Wests Tigers Grab Second Close Win in July

The Wests Tigers have put two valuable points in the bank with an ugly win over the Titans.

In front of a packed Leichhardt Oval crowd, the good guys got home by one point, 21-20, against the Gold Coast.In a period of the club's history where wins are hard to come by, Wests Tigers have now claimed two victories just this month.

On this edition of the Wests Tigers Podcast, Joel and Steve look back at the big afternoon at Leichhardt.It was clunky, sure, but were there any positives to take away from the performance?

How about Taylan May? The boys look at the imposing first-up display of the new Tiger's centre.

Joel and Steve also discuss:

• Adam Doueihi at lock - is this a long-term position for him?
• The lethal Wests Tigers left edge
• Using Api Koroisau off the bench, was it a good move?
• Ongoing concerns around our defense, especially on the right edge
• Benji described the game as our worst performance of the year
• And are we now safe from the wooden spoon?

The boys also share and discuss some cracking comments left by members of the increasingly popular Wests Tigers Podcast Forum.

Speaking of the forum, Joel also goes through a mountain of 'One Word' submissions left in the live game thread after the Titans' game.These submissions range from 'Dysfunctional' to 'Diabolical', and just about everything in between, from a performance that seems to have left many Tiger fans confused about where this team stands.

We hope you enjoy this latest post-victory edition of the Wests Tigers Podcast, and don't forget to catch the mid-week edition with Eddie, with a preview of the Panthers' game this weekend.And join in the discussion now on the Wests Tigers Podcast Forum, where you're wanted and welcome to join our interactive Wests Tigers fan community.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wests-tigers-podcast--6660380/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The West Tigers Podcast is brought to you by the
West Tigers Podcast Forum. Join the conversation today at wests
Tigers podcast dot com dot au.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's the West Tigers Podcast and I believe it's episode
four hundred and nineteen. That's what Eddie said on the
other pod that the boys recorded, which I think is
a really good listen with coach Adell and Gary and Rob.
But Steve, we're here where the traditionalists. We're doing the
traditional West Tigers podcast and it comes after a win.

(00:48):
It's a post victory edition of the West Tigers Podcast,
which I always have to joke I have to look
up in the manual as they how to do one
of these because we don't get an awful lot of
bractice at them. Your one word out of that very
slim one point victory over the Titans, Oh, I'm going.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
To try to be positive about that they win and
just say if my mom would is needed. It was
a victory really really needed. If we'd lost that game
to the last place Titans and put ourselves back in
contention for the wooden Spoon, I think it would be
pretty difficult pill to side that one. So the whole club,
the whole fan base, the playing group, everyone needed that victory.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I think needed is a very very apt word, and
very much I very much agree with you. The club,
the coach, the players, the fans needed is the word.
I've got a couple. I've got physicality, because we actually
had a player out there playing on the left side
who delivered really good physicality both in offense and defense

(01:51):
and really looked like a first grader, So we'll talk
about him shortly. I've got fragile, and that's something that
we've spoken about a fair bit, Steve, and I want
to talk a little bit about that this edition of
the pod, and that is the team still at times
looks extraordinarily fragile, where something just go the wind blows,
shifts direction, blows in their faces and we go to water.

(02:12):
So fragile. But I thought it would be nice to
just say fans, Steve. Now, I didn't get the chance
to go out to like U, but obviously watched it
on television, and I remember talking about this in one
of the games last year that we won. I was
just so happy to see happy people in West Tiger's
colors up on the hill, and I think I don't

(02:34):
I can't work out. Let's put it that way. I
can't work out why people like us stick around. And
you look at that hill and it's chuck full of people,
and I'm like, what's wrong with these people? Why do
they keep turning up? So a pat on the back
for all the fans. It's it's a rusted on fan base,
isn't it. Steve like, if they haven't got rid of
us yet, they're probably not going to well.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I heard it. I heard a great description of the
game on the Weekend by Dan Ganain on three sixty
earlier tonight, and he said there were fourteen thousand screaming
West Tiger supporters out there, and Mate, I did not
see normally when Leichhart's packed, it's packed with Tiger supporters,

(03:18):
but there's a good a good spattering, if not more
than a good spatter of opposition supporters. I did not
see one Titans jersey all day. It was fourteen thousand toes.
But dan Ganain said they went through seventy nine minutes
of frustration, but they're going to go home. Remember the
one minute it was outstanding, And I thought that's a

(03:40):
perfect description of the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Really, absolutely a little bit of Lighthart Magic. I guess
that leads me into a question that just come to mind.
And we've spoken a little bit about the hard times
alienating people and you know, potentially losing a generation of fans.
But I suppose if you play Devil's At in a way,
it's also kind of brought us together in a kind

(04:05):
of way. You know, maybe it's sort of a shared
trauma response or or something like that. But in a way,
I would suggest that the fan base has been you know,
gaut for one of a better term, galvanised by the
difficult times where we've been through this together. So you know,
maybe there is hope.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
We've said it so many times. We are a huge
brand and there are literally thousands and thousands and thousands
of West Tigers supporters out there or people that can
somehow find a link between themselves and the West Tiger's brand.
And so when the opportunity comes to go to an

(04:45):
iconic venue like Oval, we tend to pack it out.
When we start to play recent football, we tend to
pack out, you know, our other grounds as well. People
want to come and follow the West Tigers. There's something
about getting behind the Tigers. I don't know what it is.
There's a bit of magic in it. Really. It's incredibly

(05:07):
frustrated that it's been so negative for so long, that
we've been losing for so long. But when there are
green shoots appearing, the crowds are there, you know, and
they were there then in numbers just on fourteen thousand
that are packed like over and it's just a sight
to behold them. And despite the crumby toilets and the

