Speaker 1: The West Tigers Podcast is brought to you by the
Speaker 1: West Tigers Podcast Forum. Join the conversation today at wests
Speaker 1: Tigers podcast dot com dot au.
Speaker 2: It's the West Tigers Podcast and I believe it's episode
Speaker 2: four hundred and nineteen. That's what Eddie said on the
Speaker 2: other pod that the boys recorded, which I think is
Speaker 2: a really good listen with coach Adell and Gary and Rob.
Speaker 2: But Steve, we're here where the traditionalists. We're doing the
Speaker 2: traditional West Tigers podcast and it comes after a win.
Speaker 2: It's a post victory edition of the West Tigers Podcast,
Speaker 2: which I always have to joke I have to look
Speaker 2: up in the manual as they how to do one
Speaker 2: of these because we don't get an awful lot of
Speaker 2: bractice at them. Your one word out of that very
Speaker 2: slim one point victory over the Titans, Oh, I'm going.
Speaker 3: To try to be positive about that they win and
Speaker 3: just say if my mom would is needed. It was
Speaker 3: a victory really really needed. If we'd lost that game
Speaker 3: to the last place Titans and put ourselves back in
Speaker 3: contention for the wooden Spoon, I think it would be
Speaker 3: pretty difficult pill to side that one. So the whole club,
Speaker 3: the whole fan base, the playing group, everyone needed that victory.
Speaker 2: I think needed is a very very apt word, and
Speaker 2: very much I very much agree with you. The club,
Speaker 2: the coach, the players, the fans needed is the word.
Speaker 2: I've got a couple. I've got physicality, because we actually
Speaker 2: had a player out there playing on the left side
Speaker 2: who delivered really good physicality both in offense and defense
Speaker 2: and really looked like a first grader, So we'll talk
Speaker 2: about him shortly. I've got fragile, and that's something that
Speaker 2: we've spoken about a fair bit, Steve, and I want
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about that this edition of
Speaker 2: the pod, and that is the team still at times
Speaker 2: looks extraordinarily fragile, where something just go the wind blows,
Speaker 2: shifts direction, blows in their faces and we go to water.
Speaker 2: So fragile. But I thought it would be nice to
Speaker 2: just say fans, Steve. Now, I didn't get the chance
Speaker 2: to go out to like U, but obviously watched it
Speaker 2: on television, and I remember talking about this in one
Speaker 2: of the games last year that we won. I was
Speaker 2: just so happy to see happy people in West Tiger's
Speaker 2: colors up on the hill, and I think I don't
Speaker 2: I can't work out. Let's put it that way. I
Speaker 2: can't work out why people like us stick around. And
Speaker 2: you look at that hill and it's chuck full of people,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, what's wrong with these people? Why do
Speaker 2: they keep turning up? So a pat on the back
Speaker 2: for all the fans. It's it's a rusted on fan base,
Speaker 2: isn't it. Steve like, if they haven't got rid of
Speaker 2: us yet, they're probably not going to well.
Speaker 3: I heard it. I heard a great description of the
Speaker 3: game on the Weekend by Dan Ganain on three sixty
Speaker 3: earlier tonight, and he said there were fourteen thousand screaming
Speaker 3: West Tiger supporters out there, and Mate, I did not
Speaker 3: see normally when Leichhart's packed, it's packed with Tiger supporters,
Speaker 3: but there's a good a good spattering, if not more
Speaker 3: than a good spatter of opposition supporters. I did not
Speaker 3: see one Titans jersey all day. It was fourteen thousand toes.
Speaker 3: But dan Ganain said they went through seventy nine minutes
Speaker 3: of frustration, but they're going to go home. Remember the
Speaker 3: one minute it was outstanding, And I thought that's a
Speaker 3: perfect description of the afternoon.
Speaker 2: Really, absolutely a little bit of Lighthart Magic. I guess
Speaker 2: that leads me into a question that just come to mind.
Speaker 2: And we've spoken a little bit about the hard times
Speaker 2: alienating people and you know, potentially losing a generation of fans.
Speaker 2: But I suppose if you play Devil's At in a way,
Speaker 2: it's also kind of brought us together in a kind
Speaker 2: of way. You know, maybe it's sort of a shared
Speaker 2: trauma response or or something like that. But in a way,
Speaker 2: I would suggest that the fan base has been you know,
Speaker 2: gaut for one of a better term, galvanised by the
Speaker 2: difficult times where we've been through this together. So you know,
Speaker 2: maybe there is hope.
