Wests Tigers skipper Aaron Woods admits he's in no hurry to sign a contract extension at the joint venture following the dismissal of Jason Taylor on Monday.
Off-contract at season's end, the Leichhardt junior's future is a key talking point moving forward in retention at the Tigers, with star trio James Tedesco, Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses all joining him as free agents beyond this season.
A relaxed Woods insisted it was too early to re-commit to the club given the current events of the past week and the uncertainty on who will take over the reins at Concord as interim coach Andrew Webster steps in temporarily.
"You want to know the direction which the club is going… I won't sign anytime soon," Woods said.
"I'm going to wait until the coach is done.
"I haven't thought about signing yet either because I haven't been happy with the footy the team has been playing the last two weeks.
"I don't want to rush and hurry it up, but get back to playing good footy with the boys.
"I've just got to knuckle down, play some footy and then in a couple of weeks I will sit down with the wife and management to sort it out.
"I just know the club want to get it done but I want to take my time and I want to know the right direction in my life and which way I want to go.
"I'm not running my own ship but I want to know the coach.
"The [new] coach might not want me and I might have to look elsewhere, it's his side as well.
"I'll just sit down and let my manager sort all that stuff and I'll focus on footy but I don't want to talk to [my manager] yet unless I know what's going on with the coach here first."
Woods stayed clear on his thoughts about Taylor's departure and said he was misinterpreted in a recent television interview about his former coach, in which it was implied by the media that he would not re-sign under Taylor beyond this season.
"It's a tough one, it's not for me to comment… it was the board and CEO's decision [on his departure]," Woods said.
"[On TV] I didn't say I wanted to get rid of 'JT' (Taylor). I said JT's not contracted for years after and I just wanted to know if they were going to commit to him long-term or not.
"You just want to know the direction the club is going.
"The timing is hard but at the end of the day as players we have to go out and play football.
"The board are making the decisions so it's out of our hands.
"I'm just here to play footy, we'll see who the coach is and go from there."
The Kangaroos prop admitted it would be hard to leave the club he grew up next door to, and said the side's primary focus had to be showing up and performing strongly against the Melbourne Storm on Sunday.
"I love this joint all the time and I grew up down the road, it's a part of me and in my blood," Woods said.
"It's backs against the walls now with pretty tough circumstances with what's happened the last couple of days and what better way to get over it by playing [here on] Sunday.
"I think just playing footy overall is the best thing to do, it doesn't matter who we are playing and make amends for everything that’s happened.
"They're the form side of the competition and you're really going to be tested.
"You don't want to get flogged every week but that's something to work hard on with the boys.
"We played well for the first 30 minutes [against Canberra] and I just think we've got to build more pressure.
"It's going to have to turn around, we are completing at 50 percent and when you do that it's not going to win you football games.
"Even when we did beat Souths we didn't complete at a fashionable state so it's something we've got to work real hard on."
With the pressure mounting on halves pairing Moses and Brooks, the 26-year-old said the rest of the Tigers outfit had made it hard for the duo to produce in recent weeks with a number of errors and poor defence leading to the side's overall downfall.
"They (Moses and Brooks) are alright, I don't think much phases Luke or Mitchell… they're confident guys and have always been footballers so they've just got to focus on doing their job," Woods said.
"A lot of people are bagging them but at the end of the day as a forward pack, I don't think we have been up to standard.
"It's hard to play behind a forward pack that hasn't been going forward too much and I have taken it upon myself and I have spoken to the other forwards as well."
Video first featured at weststigers.com.au