(05:28):
line up, and if you want to have a winge,
you can have a winge. But there's just no place
like it. There really isn't Oh. I went to Alliance
the other week against the Roosters and there was twenty
five thousand there and it's a lovely place to go
and watch footy, you know, and apart from the twenty
one dollar hand you could become an infamous comment. But

(05:52):
it's nothing like being a Leichha, nothing like it. The
atmosphere is not a patch on it.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, and it does raise the question if the West
Tigers can have some degree of sustained success. You know,
your Campbelltown's and your like arts are going to you
could imagine a time where they are just members only
stadiums I mean, we don't know if Campbelltown's going to continue
or what form that is, but you could probably see
with Like Art that in a couple of years, if

(06:21):
the Tigers are up in the top four, top eight,
that it might be a situation where you only have
members going Steve, do you think that's a possibility.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, I think so. That happens overseas, so there's no
reason it can't happen here. And I just want to
raise the question. I just wonder how many games we
can end up playing it like can't? And I know
the plan is that they say, you know, four or
five is and once if Campbelltown gets the upgrade as well,

(06:51):
might maybe a bit more than that. But the moment's
looking like four and five.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
But if the profitability is there, when the renovations are
done to Like Art and they've got better corporate facilities
and they can get more people into the ground, if
the profited building can get up close to matching what
to get, you know, what the toderes get when they
go to combat, can they consider playing more games at

(07:17):
like Hard Because I'll tell you now, the more games.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
We play at Like Art, the higher on the ladder
will be because we win games at like hard that
we won't win elsewhere for sure. And so at what
point do you say, all right, we might get one
hundred and fifty grand less at like art than we
do combat, but we win three more games and we

(07:43):
finish eighth instead of not eleventh, and we play semi
final football, and does that make up for that one
d and fifty grand? You know, I don't have the
answers to that, but it's definitely something to consider, surely.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
I mean. And the other thing the factor into that
as well, is it does it lose some of it's
magic if you go back to like it was in
you know, the beal Main days where we were playing
there every second week, Like, does it lose a little
bit of the fact that they are special games and
there is a limitation on the number of opportunities that
you get to get out there. There's the NRL that
that could change that as well. It also changes the

(08:19):
But then you know, it doesn't name really matter. Like
we call the West Tigers. Does that mean that we
have to actually be in to some degree in the
western suburbs of Sydney if you are considering that, you know,
west of Paramatta, is the Western suburbs nowadays. You know,
it would be certainly a change in that regard, but

(08:41):
there are things to look at down the track and
work out over time. But looking forward to those renovations
that like that's going to be I still I don't.
I can't believe it's ever going to happen, but hey,
look it looks like it is, so we'll wait and
see for that. Let's have a look at the mountain
of one word submiss from the West Tigers podcast forum,

(09:03):
and in recent times we've made a couple of back
end changes to the West Tigers podcast Forum, but a
whole bunch of front end new features and new ways
of communicating by the West Tigers Podcast Forums about to
come in in the next couple of weeks, so we'll
let you know more about that. But a couple of
those new members on the podcast forum, let's go with theirs. First,

(09:26):
oz Mo seven. Their word was crowd. It was a
terrible game, but the win was for the crowd to enjoy.
That's a good one. The bing their one word was Mike,
but not the well known member of the West Tigers
podcast for him talking about Mike the chicken that runs
around without a hit reminds them of the West Tigers.

(09:47):
Tiger seventy, their word was may, may we avoid the
wooden spoon and may the forest be with us. Barrow's
word was may as well, we don't get close without
him about tailor may Davy Farrell staggering, staggering that we
won that game. Mac Tiger's word was stolen. We stole
that one. Wagga Tiger's word was confused. A win's a win.

(10:11):
But they look like they just met each other. Yeah,
it looked like seventeen guys that met out in the
car park who decided to come out and play a
game of football. Tiger fifty one to fifty difficult. It
was a difficult game to watch. We made it harder
than it should have been, so we made it more
difficult than it should have been. It's difficult to see
any plan or structure in attack. It's difficult to see

(10:32):
how Jack Bird gets another game, and it's difficult to
see where the improvement comes from. Yarni's word was who
who cares a win? Is a win? Tiger Tragic fifty
six contribution was may the only positive. Peter Ay's word
was iq or a complete lack of Rachel Nine's word
was how are we still this awful in the red

(10:54):
zone after all these years?

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Hang on, hang on, sorry, Joel. We can go with
a one word, We can go the couple words, We
can even go a phrase, but we can't take a paragraph.
Come on, Rach, we can't tag a paragraph as a
one word.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Edny Given Sunday's word was God's Eddie's football gods. They
finally let one go our way and we're going to
have a talk about the football gods and a second.
Steve tiger'sman confused. We were confused in attack. We're a
confused team. How can we be in a better position
on the table? Play so poorly? LFC Tiger their word

(11:31):
was flat. I could barely raise a cheer. It was
at times an utterly inept performance from both sides. Tiger
to own sfs, lucky, lucky to win that one Tiger
symmetry deliverance. We bank the win, no small thing. Enumerator's
word was thieves. We stole that one. Mike there is
there's Mike. Ugly. An ugly win and an ugly game

(11:53):
we would normally lose. And on the rich ometer, poor,
poor team performance, Farmer. Rando's word was twenty twenty three,
we looked like the Tigers of twenty twenty three. Tiger's
I another new member of the podcast forum coaching, we
aren't a well coached side that Mak seventy eight's word
was contract, give one to Tailor May and Adam Dewey
for next year, seek and destroy. His word was punish.

(12:16):
Why do I punish myself every week with this team?
Canbra Tiger's word was lucky. Tiger Lily said, dysfunctional. Lord
knows how we won that one. Kenny four five one
seven their word was diabolical and Teddy s their word
was z That's what grade I thought. I was watching
zed great football Steve the Football Gods, Eddie's famous football Gods.