Speaker 3: We've said it so many times. We are a huge
Speaker 3: brand and there are literally thousands and thousands and thousands
Speaker 3: of West Tigers supporters out there or people that can
Speaker 3: somehow find a link between themselves and the West Tiger's brand.
Speaker 3: And so when the opportunity comes to go to an
Speaker 3: iconic venue like Oval, we tend to pack it out.
Speaker 3: When we start to play recent football, we tend to
Speaker 3: pack out, you know, our other grounds as well. People
Speaker 3: want to come and follow the West Tigers. There's something
Speaker 3: about getting behind the Tigers. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3: There's a bit of magic in it. Really. It's incredibly
Speaker 3: frustrated that it's been so negative for so long, that
Speaker 3: we've been losing for so long. But when there are
Speaker 3: green shoots appearing, the crowds are there, you know, and
Speaker 3: they were there then in numbers just on fourteen thousand
Speaker 3: that are packed like over and it's just a sight
Speaker 3: to behold them. And despite the crumby toilets and the
Speaker 3: line up, and if you want to have a winge,
Speaker 3: you can have a winge. But there's just no place
Speaker 3: like it. There really isn't Oh. I went to Alliance
Speaker 3: the other week against the Roosters and there was twenty
Speaker 3: five thousand there and it's a lovely place to go
Speaker 3: and watch footy, you know, and apart from the twenty
Speaker 3: one dollar hand you could become an infamous comment. But
Speaker 3: it's nothing like being a Leichha, nothing like it. The
Speaker 3: atmosphere is not a patch on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it does raise the question if the West
Speaker 2: Tigers can have some degree of sustained success. You know,
Speaker 2: your Campbelltown's and your like arts are going to you
Speaker 2: could imagine a time where they are just members only
Speaker 2: stadiums I mean, we don't know if Campbelltown's going to continue
Speaker 2: or what form that is, but you could probably see
Speaker 2: with Like Art that in a couple of years, if
Speaker 2: the Tigers are up in the top four, top eight,
Speaker 2: that it might be a situation where you only have
Speaker 2: members going Steve, do you think that's a possibility.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. That happens overseas, so there's no
Speaker 3: reason it can't happen here. And I just want to
Speaker 3: raise the question. I just wonder how many games we
Speaker 3: can end up playing it like can't? And I know
Speaker 3: the plan is that they say, you know, four or
Speaker 3: five is and once if Campbelltown gets the upgrade as well,
Speaker 3: might maybe a bit more than that. But the moment's
Speaker 3: looking like four and five.
Speaker 4: But if the profitability is there, when the renovations are
Speaker 4: done to Like Art and they've got better corporate facilities
Speaker 4: and they can get more people into the ground, if
Speaker 4: the profited building can get up close to matching what
Speaker 4: to get, you know, what the toderes get when they
Speaker 4: go to combat, can they consider playing more games at
Speaker 4: like Hard Because I'll tell you now, the more games.
Speaker 3: We play at Like Art, the higher on the ladder
Speaker 3: will be because we win games at like hard that
Speaker 3: we won't win elsewhere for sure. And so at what
Speaker 3: point do you say, all right, we might get one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty grand less at like art than we
Speaker 3: do combat, but we win three more games and we
Speaker 3: finish eighth instead of not eleventh, and we play semi
Speaker 3: final football, and does that make up for that one
Speaker 3: d and fifty grand? You know, I don't have the
Speaker 3: answers to that, but it's definitely something to consider, surely.
Speaker 2: I mean. And the other thing the factor into that
Speaker 2: as well, is it does it lose some of it's
Speaker 2: magic if you go back to like it was in
Speaker 2: you know, the beal Main days where we were playing
Speaker 2: there every second week, Like, does it lose a little
Speaker 2: bit of the fact that they are special games and
Speaker 2: there is a limitation on the number of opportunities that
Speaker 2: you get to get out there. There's the NRL that
Speaker 2: that could change that as well. It also changes the
Speaker 2: But then you know, it doesn't name really matter. Like
Speaker 2: we call the West Tigers. Does that mean that we
Speaker 2: have to actually be in to some degree in the
Speaker 2: western suburbs of Sydney if you are considering that, you know,
Speaker 2: west of Paramatta, is the Western suburbs nowadays. You know,
Speaker 2: it would be certainly a change in that regard, but
Speaker 2: there are things to look at down the track and
Speaker 2: work out over time. But looking forward to those renovations
Speaker 2: that like that's going to be I still I don't.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it's ever going to happen, but hey,
Speaker 2: look it looks like it is, so we'll wait and
Speaker 2: see for that. Let's have a look at the mountain
Speaker 2: of one word submiss from the West Tigers podcast forum,
Speaker 2: and in recent times we've made a couple of back
Speaker 2: end changes to the West Tigers podcast Forum, but a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of front end new features and new ways
Speaker 2: of communicating by the West Tigers Podcast Forums about to
Speaker 2: come in in the next couple of weeks, so we'll
Speaker 2: let you know more about that. But a couple of
Speaker 2: those new members on the podcast forum, let's go with theirs. First,
Speaker 2: oz Mo seven. Their word was crowd. It was a
Speaker 2: terrible game, but the win was for the crowd to enjoy.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. The bing their one word was Mike,
Speaker 2: but not the well known member of the West Tigers
Speaker 2: podcast for him talking about Mike the chicken that runs
Speaker 2: around without a hit reminds them of the West Tigers.
