration online and it’ll be interesting to see how they react when he takes the field on Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t know, I’m not one of them. It’s up to them,” Marshall replied when asked if he thought Galvin would be booed.
“The thing with that is you can’t tell them what to do or what to say. They’ll feel how they feel and everyone’s entitled to feel how they feel.
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“I don’t care about storylines. I care about where we are on the table, and at the moment, we want to be higher.
“Buying into storylines and what everyone else thinks isn’t going to help us win.
“We haven’t even talked about Lachie, to be honest. It’s Wests Tigers v the Bulldogs, not Lachlan. For us, we’re playing a top-four side that’s in pretty good form, so we need to worry about what we’re doing.”
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Galvin has played two games at halfback for the Bulldogs who produced arguably their best 80 minutes of the season last week in their thumping win over Manly.
The young half seems to have settled in and his teammates have quickly worked out his playing style as they push for a title, but his former coach doesn’t really care how he’s going at his new club.
“I’m not really worried about what he’s doing, to be honest. I’m worried about what our team is doing,” Marshall said.
“He’s obviously added a bit of spark and is going pretty well there, so good luck to them. But at the same time, we have to get our game right.
“If you’re worried about that stuff for motivation, then you’re in the wrong game. We’ve got our own challenges with where we are on the table, so we need to make sure we get our game right.”
Marshall copped plenty of boos throughout his career and said footy players just had to learn how to deal with it because fans would never stop being passionate.
“It’s part of the game,” he said.
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“Not everyone’s going to like you, and if you can handle that, you’ll be good.
“Everyone is emotionally different with how we handle things. Once you accept it’s part of the game, it is what it is.
“I’ve seen fans boo the best players in the world – Johnathan Thurston, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk have all been booed in their careers. It happens to you at some point but you’ve just got to get on with it.”
Galvin’s messy exit ruffled plenty of feathers at the time, with Jarome Luai one of the players to voice their displeasure on social media.
But the former Panther has been a true leader this week when asked about the impending clash with his former teammate, with Luai earning praise from Marshall, who has seen no signs that the playmaker will activate a clause to potentially leave early.
“That’s why he’s the captain,” he said.
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“Jarome has been really great for us. I know people have mixed opinions about what he’s done on the field, but off the field he’s definitely changed the place in terms of standards with what he’s brought to us.
“We’re just working on what works for him on the field to be better. Given what we’ve had to change this year and the style we’re playing, he’s doing a fair job for us.”