(12:40):
We had a little bit of luck in that game,
didn't we. The God smiled us on us just a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
And we did. We did have luck. It wasn't as
if we got to bounce the ball that went our
way and then we stole, you know, like the Warriors did.
It wasn't luck from that perspective. The luck I reckon
was the fact that we didn't turn up, but either
did the Titans, and I think that's where you say

(13:08):
we had the luck because they were very poor. We
were very poor minus ten. We were just that little
bit better the stats. If you look at the stats,
most of the stats do go our way. We made
more meters through the game, our completion rate was marginally better,
our mistackles were less, so we actually did beat them legitimately.

(13:34):
But it was a very low standard game. But you know,
at the end of the day, we've winged and winged
and wined when we say we can't win the moments
and we don't know how to win, and we don't
like there's no arguing that we struggled to know how
to close the game out win. But what we saw
on the weekend was a team that played poorly, that
continued to play poor, that made basic errors, that never

(13:58):
really got into a flow, but won the game, found
a way to win it. And it was a little
bit of brilliance by Adam Dewey, but it was a
little bit more than that too. And I'll probably do
it Joel, So I hope I'm not jump in the gun,
but I'll just mentioned one thing, and that's that's our
left edge attack and our left edge at tap looked great,

(14:18):
and we're all going to talk about Taylor May quite rightly.
He was absolutely brilliant and we're found we've found a
superstar in that position. And I don't think I'm being
over the top in saying that. We can talk about
that later, but I just want to talk about that
whole Like Feinu passing out to Leui, getting it to May,

(14:40):
getting it to Skeleton, that combination is going to be
dynamic for US. Loui, without doubt had his best game
in attack for US. I gave it to him last
pod that I was on saying that he's doing a
whole lot of good stuff, but his attack is just horrendous,
and I still stand by what I said. But he
was awesome in the attack, his combination with Feynu like

(15:03):
Fanu giving him good early ball, and the way the
way ran off the Feu pass and straightened the attack
and then gave good ball to Taylor May, who then
delivered good ball to Skelton when he needed to. Was
that that is something that we should be really looking
forward to seeing develop the rest of this year and

(15:25):
in the next year. That is going to be a dynamic,
powerful point scoring machine at that left edge. I'm convinced.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, I've got the all written down in my notes.
I was very impressed as well, especially without Samuel Lafanu,
who's normally there in that position in the back row
and is normally making quite a contribution. That makes me
excited when he's back there as well. But no, I
wholeheartily agree. Thing I like about Taylor may coming back

(15:55):
to that physicalities. He just looks to have so much strength,
not just in his upper body but his hips. He
just he just really knows how to power through and
I was really impressed with it. And some of his
defense too.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Yeah, defense, his defense is rock solid. But he's smart too.
Like that first try, he's smart and he's a footballer.
He had the confidence, but a lot of a lot
of guys that there wasn't a huge there wasn't.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
A lot of space there for him for him to
go to the tryline down that left corner, and he
went for it. He had the confidence and the smarts
and the strength, as you said, because he carried guys
over the line to score that try that that wasn't
a laydown was there to get that ball down and
he did. He didn't try to get the winger to

(16:41):
come inside and turn it back in. He said, no,
my try, I'm going for it and he got there.
He's yeah, it was a superstar from Taylor.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Given he's only played half a game of Cup, I
believe it's only half a game in your south. I
was cup very impressed and he seemed to he seems fit,
he seems like he was you know, I mean, I
guess that the genetics are there. We can see it
in his brother running marathons and playing eighty minutes. So
there's lots to be optimistic there. It does certainly sort
of shift the center discussion. We're always talking about centers

(17:12):
over the off season. We're talking about we're talking about Naden,
and we're talking about Olham and all sorts of conversations.
But you would think that that May is going to
be one of those centers moving forward. And then you
start to think, well, Stafford Tower's there, but you've got
Makassini coming through as well. So I'm going to be
interested to see which way they go with that. I

(17:33):
suppose the thing that you could probably say is, barring injury,
probably do these days in the centers for the West
Tigers are probably over but Teller apparently not re signed Steve.
Should we be backing the youth there or should we
be giving Tower another contract?

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I'd be I'd be finalizing that Tower extension or new
contract as soon as we can. I think Towers are
great for him, and he's going to become I think
he's already a very good center. I think I think
he could become a great center. I'm hoping that we
have Taylor Maine and Staff Tower in the centers. And
we talked about this, Gary and I talked about this

(18:13):
on the pob the other night where we saw where's
Macassini fit in? And he's only young, you know, he's
only just started to play all age football. You know,
he's only got a couple of games where he's played
against men. So he's still got a bit of a
journey ahead of him and he needs to come through that.
Maybe it'll get to the point where he's knocking down
the door and they have to find a spot for him.

(18:37):
And so that that's a conundrument Benji's got to deal with.
But it's a great problem to have to have someone
like Taylor Maine, staffa Tower as you're starting sentas and Macasini.
You know, if he's as good as we think, he's
going to be sitting in the background knocking down the
door for a spot in first grade, that that's awesome.

