Woods' "Exit Interview" Reveals Gross Contradictions (2017)

Yesterday Wests Tigers captain Aaron Woods move to Canterbury at the end of the year was finally confirmed. He also gave a brief interview with James Hooper, detailing his decision.

The interview isn’t very long, and considerably shorter if you remove all the times he ‘ummed’ and said “ya know”. He made a few statements that went a long way to showing that he’s something of a hypocrite and not much of a leader.

He made mention of the controversies at the club taking their toll.

“We’re forever in the media,” Woods told Hooper.

“You wanna go in there and pay footy, but there’s always something happening outside of the club that’s out of our control.”

The silly thing is, that giving this interview has only worsened that problem and not helped to minimise it. He also stated how he was disappointed with the leadership at the club – but the fact he took pot-shots at the club in this interview shows a complete lack of leadership on his behalf.

Rather surprisingly, he also said, “If you had’ve asked me at the start of the year, I would’ve said ‘mate, I’ll be a one club player at the Wests Tigers.’”

What makes this surprising is that prior to that he said, “We didn’t know who the long-term coach was going to be and they want us to sign a three- or four-year deal.”

The thing is though, Aaron, your new, long-term coach was appointed two weeks prior to your offer from the Tigers being removed. So you did know. He introduced himself to you and you stated at the time that you couldn’t believe how much he looked like his son.

The fact you did actually knew who the long-term coach was all but proves that this comment is bollocks.

This is also further proven given that you said you’d be willing to be a Tiger for life at the start of the year, despite knowing that then-coach Jason Taylor would likely have his contract end at the completion of this season anyway.

So you were keen to stay a Tiger under a coach whose contract was ending in a few months’ time, but couldn’t commit when you got what you wanted, a long-term coach. Come on Aaron, pull the other one mate.

You ended the interview by saying you just wanted to put all of this behind you. Well, giving that interview surely hasn’t gone any way towards ensuring that will happen. Genius.

So let’s tell it how it is.

You could have signed an extension to your contract last year. You could have signed an extension this year when you were allegedly willing to stay a Tiger for life. You could have also accepted the offer the Tigers had on the table for you, after you got confirmation of your new long-term coach.

This all points to you having decided, in your own mind, that you were leaving the club long ago.

All of this drivel in your interview was just a pathetic swipe at the club. You claim you’re tired of all the drama around the place, yet you just heaped more on it.

That’s not the actions of a leader, but rather the actions of an immature man.

 
That is why you get booed – and why you deserve to be booed – by your own (soon-to-be former) club’s fans.

 ****This article appeared on Commentary Box Sports website on  May 1, 2017****