Speaker 2: Tiger seventy, their word was may, may we avoid the
Speaker 2: wooden spoon and may the forest be with us. Barrow's
Speaker 2: word was may as well, we don't get close without
Speaker 2: him about tailor may Davy Farrell staggering, staggering that we
Speaker 2: won that game. Mac Tiger's word was stolen. We stole
Speaker 2: that one. Wagga Tiger's word was confused. A win's a win.
Speaker 2: But they look like they just met each other. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it looked like seventeen guys that met out in the
Speaker 2: car park who decided to come out and play a
Speaker 2: game of football. Tiger fifty one to fifty difficult. It
Speaker 2: was a difficult game to watch. We made it harder
Speaker 2: than it should have been, so we made it more
Speaker 2: difficult than it should have been. It's difficult to see
Speaker 2: any plan or structure in attack. It's difficult to see
Speaker 2: how Jack Bird gets another game, and it's difficult to
Speaker 2: see where the improvement comes from. Yarni's word was who
Speaker 2: who cares a win? Is a win? Tiger Tragic fifty
Speaker 2: six contribution was may the only positive. Peter Ay's word
Speaker 2: was iq or a complete lack of Rachel Nine's word
Speaker 2: was how are we still this awful in the red
Speaker 2: zone after all these years?
Speaker 3: Hang on, hang on, sorry, Joel. We can go with
Speaker 3: a one word, We can go the couple words, We
Speaker 3: can even go a phrase, but we can't take a paragraph.
Speaker 3: Come on, Rach, we can't tag a paragraph as a
Speaker 3: one word.
Speaker 2: Edny Given Sunday's word was God's Eddie's football gods. They
Speaker 2: finally let one go our way and we're going to
Speaker 2: have a talk about the football gods and a second.
Speaker 2: Steve tiger'sman confused. We were confused in attack. We're a
Speaker 2: confused team. How can we be in a better position
Speaker 2: on the table? Play so poorly? LFC Tiger their word
Speaker 2: was flat. I could barely raise a cheer. It was
Speaker 2: at times an utterly inept performance from both sides. Tiger
Speaker 2: to own sfs, lucky, lucky to win that one Tiger
Speaker 2: symmetry deliverance. We bank the win, no small thing. Enumerator's
Speaker 2: word was thieves. We stole that one. Mike there is
Speaker 2: there's Mike. Ugly. An ugly win and an ugly game
Speaker 2: we would normally lose. And on the rich ometer, poor,
Speaker 2: poor team performance, Farmer. Rando's word was twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: we looked like the Tigers of twenty twenty three. Tiger's
Speaker 2: I another new member of the podcast forum coaching, we
Speaker 2: aren't a well coached side that Mak seventy eight's word
Speaker 2: was contract, give one to Tailor May and Adam Dewey
Speaker 2: for next year, seek and destroy. His word was punish.
Speaker 2: Why do I punish myself every week with this team?
Speaker 2: Canbra Tiger's word was lucky. Tiger Lily said, dysfunctional. Lord
Speaker 2: knows how we won that one. Kenny four five one
Speaker 2: seven their word was diabolical and Teddy s their word
Speaker 2: was z That's what grade I thought. I was watching
Speaker 2: zed great football Steve the Football Gods, Eddie's famous football Gods.
Speaker 2: We had a little bit of luck in that game,
Speaker 2: didn't we. The God smiled us on us just a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 3: And we did. We did have luck. It wasn't as
Speaker 3: if we got to bounce the ball that went our
Speaker 3: way and then we stole, you know, like the Warriors did.