(18:59):
And we talked about doing the other night as well.
So I don't want to go over it too much,
but I liked what I liked what I saw on
the weekend and when he shifted flock last of the
week before. I don't know whether do is going to
be satisfied in that role, playing thirteen or possibly playing

(19:20):
fourteen in the fourteen role, but if he is prepared
to give that a go, I think there's something inner
for us. I think he gives us another option as
a board player. He gives us another kicking option. What
concerns me. And it wasn't a huge There were a
lot of mistackles in the middle, but they do He wasn't,

(19:42):
you know, one of the main offenders there on the weekend.
So if he can, if he can defend for eighty
minutes in the middle, then he could make a goal
thirteen and he could give us an answer for thirteen
because we've been looking for it for a while. There's
talk this week that in the last couple of days
that he might be going to the Panthers or elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Dragons apparently interested.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, dragons as well. Yeah, so I don't know, but
if I was in the Tigers camp, i'd be I'll
be giving some serious consideration to extending him.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, I can't see him getting a starting spot in
the halves at the Panthers. Maybe at the Dragons maybe.
So I think if you're going to if you're going
to play regular first grade, it might be in a
position such as lock or utility, and then it might
come down to dollars, and it might come down to love,
love of the club. I've got to give him a
rap for his goal can to a couple of beautiful

(20:40):
kicks from the sideline. The funny thing is, I'd hate
to be sort of facetious, but he's still now he's
the world's slowest lock. I thought Jackson Hastings had that title,
but Adam Dewey, he yeah, he takes a little bit
of winding up to get up off the line. Just
back to the backs. If you if you play macas
any on the wing, no great place to start a

(21:02):
career on the wing, But then you've you've got to
try and fit to Ruvera and Skelton in and it's
going to be an interesting one as well. So you know,
there's going to be some headaches there, I think for
the club, and maybe a couple of tough decisions to
make in regards to all of that. We're not going
to beat up on the guy, but he had an
unhappy game. Charlie stains, Steve, you do get that out

(21:25):
of a Charlie Stains every now and then. He has
been used as a backup. He was primarily a backup
at the Panthers, maybe a potential candidate for the Shredder,
because I imagine that Charlie probably wants a little bit more
money than a fringy winger might sort of command.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, well it's a pity because I you know, I
was off him earlier in the year, and I thought
for a lot of the year when he's coming to
first grade, he's actually done a pretty good job, probably
better than a pretty good job. But yeah, he had
an absolute stinker on the weekend. He just had flippers
for the hands, that's for sure. He was terrible with
poor blood. But he's just got to throw that one

(22:06):
away forget about it and get back to playing decent footy.
But if Buller comes back, I think Buller was hopeful
of being back this week. So if that's the case,
then Taruver back to the wing and Skelton keeps his
spot because you know, I don't know before the weekend
that Skelton was laid down, Like I still think i'd
picked Skeleton before Stains. I think he goes starts our sense. Well,

(22:30):
his power out of the back end is pretty important
to us. But Stains was probably putting a bit of
pressure on him. But Stains was playing decent footy, and
Skelton's defense has has led us down and did again
and when we can. But yeah, I think I think
Stains might find himself back in reserve grade if if
Bullet comes back.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Skelton gives me sort of those hard in moment moments,
hard in mouth moments. I don't have a lot of
faith in him. Sometimes he he sometimes looks like everything
is going to go wrong, and sometimes it does, especially
as you said, with his defense Buller coming back. It
would be great just to see Buller fin Bleu. I

(23:13):
see how they combine in this in the spine and
see how that goes with Dewey as well, like how
that works with do we feeding into that as well?

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, you know it's the thing we do it. It
pushes our halves a little bit wider and just gives
that a little bit of extra space for our halves.
But what excites me is the quick ball out to
our centers with Buller as a running option sleeping around that.
What that does, Joel, It just puts the defensive line

(23:45):
in two minds when they know you've got you know,
you've got larger faire who who can jink and go
himself at incredible pace. So the defensive one has to
watch for that. We know lu I likes to run.
Running game was the best speed all season on the weekend,
so they've got to watch him that he doesn't dart

(24:05):
and go himself. But then he can give good ball.
He can give good ball to Buller coming around you
know and joining in the back line on a squeek.
He can he can give it to the second row
up was his name, Finnu simla Fein who coming straight
or coming running an inside line, or it can now
go out the back to Taylor May who gives it
on to Skelton. You know that there are so many

(24:29):
points of attack on that left side that the opposition
back line have to watch for the first time in
a long time. We're going to create problems for defensive ones.
They're not going to know which way to go, and
the minute that happens, the defensive line breaks and gaps appear,
and that's how you get through and score points. So,

(24:50):
as I said Jim, I know the weekend was poor.
There's a poor performance, but what I took away was
that left edge and that left edge is going to
be dynamite.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah, it gives you some hope for sure. Benji described
it as the worst performance of the year so far.
I don't know if you've met the worst win like
our worst performance in a win. I think that's probably
what he meant, because I think probably the Melbourne game
was our worst performance of the year. I'm going to
get revert to mercy rule here, Steve. He says, apart

(25:21):
from winning a game in the eightieth minute against the
bottom place side who were ever so slightly more inept
and awful than we were, there's nothing positive at all
to take out of that effort today. But I would
suggest what we're spoken about as a positive to take
out of it. But there's some strike in that left
edge that is that is not just something that looks

(25:42):
like it worked yesterday or Sunday, like it looks like
it's going to work week in week out, because they're
quality players, So that's a possive.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
I think we've just spent fifteen minutes talking about positive
that come out of that game. There's no denying it
was a very poor performance, you know, the ten minutes
before half time, the five minutes after half time. But
they've just got to rev up in the sheds at halftime,
got told to minimize their errors, and they dropped the
ball from the kickoff and then do he drops the
ball on the goal line in the very next set.

