Bigley and Gallagher: The Talk of the Tigers

In my next two articles, I hope to take you on a journey into the heart of Mersey Tigers; something many journalists in the area, quite frankly, seem unwilling to do, for whatever reasons they may have. And regrettably so.

Ahead of meeting the Tigers last Friday night before their clash against Worcester Wolves, the garage opposite Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park, where they play, had this painted upon a wall.

It was something Cheshire Jets experienced ten years, for many though, it seems an impossible dream for Mersey.

Last week, fires were stoked. Let’s not beat around any bush here. There has been plenty of reaction to Keith Firmin’s article from a number of weeks ago, looking at the statistics of the Tigers and his interview with head coach Tony Walsh, which he wrote up into a balanced discussion.

In this piece, I’ll be focusing on the point of view of players, in particular, Ryan Gallagher, and Mr Christopher Bigley.

Bigley has been vocal on social media at airing his views on the aforementioned overview Keith did, so my first question to him was about his initial reaction.

“I asked him what qualified him to write it,” he began with. “I don’t know of him, or what he does, I just knew him as a guy that sits on the bleachers at the back of John Sandford; that’s all I know.

“I’ve said I’d respect the opinion if it were any more qualified. Maybe that was right or wrong, but after losing by 50 points, then to see that; it adds insult to injury.

“It’s an extra twist of the knife, I mean come on, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one team is a bit better, to put it mildly, than the other one!” he jests, but having been sat across from the man, you can do nothing but feel sympathetic. Nobody wants to lose like that, game in, game out.

Gallagher, who admitted he may have stayed put at Cheshire Jets had the confusion over the summer not surrounded the team, pointed out that the hard fact of numbers are clear for all to see, but also put over the difficulties currently being faced.

“You can’t look past scores, but then people don’t know the deeper side. We started a week before the season did. I’ve got BBL experience, but I wouldn’t say I’ve played in it – I have in the loosest sense – so to put together a team of inexperienced players into a league of very experienced is the problem” said the former Jet.

How much is that down to the previous ownership, and has the damage done too much?

Bigley wants to make it crystal clear, that this time round it’s different, and others need to fully recognise that: “This is a new administration and what happened two years ago, was two years ago. The guys that did play then, I know worked their arses off hard, thinking they were going somewhere as a team – I’m not going to talk about financial situations as it’s not my place – but those guys stuck it out and won everything they did because they were a team. Yeah, they were a better standard of players, but I’m not going over what’s already been said, because I’m not in the know fully about that.

“It’s certainly done a lot of damage, there are a lot of negative stereotypes out there, and a lot of people don’t know the facts. It’s a problem, but at the same time I don’t expect people to come out and say ‘This, this and this happened’. I don’t take away from the fact that this is a professional sport, it’s people’s lives and people’s business, but I’m not going to disclose what happened. If those involved want to, let them, but we do feel the effects, the negativity, from certain sections of certain fans.

Gallagher followed on with his knowledge of what knock-on effects there have been: “Just reading off the internet alone, there’s a lot of people slating it [the current organisation] based on that. There’s a lot of grudges left over, but I don’t even know how much of that still has to do with what there is now. Greenbank, we’re not allowed to train there, which is a perfect venue for us, because trying to get fans out here is out of the way. It’s not really Liverpool either, so it’s going to be hard to get them out of the city on a Friday night to here, unless you are top of the league.

“It’s particularly evident in this city; a small working class city with two huge football clubs. When Everton were tied in, people were interested. People in my work still think there is that association, and they knew who they were back then. It’s still stuck in the past, and no real new knowledge of the team now.”

The size of the attendance on Friday night would seem to prove those last two key points he makes. From my position, it is fair to say there was a crowd of about 200 at most.

What they were treated to though, was an entertaining game. Every player, from my stand point, put in their all, right up until the final buzzer sounded.