Speaker 3: It wasn't luck from that perspective. The luck I reckon
Speaker 3: was the fact that we didn't turn up, but either
Speaker 3: did the Titans, and I think that's where you say
Speaker 3: we had the luck because they were very poor. We
Speaker 3: were very poor minus ten. We were just that little
Speaker 3: bit better the stats. If you look at the stats,
Speaker 3: most of the stats do go our way. We made
Speaker 3: more meters through the game, our completion rate was marginally better,
Speaker 3: our mistackles were less, so we actually did beat them legitimately.
Speaker 3: But it was a very low standard game. But you know,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, we've winged and winged
Speaker 3: and wined when we say we can't win the moments
Speaker 3: and we don't know how to win, and we don't
Speaker 3: like there's no arguing that we struggled to know how
Speaker 3: to close the game out win. But what we saw
Speaker 3: on the weekend was a team that played poorly, that
Speaker 3: continued to play poor, that made basic errors, that never
Speaker 3: really got into a flow, but won the game, found
Speaker 3: a way to win it. And it was a little
Speaker 3: bit of brilliance by Adam Dewey, but it was a
Speaker 3: little bit more than that too. And I'll probably do
Speaker 3: it Joel, So I hope I'm not jump in the gun,
Speaker 3: but I'll just mentioned one thing, and that's that's our
Speaker 3: left edge attack and our left edge at tap looked great,
Speaker 3: and we're all going to talk about Taylor May quite rightly.
Speaker 3: He was absolutely brilliant and we're found we've found a
Speaker 3: superstar in that position. And I don't think I'm being
Speaker 3: over the top in saying that. We can talk about
Speaker 3: that later, but I just want to talk about that
Speaker 3: whole Like Feinu passing out to Leui, getting it to May,
Speaker 3: getting it to Skeleton, that combination is going to be
Speaker 3: dynamic for US. Loui, without doubt had his best game
Speaker 3: in attack for US. I gave it to him last
Speaker 3: pod that I was on saying that he's doing a
Speaker 3: whole lot of good stuff, but his attack is just horrendous,
Speaker 3: and I still stand by what I said. But he
Speaker 3: was awesome in the attack, his combination with Feynu like
Speaker 3: Fanu giving him good early ball, and the way the
Speaker 3: way ran off the Feu pass and straightened the attack
Speaker 3: and then gave good ball to Taylor May, who then
Speaker 3: delivered good ball to Skelton when he needed to. Was
Speaker 3: that that is something that we should be really looking
Speaker 3: forward to seeing develop the rest of this year and
Speaker 3: in the next year. That is going to be a dynamic,
Speaker 3: powerful point scoring machine at that left edge. I'm convinced.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got the all written down in my notes.
Speaker 2: I was very impressed as well, especially without Samuel Lafanu,
Speaker 2: who's normally there in that position in the back row
Speaker 2: and is normally making quite a contribution. That makes me
Speaker 2: excited when he's back there as well. But no, I
Speaker 2: wholeheartily agree. Thing I like about Taylor may coming back
Speaker 2: to that physicalities. He just looks to have so much strength,
Speaker 2: not just in his upper body but his hips. He
Speaker 2: just he just really knows how to power through and
Speaker 2: I was really impressed with it. And some of his
Speaker 2: defense too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, defense, his defense is rock solid. But he's smart too.
Speaker 5: Like that first try, he's smart and he's a footballer.
Speaker 5: He had the confidence, but a lot of a lot
Speaker 5: of guys that there wasn't a huge there wasn't.
Speaker 3: A lot of space there for him for him to
Speaker 3: go to the tryline down that left corner, and he
Speaker 3: went for it. He had the confidence and the smarts
Speaker 3: and the strength, as you said, because he carried guys
Speaker 3: over the line to score that try that that wasn't
Speaker 3: a laydown was there to get that ball down and
Speaker 3: he did. He didn't try to get the winger to
Speaker 3: come inside and turn it back in. He said, no,
Speaker 3: my try, I'm going for it and he got there.
Speaker 3: He's yeah, it was a superstar from Taylor.
Speaker 2: Given he's only played half a game of Cup, I
Speaker 2: believe it's only half a game in your south. I
Speaker 2: was cup very impressed and he seemed to he seems fit,
Speaker 2: he seems like he was you know, I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess that the genetics are there. We can see it
Speaker 2: in his brother running marathons and playing eighty minutes. So
Speaker 2: there's lots to be optimistic there. It does certainly sort
Speaker 2: of shift the center discussion. We're always talking about centers
Speaker 2: over the off season. We're talking about we're talking about Naden,
Speaker 2: and we're talking about Olham and all sorts of conversations.