(26:14):
Like there's two errors in the first minute of the
second half, and I think we had two had we
had two tries scored just before half time. I can't
remember when the next one was scored. But we started
the second half really poor anyway, So there's a lot.
There's a lot to be disappointed about, but there is
still positives and this team in years gone past, we

(26:36):
wouldn't have won that game, you know, we would have
been like I said, this is a couple of weeks
ago on the Poden. You know, se we tended to
play ten percent worse than who ever we're playing. So
you know, we played the team coming first and we
just get beaten. We played the team coming last and
we just keept beaten. It makes no sense. Whereas we

(26:56):
probably still did the same thing, we found the way
to win. You wouldn't have done that. That's a positive
in itself. It was scrappy. It was a bit of
a fluke. You're gonna no one's going to look at
the Warriors win against the Knives. They're going to say
the Warriors are a top four team, they deserve the win.
They got the win. That was a fluke. That was
a bigger flute than ours. Look, you get those wins.

(27:21):
It's two points.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
You could also reframe and rejig Richo's meter and say
that you go from you know, because he's talking about
being awful to poor to average to good de gray.
But you could also look at it from the perspective
of just losing no matter what happens, you lose, no
matter how well you play, you lose, and then you
become a team that starts to jag wins when you

(27:45):
play poorly, and then when you become an average team,
it's like you win quite regularly playing average, you know,
you don't have to play out of your skin every week,
and then you just you go up to the next level.
So that's another way of looking at it. And I think,
coming back to your word needed, I think we need
some of these results to go our way, So bank

(28:07):
a few wins, to take some pressure off, to breathe,
to just get into a different headspace. And actually, because
I think as a fan, like we're even as fans,
we're so nervous and so anxious and so traumatized that
we're so scared of it and so ready for it
to go so horribly wrong. And I think some of

(28:28):
that comes through to the players. I think that's the players.
Even though we've introduced a lot of players, they tend
to take that on, that scar tissue. So if we
can continue to, you know, hold our head above water
and just even if it's an even if it's not
quite fifty percent win rate over the next twelve months,
you know, but we're in the fight and we're getting

(28:49):
some results, then that's something to build on. And then
you can build off that and get up into it
being a better team.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, I think the old habits re emerge pretty quickly.
You know, we are You mentioned this at the top
of the pod. We are fragile, and once we start losing,
we probably panic, We lose confidence. We're not used to
resurrecting ourselves from failure. We're just used to being in failure,

(29:16):
and so it's difficult. And we lose one game by
a couple of points, and we lose the next week
a couple of points. Then all of a sudden, we're
looking at the next game where we could lose three
in a row, and all of a sudden, we've won
two from ten. Right. Unfortunately, that's how this season has
panned out. Could have been very different. You take the
Lucky Galvin disaster out of the season, and this season

(29:37):
could have looked very, very different. And I think we
could have been like you said, I think we could
have been at the just outside the eight probably, you know,
really pushing to get into that seventh or eight spot.
But we're not, and I think our confidence is diminished
as we go. So even though we were rubbish on the weekend,

(30:00):
we found a way to win. We got two points
and they got to, you know, sing the song in
the sheds and a little bit of belief would have
come out of.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
That, you know, And we can't change it now, and
it's all moot. But if Torrell grounds that ball in
the first round against the Knights, and you know who
grounds that ball against sous and we're sitting another four
points up the ladder, it's a totally different conversation. And

(30:28):
that's what happens when you get to be a club
that just keeps the winds ticking over. You don't have
to be the world's best team, but you keep the
wins ticking over, and the world starts to look different.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Isn't an interesting, Joel? How the journalist journalistic world works.
So if we look at that other fella, he played
seventy nine minutes of rubbish and did one minute of
good stuff, and everyone's talking about the one minute. We
played seventy nine minutes of rubbish and played one minutes
a good football and everyone's talking about the seventy nine minute.

(31:00):
How's that fair?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
It's all showbies, Steve don't there's no journalistic integrity. It's
all show bis. I'd like you to please identify what
the one minute was that we played. Well, can you
go back and tell me one minute that was or
is that just accumulation over the eight?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Well, you know that last, that last part, And I've
heard a few people bag Jerome Loi for that when
when he ran down the left side, he was half
a meter from from scoring a try, you know, and
he would have got all that lads of will And
I think, yeah, okay, he did take it away from
the posts, but the opportunity was there, and I don't
think we want to lose that. He saw an opportunity

(31:40):
to win the game and he took it. Yeah. Sure,
the structure to set the field goal wasn't there, and
I've banned on all year about us not playing with
enough structure. But what he did then he was so
close to go there and we and we got back
and we kicked the field goal. So that's the minute
I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Have him have a break for a second. I'm going
to read a couple of comments that have come through
on the West Tiger's podcast forum Tiger's I definitely more
talent in the team than they showed today. Either these
guys aren't up to performing week in week out, or
it's just poor coaching, probably both. They don't look professional
at all. Tiger's I is saying Bird is lucky to

(32:19):
have an NRL contract at all, yet he starts in
our side. That just shows we are way too low
on cattle and tigertown sfs a little bit of a
longer one, but saying it's true that we have not
had attacking structure. Partly that is because we lost one
of our starting halves who demanded to be the center
of attention, and it's partly because we have no attacking philosophy.

(32:41):
Do we play with the dominant seven? Do we play
a ball playing lock? Do we center our attack off
our nine? We have a new attempt to each week
depending on who is in the team that day and
the result of the previous week's game. I'm giving Benji
a pass because we have been competitive without a game plan,
and I put that down to his capacity as a
men manager. But things need to change for next season.

