BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

Just when Wests Tigers fans thought it was safe to come out of their doomsday bunkers after back-to-back victories – the “Blue Wiggle” Anthony Field jumped in the big red car and toot toot, chugga chugga’d all over the club’s supporters.

It all started with a front page.

A yarn from Dean Ritchie in The Daily Telegraph.

“All my money now is invested in the Wiggles, and it would be a fairy tale, but one day the Wiggles may sell somewhere. If I had that sort of money, yeah, I’d do it, absolutely,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“I feel like I’m opening up a can of worms here but you can’t sweep tradition under the carpet.

“I tell you what, I would do it in a very respectful way with Wests by trying to convince them that Western Australia would be good for the Wests Magpies and Campbelltown and the ‘Tiges’ would come back to Leichhardt.”

You couldn’t get away from Field on Thursday morning.

A full PR blitzkrieg like the bloke was running in a federal election.

There he was on Channel 7’s Sunrise, smiling away, playing it down.

Then it was Ben Fordham on 2GB.

Channel Nine’s Today Show.

Not finished yet, we then saw him pop up on Channel 10.

Triple M’s Dead set Legends.

As he continued to repeat – it was just a dream.

Just a joke.

Italian lottery and all that.

At one point, the legendary kids performer admitted it was brought up at a lunch over a week ago when he was on stage with Balmain legends like Paul Sironen and Steve Roach.

You can understand how a one-eyed Balmain boy with a few schooners under the belt could toss something up in front of a crowd like that.

But did we need the story in the paper a whole week later and then the full court media press?

“Rugby league is a tribal sport and the world would be a better place if Balmain came back,” he went on.

“Look, I buy into Wests Tigers because that’s all we’ve got, but I’ll be honest with you, if they announced tomorrow that Wests had their own team and Balmain had their own team, I don’t think I’d be sad – I’d be really happy, so happy.

“In the meantime, every week I’m buying tickets in the Italian lottery. If you win, that’s $250m, and with that sort of money I would go to Wests Ashfield and respectfully ask them if they’d like to row their own boat again.

“I hope they would still welcome me at Wests Leagues Club if I go down this path. Balmain is up against it because Wests hold all the cards at the moment, and that’s fine.”

Retired or moved on: Legends of the game that helped their clubs to title glory but just missed out on their premiership rings

All it does is rip at the fabric of Wests Tigers.

A club that has been in existence since the turn of the century.

There are grown men and women in their early 20’s that never saw the Magpies or Balmain play.

Some of them would already have children.

Sunrise then put a reporter outside Leichhardt Oval and asked the locals if they wanted Balmain back in the NRL.

Shock horror.

You won’t guess what they said.

Braith Anasta and Paul Kent don’t need a second invitation to stick the knife in on NRL 360 so expect to see the all the familiar faces of the Balmain mafia on this evening’s show (just for something different) to keep the assassination going.

Nobody feels sorry for Pascoe, Hagipantelis or the board.

But take a second to think about this generation of Wests Tigers fans. The 10-year-old in primary school that’s never seen his side in the finals. Confused and upset at why all his friend’s teams are always there but not Wests Tigers. Think about the young family who have just bought their first home in the thriving South West – their new-born baby decked out in a Wests Tigers onesie.

They couldn’t give a stuff about Anthony Field or Balmain or the Magpies.

Wests Tigers usually don’t need much help shooting themselves in the foot.

What Anthony Field was much worse.

He pressed a shotgun to the temple of the club’s head and pulled the trigger.

But it’s just a dream.

Wink, wink.

@woodward_curtis