The struggles of the Tigers in recent years have made plenty of their fans feel old before their time – back-to-back wooden spoons and the longest finals drought in the league can do that.
But for any long-suffering joint venture fan who really wants a glimpse of their own mortality, look no further than Tallyn da Silva.
Da Silva is, as they say in the classics, a good’un. A free-running hooker who is among the best of a fine crop of Tigers juniors coming through the grades, da Silva became one of the youngest players in club history when he made his NRL debut midway through last season just a couple months past his 18th birthday.
That first game was Campbelltown Stadium and that means a lot because da Silva is Campbelltown to the bone, a born and bred Tiger every single day of his life.
“This was my dream growing up, to play for the Wests Tigers. I’m so proud to be a Campbelltown boy and I was such a big Tigers fan growing up,” da Silva said.
“Dad supports them, Mum supports them, the whole family. Everything about this is so special to me.”
Da Silva is the platonic ideal of a Tigers junior, the kind of guy who the club should be putting on a poster.
He was playing senior footy alongside his father for East Campbelltown at 16, did a few days here and there as a scaffolder in his rookie year to make ends meet and is a player of seemingly endless possibilities.
He was also born in April of 2005, a little under six months shy of the greatest night in the club’s history, the triumph they are always trying to emulate, the glorious time they want to make new again, the high they are perpetually chasing.
Da Silva is one of a generation of Tigers players who have little to no memory of the club being successful. He was six years old when they played their last final in 2011.
Even the men who were there are starting to fade away – Aaron Woods and Ben Murdoch-Masila are the last two active players in the league who have appeared in a semifinal match for the Tigers.
For fans of a certain age, they’re sobering facts. Boys have grown into men as they waited for their club to win.