(33:04):
If that means we need to bring in new assistance,
and so be it. But we need to develop and
identify a game plan that we can stick to week
in week out despite the results. I think that's a
really good point, Steve, because it seems like exactly as
Tiger town SFS says that even within the context of
a game. We saw that last week where we shift
things around in the middle of a game, and I

(33:24):
wonder if that sort of fragility, that sort of, for
want of a better term, schizophrenic sort of way that
we play in attack is not being helped by the
fact that we keep sort of chopping and changing the
way that we're doing it. And you made the point earlier,
the Gallvant situation was definitely a big hiccup in all
of that. So maybe that's something that we can work

(33:46):
on over the course of the rest of the year,
is get a style and then perfect the style.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
Yeah. First, I think that's an outstanding comment. I agree
with nearly everything that he said there. Yeah, I think
I think definitely Galvin situation muck us up because we
were we were putting together a style of play that's
centered around Lochlan Galvin and what he wanted and his

(34:16):
desire and need to call the ball every single play,
and Jerome Lewi trying to build the guy's confidence, I imagine,
was trying to give him the lead there that that
in hindsight, that was a mistake but I think you know,
before the blow, we were all on board with with
what was what was happening. The only thing I disagree

(34:39):
with that but we don't want we want a basic structure.
I agree with that, but we don't want a game
plan at set in stone week to week two week.
We've got to adjust just to the opposition, look at
their areas of weakness. And that's one of the things
that frustrates me a little bit is that we don't
seem to do that enough. That our game plan is
centered around us and and our strength, which is kicks

(35:03):
the box, but it's not centered around opposition weakness enough
and where we should be attacking across their defensive line.
I suppose as they become more confident and played with
play together more often, then the game plan might expand
and that that will start to happen. But nearly everything
that was said there's you. I think we've got the

(35:27):
playoff appy to play around the ruck. I think we've
got that sort of When we do that well, we
play well. The only the only concern with that is
we tend to be less dominant as the year goes on,
And I don't know whether that's because Happy's playing too
many minutes and gets tired. Earlier in the season. We
look more dominant than we do through the ruck were

(35:50):
in the back end of the season. But I think
Happy controls the ruck beautifully. If we can get If
we can get Luay and phone Who playing the way
they did in the work getting down that left side,
and do that consistently throughout the season, I think our structure,
the way we move around the football field will look

(36:12):
a lot better.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
It was an interesting strategy starting with Hope and benching Happy.
I'm not entirely sure what the thinking or what the
logic behind that might have been, other than it maybe
it protects Happy a little bit from the collision early
on in the game when the forwards a fresh show.
I'm just not exactly sure. But I don't think that
helped with our red zone attack that first couple of

(36:36):
times we got down there before we scored the first try, Like,
we really look clunky clunky in the red zone with
Tristan Hope at hooker. So yeah, I'm not sure what
the logic might have been with that.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
No, I haven't got an answer for Joel. I don't
know whether I was flabberg acid to be honest, when
I saw that that he wasn't going to start the game,
I really liked it. I know he's gone now, but
I really liked it when we had Abby playing for
thirty minutes, he go off just before halftime, have a
break before halftime, after halftime, and come back on with

(37:12):
twenty five to thirty to go and telling the Silver
come on the back end of our first half and
with his nippiness around the ruck would sort of get
in there amongst the tied forwards and create havoc. I'm
not sure that Hope can has that ability to do that.
He can company can come on and just do a
job while Happy has a breather, But I don't like

(37:36):
it at the start of the game. They are better
minds than me that that might be able to come
up with a plausible explanation, but I certainly don't think
it worked.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
And the service from dummy half from Hope was a
few passes are a little bit off, and there was
some clunkiness in our passing game yet again where the
ball wasn't hitting tended to I think got better as
the game went on, but I noticed that in that
first half where the ball just wasn't hitting the man
in the right spot. So that's something to continue to
work on it. Maybe that's an attention to detailed things, Steve.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, I agree, but I do I do want to
say I think we looked again it's down the left side.
We didn't go to the right often enough to comment,
which which is a bit of a concern because Stafford
Teller has got a lot to offer on the right
and so we've got to make sure I know that's
that of a dynamic left, but we've got to make
sure we get the ball to staff for Towe as well,

(38:30):
because he's a good attacking weapon. But I thought we
looked the best at times. The flow was the best
it's looked all season for short for short bursts. What
really got got me worried in that game on the
weekend was that it was our defense, like we just
weren't working to get the lack of awareness. Lack of

(38:53):
it like the first try, the first try to where
I think it was Jamie Campbell through further long ball. Yeah,
it lod up through long ball. You know at they
score like against Skelton was just so far in field,
but there was no awareness, There were no awareness of
where their their players were. And again the try where

(39:15):
Campbell kicked across field, again there was just no one
there and there was no one with him of that player.
So and then there was another time there where Tower
came running in and they were attacking our line, and
our defensive one was retreating, like you don't retreat when
you're that close to the line. You've got to go.
And then Tower obviously realized that, tried to rectify it

(39:39):
and then ran in one hundred miles an hour. And
when he did it on his own, well that's just
useless unless you're going to ball and all and wrap
him up and put him on the ground quickly. That
that's that's a recipe for disaster. So our a defensive structure,
a defensive plan working together. It just seems that there's
a lack of awareness and they're not trusting each other,

(40:00):
they're not in sync. And put that together with some
of the mistackles in the middle the first contact miss
is in the middle and the straight mister, there was
a few bit where where players will just step round
on the weekend defensively, that was, Yeah, it needs a
lot of work.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Well, I'd suggest that the combination between and I would
hope that the combination between Taylor and May and Gireal
Skelton will improve the more they played together. That was
the first time that they played on that edge.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, that's the point, that's the point.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
We look particularly poor. I thought on the right side,
for Poll missed a really poor tackle around the halfway
mark that that led to the Titans getting down there
and the scoring.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
And Bruce was Jack Bird as well, Jack Burbdon.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean, just on that right edge. You would
hope next year Kay Peers Paul obviously will be on
that side of the field that that that's out of
the field becomes more potent and becomes more reliable in
defense when he's there. So hopefully that's the case. I
just wanted to mention one other thing, and that is
Happy not looking at the ball, not looking at the