I made a note to watch Bigley’s performance and his persona on-court as well. He’s a showman, not in the worst sense of the term either, quite the opposite. Doing his best to be jovial and get the crowd excited; and it worked. Perhaps then his reaction online was something to be expected?

“If you’re talking about performances, criticism is rightly so, because at times it’s been good and we’ve seen things going our way and coming together, but at times we’ve been shocking.

“What I don’t agree with is people writing us off, before we’ve even had a chance to implement what we are trying to do. You can put an analogy on it to make yourself look like a philosopher, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to do something here, and if you don’t have the full facts, or haven’t been around the team much, it’s different if you have and then make a judgement.

“I will fight my corner to the hilt. I might have run away with myself on one or two witticisms, and that’s all they were by the way, but if your beat writers want to take that more seriously than what it was, it’s up to them and if they get a kick or get a story out of it, then that’s down to them.

“In hindsight, maybe yes, it’s gone a little further than what it should have done, but I responded to a witticism with one of my own, but I’m a jokey guy, that’s how I am. It’s the little things that got to me, however, I think it is important that we come out and speak.”

“I love UKAmericanSportsFans.com, I go on every lunchtime, Tweets of the Week having been a part of that, I don’t just read the BBL stuff, but the American football, baseball, it’s an interesting read.

“It’s a time where we’ve just come off the Olympics, very well staged, everyone involved thought it was amazing, but to read something like that really ground on me.

“There were a lot of sports going on in the Olympics that people really want to watch. Basketball is still a developing sport. I think it was a great step forward that you could have it when you wanted to watch it; the BBC can’t be knocked it was fantastic” said the 23 year-old centre/forward.

Everyone feels it’s great that more coverage was given, perhaps not what many had hoped for, but in regards to Tigers’ situation, is there any excuse?

“We’ve been very quiet,” admitted Bigley. “But that’s down to apprehension from the past because at the moment, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. We want young British guys, but if want to win and you go with experienced American guys, ‘You’re not giving chance for guys to learn’!”

Valid point there, and it’s safe to say, I think, that the issue of outlets of media and its pro’s and con’s, has had its line drawn under, but the major question remains of where do Tigers realistically go from here?

For Gallagher, having only had limited minutes with Cheshire previously, he sees it from two angles: “It is definitely a development year for the Tigers, but for me developing personally, I’m only tied in for the year so I just want to make the most of things here.

“I think we’ll win a game – obviously it will come the lower league sides, unless we were to have a huge cash input and bring in the best players we can, then Newcastle, Leicester and Plymouth, it’ll be a struggle against them” he went on to say.

For Bigley, he has nothing but praise for the effects of Tony Walsh: “If you look at Tony’s role, he’s a guy who is all about development and is all about Merseyside basketball. He’s a guy who, at 8am every Sunday, is rounding up guys to go to Liverpool Community College, He’ll usually get a good number but sometimes not many, however he gives them a good session learning on their fundamentals.

“It starts with him, and he’s doing everything he can. I love him, and he’s got a heart of gold as a guy who has paid his dues to the community and to the youth of this city. It’s a great chance for him, and a great chance for the club to learn a bit more, and we branch out from there in to schools and other areas.”

Will that also come with a boost from the promotion of the BBL itself?

“The Premier League can be improved, the Aviva Premiership can be improved; there’s always room for improvement, but Paul Blake is working hard, he’s employed David Leyden-Dunbar as commercial director, it’s a step in the right direction, and we make the best of what we’ve got. We’re a developing country for basketball, we’ll get there but it takes time. People say ‘The BBL is the BBL, we’re not always that good’, but say what people want, you have to explore every avenue, and the youth route, I think, is the way to go” Bigley finished up by saying.

With all of that said, I haven’t even had time to fit in words from the main man in charge, Tony Walsh…yet.

• Check in with UKAmericanSportsFans.com for the exclusive interview with the head coach of Mersey Tigers, and his views on how basketball in Liverpool and Merseyside goes forward from here.