(41:12):
play the ball, and the Titans stealing the ball. I mean,
I thought when that happened, I thought, this is not
going to be our day. This is horrible, this is terrible.
There's a steve the encapsulation of attention to detail.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Am I right, Yeah, absolutely, you know that sort of
thing could happen to anyone and he's the sort of
guy that you normally would think if you're going to
put someone up there who is professional and does dot
all the i's crossed the tease, it's happy, But in
that instance he certainly didn't. But can I also mention,
while while we're talking about the middle, I don't know

(41:47):
who's going to be available next week. And I think
you nailed it at the beginning of the pod. I'm
not sure whether you said it or whether you read
it from the forum, but the only reason Jack Bird's
there is because of our lack of depth. Right that
he was poor, really poor on the weekend. He's been

(42:07):
poor for a few weeks now.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Now.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
I love what he was bringing off the bench to
the early in the season, coming off the bench when
we're all fit and fresh. But yeah, he looks absolutely
busted at the moment. And I don't know, I don't
know how long he signed for, but two years. I
don't know that we can we can carry him for

(42:30):
that long.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, I don't see im unless there's an injury that
we're not aware of. He just looks he looks tired,
and he looks worn down. And starting in the back
row is no mean feat. And maybe that's passed him
by a bit. I mean there's a lot of miles
in those legs, and he's had the arthritis issues, and
I know that he trained to play a lock. But
I think it probably shows you. Probably the other point,

(42:54):
Steve is that because we've got plenty of middles, it
shows you that I think, sayfar stays in the in
the back row numbered when Jack Bird's taking your spot.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. I think what's going to happen,
you know, with the guy coming from Newcastle and then
we've got samuela fail on the left. I think over
the off season and the preseason that sea Fath will
be looking up back back onto the bench in the
middle rotation, which I think is the best best spot

(43:27):
for him. He is. He's not a weapon out in
the edge. He's not quick enough, he's not losing enough.
But put him in the middle, not starting, I don't
think at the stage, but put him in the you know,
in the middle on the bench, and him coming after
twenty five minutes, you know, I think he's does more
than a good job really and you know the effort

(43:48):
is going to be there. You know that's going to
be there from him.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, well, I mean we've spoken about do he, but
I would I think we need to buy Hasset from
the Pathers. From what I've seen of him, very I
could see him being the long term West Tiger's number thirteen,
So that would be a player. I'd like to see
Kobe Heatherington re signed with the Broncos, so he's not coming,
so we may have some clarity around that lock position. Shortly,

(44:13):
it's such a vital position in the game in this
day and age. I've got to give, as I seem
to be doing every time I'm on the pod, giving
Si Feinu a rap. Once again, I thought he was
really good off the bench. I would still start him.
I would start him over twelve and move Twell back
to the bench personally, but I thought Siani was really
good again. I thought Suka had a pretty good game

(44:34):
as well. What I think the thing that stands out
when we look at the forwards, Steve is the impact
that Reagan Campbell Gillard had for them off the bench.
I think his performance was. You know, he's definitely getting
towards the end of his career. I'm not saying sign him,
but if we can have someone like that, coming off
the bench and making that kind of impact that he did.

(44:56):
I thought he was he was very impressive. But I
think the thing too that they studied the Tigers very
well and their line speed when they were offside. Pretty
much every play the ball, they were up on the
Tigers very quickly, which needs to be factored into our performance.
We really had very little space to operate.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Yeah, and I think that that's some I think LaDou
Faner's finding that out pretty quickly. Like I think opposition
teams have worked out that he's a weapon and he's dangerous.
He's kicked off the mark and they are getting up
on him fairly quickly. Very very different. Game two against
the Warriors, though, I well, we were pulled this weekend

(45:36):
because of basic errors, you know, one on one missus,
lack of awareness in defense, dropping the ball at key times.
We got done against the Warriors because we were manhandled
by a better forward pack that just absolutely demolished us
and rolled through the middle. Now they've got some big guys,

(45:57):
you know, their lock and and as you say, Campbell
Gillard and also what's the other guy came in off
the bench for fea. Yeah, Like they've got some big
forwards and they can roll down the middle. I don't
feel that we were I don't feel we lost the ruck.

(46:17):
We weren't losing meters through the middle of the field
like we were against the Warriors. Actually, I think we
we held our own. I think we made it hard
for ourselves, but for very different reasons. So there was
too many there were too many misstackles in the middle.
If you go to the statue, our tight forwards and

(46:41):
happy between them missed a lot of tackles one on
one missus or ineffective tackles at the very least. So
that was a problem. But the fact that the Titans
definitely did not roll down the middle of the field.
In fact, we probably we probably got the better of them,
I would say in that.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Regard, aside from Campbell Gillard, i'd suggest, which is why
my word was physicality, but not in the traditional sense
of physicality where we've been smashed all over the field.
It was I thought we did well in that regard,
and there was one guy in particular that sort of
led the way in regards to that. It goes to show,

(47:21):
you know, sometimes you don't need to add in a
huge amount. It goes to show that sometimes the team's
not as far. And I know it was a terrible performance,
and I'm not saying that we've turned the corner, but
sometimes just the injection of one player in one position
kind of can bring up the team. If that makes
a little better sense, Like you know, I think that's

(47:44):
if there. Albeit it was dreadful and it was terrible,
but I think there's something to work with this team.
And if we can just continue to strengthen the weaknesses,
and there's probably still two or three, then I think
we could make that next move up. And I think
Tailorm is the first step in that. Now, let's hope
he turns around Steve and signs another contract with US

(48:05):
and doesn't get poached next week because he's off contract
next year. That would be classic Typers.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
It will apparently feel good tonight is saying he's the
best young footballer he's ever never met.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
He's never met.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Look, look, we are still aways from being a good
football team, but I don't think we're that far away
from having the right personnel to be a good football team.
A lot of these guys that we've got can do
the job. We've just got to become a more disciplined
football team. We've got to become a better structured football

(48:42):
team in attack and defense, and we've got to we've
got to put a little bit of finesse. Finesse is
not the word, but I suppose professionalism or class class
is the word. We've got to add a touch of
class to what we do. We make mistakes at four times,
we go to sleep at the wrong moments, right, But

(49:03):
I believe that this group, with a couple of additions,
we're pretty close to having the personnel that then need
to be coached into doing improving in the areas that
lacking at the moment. But I don't know. I would
suggest that the fact that this was probably Leui's best

(49:25):
game in attack has probably got something to do with
the fact that he had a Tailor may outside of
him and was probably confident that if he could, if
he could create something, he could get a ball to
Tailor Maye, who could then do something with what Lui
has created. So naturally, Leui is just a little bit
more confident, you know, before he starts to play, and

(49:51):
that's that looked that way. It looked that way out
out on the field. You know, Luis was markedly better
in the way he attacked them, the way he straightened
and gave space to Taylor Maine.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
You know, yeah, good points. I think the thing when
you talk about being more disciplined or more controlled or
more finessed, see I don't see that in this team.
I don't think you're going to turn this team and
this coach is going to be able to recreate the
Melbourne Storm. I think what we should be aiming for

(50:23):
is we should be aiming for a penrith of you know,
the last few years where it's just that all out
attack where it's you can improve the defense, defense, defense, defense,
concentrate one hundred percent on the defense, but score lots
of points. I think that's that's probably the team that
I see there, and their potential is to go all
out on the attack and not become and not become

(50:44):
a disciplined, well drilled team, but just be more of
a well classic West Tiger's flairy type team.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Well, if we just look at defense from we're marveled
at the scramble, the grit, determination and the effort, effort
on effort, and that scramble defense that we've shown up
and channel now as we've got a little bit as
injuries creep in and players are playing a bit busted,
and that's diminished a little bit. But if you can

(51:13):
turn that attitude of scramble into good structured defense. But
where you you coached a structure, you're all on the
same page. You all buy into that structure. You all
know what the man either side of you's job is.
You know what your job is. Then you go out

(51:35):
on the field with confidence that that structure is going
to keep other teams at bay, hold them at bay.
And then you add the effort and the ability to scramble,
then you've got a rock hard defensive line. That's where
we've got their effort. We've got the players with the
mindset to go out there and do it. What we

(51:57):
haven't got is that consistent approach of that structure. That's
what still needs to improve. Whether we've got and I
don't know, I don't know, I don't I think Benji
is the guy. I do. But you said at the
top shold, and I tend to agree with you. I
think we've got to have a look at who we've
got under Benji. And I'm not being disrespectful of the

(52:17):
guys that are there. I just I think we need
to have a good look at it.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
I think that will be the end of season review findings.
Is that we've got to get more support around Benji.
I think just my crystal ball says that. So, speaking
of Steve's crystal ball. So it's a it's a win,
it's seven wins. What does the rest of the season
look like? Is this a flash in the pan we've
we'll put it away now for the rest of the year,

(52:45):
or there'll be a late season flurry. And are we
out of contention for Eddie's It's now the Eddie Otto
Wooden Spoon. The NRL's renamed it because he's always talking
about it.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Well, we're not going to get the spoon, that's that's
for sure. We never would. I don't know what he's
talking about.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
He just he's a trebler, isn't he.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
He lives in a world of mystery. So we're not
going to get the spoon. How are we going to finish?
I can't see this. I can't say this. I'd love
to see this beat one of Panthers all Bulldogs the
next two weeks, but really I can't see it. I
think we can beat I think we can beat who
we've got after that. So I'm looking at as we go.

(53:30):
The Eagles are there playing quite well. We're be able
to get that. We've got the Cowboys. We can get that.
We've got the Titans again. I think we can get that.
So I'm going to say, so we might get six
more points, six six more points. Maybe if we're really lucky,
we get eight more points that includes the by so

(53:52):
that that would be we would that take us to
ten wins?

Speaker 2 (53:55):
That right, Yeah, three more wins would take us to
ten ten wins.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
So ten wins at from where we are now, that
wouldn't be bad. Losers on twenty six points with three buyers.
That's that's not about. You know, when you look at
the season, you think of that Rabbit's game and the
Newcastle games you're talking that were. You know, we were
pretty close to a decent season. I'll wait till Wednesday

(54:20):
night for Edie how that opens.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. But Eddie might be I think,
found some newfound confidence in the West Tigers. So he
seems to go from North Pole to South Polet pretty quickly, Eddie.
So we'll wait to see what he comes up with.
All right, Well, we'll leave it there, Steve, and great
to do a post edition, post victory edition of the

(54:46):
West Tigers podcast. And when is the Ambush going to
be coming together once again for another fan event?

Speaker 3 (54:54):
So the next Ambush event will be at Combank Stadium
the Bulldogs game. So I think that is a two
o'clock game, so we'd be having we'll be having our
ambush event around well, once gates open. She's around the
one o'clock mark, and we've been the members bar there
at combat. Uh, so hopefully we'll have a guessed you

(55:18):
know that the Tigers will said, we'll have a guess
for that one. We haven't got an organized.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
You can see a flockland Galvin's.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Available, well, he might be right.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Bring your rotten tomatoes.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
The three just get there. Let's get there, let's rev
up at the ambush around, Let's get to our seats.
And then they've built these boarders. Jeez, that's a game.
I want to see this win.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I'd like to beat bees Panthers this weekend as well.
All right, Steve, thank you, we'll catch you down the track.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Here's Joe seeing