Speaker 2: But you would think that that May is going to
Speaker 2: be one of those centers moving forward. And then you
Speaker 2: start to think, well, Stafford Tower's there, but you've got
Speaker 2: Makassini coming through as well. So I'm going to be
Speaker 2: interested to see which way they go with that. I
Speaker 2: suppose the thing that you could probably say is, barring injury,
Speaker 2: probably do these days in the centers for the West
Speaker 2: Tigers are probably over but Teller apparently not re signed Steve.
Speaker 2: Should we be backing the youth there or should we
Speaker 2: be giving Tower another contract?
Speaker 3: I'd be I'd be finalizing that Tower extension or new
Speaker 3: contract as soon as we can. I think Towers are
Speaker 3: great for him, and he's going to become I think
Speaker 3: he's already a very good center. I think I think
Speaker 3: he could become a great center. I'm hoping that we
Speaker 3: have Taylor Maine and Staff Tower in the centers. And
Speaker 3: we talked about this, Gary and I talked about this
Speaker 3: on the pob the other night where we saw where's
Speaker 3: Macassini fit in? And he's only young, you know, he's
Speaker 3: only just started to play all age football. You know,
Speaker 3: he's only got a couple of games where he's played
Speaker 3: against men. So he's still got a bit of a
Speaker 3: journey ahead of him and he needs to come through that.
Speaker 3: Maybe it'll get to the point where he's knocking down
Speaker 3: the door and they have to find a spot for him.
Speaker 3: And so that that's a conundrument Benji's got to deal with.
Speaker 3: But it's a great problem to have to have someone
Speaker 3: like Taylor Maine, staffa Tower as you're starting sentas and Macasini.
Speaker 3: You know, if he's as good as we think, he's
Speaker 3: going to be sitting in the background knocking down the
Speaker 3: door for a spot in first grade, that that's awesome.
Speaker 3: And we talked about doing the other night as well.
Speaker 3: So I don't want to go over it too much,
Speaker 3: but I liked what I liked what I saw on
Speaker 3: the weekend and when he shifted flock last of the
Speaker 3: week before. I don't know whether do is going to
Speaker 3: be satisfied in that role, playing thirteen or possibly playing
Speaker 3: fourteen in the fourteen role, but if he is prepared
Speaker 3: to give that a go, I think there's something inner
Speaker 3: for us. I think he gives us another option as
Speaker 3: a board player. He gives us another kicking option. What
Speaker 3: concerns me. And it wasn't a huge There were a
Speaker 3: lot of mistackles in the middle, but they do He wasn't,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the main offenders there on the weekend.
Speaker 3: So if he can, if he can defend for eighty
Speaker 3: minutes in the middle, then he could make a goal
Speaker 3: thirteen and he could give us an answer for thirteen
Speaker 3: because we've been looking for it for a while. There's
Speaker 3: talk this week that in the last couple of days
Speaker 3: that he might be going to the Panthers or elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Dragons apparently interested.
Speaker 3: Yeah, dragons as well. Yeah, so I don't know, but
Speaker 3: if I was in the Tigers camp, i'd be I'll
Speaker 3: be giving some serious consideration to extending him.
Speaker 2: Well, I can't see him getting a starting spot in
Speaker 2: the halves at the Panthers. Maybe at the Dragons maybe.
Speaker 2: So I think if you're going to if you're going
Speaker 2: to play regular first grade, it might be in a
Speaker 2: position such as lock or utility, and then it might
Speaker 2: come down to dollars, and it might come down to love,
Speaker 2: love of the club. I've got to give him a
Speaker 2: rap for his goal can to a couple of beautiful
Speaker 2: kicks from the sideline. The funny thing is, I'd hate
Speaker 2: to be sort of facetious, but he's still now he's
Speaker 2: the world's slowest lock. I thought Jackson Hastings had that title,
Speaker 2: but Adam Dewey, he yeah, he takes a little bit
Speaker 2: of winding up to get up off the line. Just
Speaker 2: back to the backs. If you if you play macas
Speaker 2: any on the wing, no great place to start a
Speaker 2: career on the wing, But then you've you've got to
Speaker 2: try and fit to Ruvera and Skelton in and it's
Speaker 2: going to be an interesting one as well. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's going to be some headaches there, I think for
Speaker 2: the club, and maybe a couple of tough decisions to
Speaker 2: make in regards to all of that. We're not going
Speaker 2: to beat up on the guy, but he had an
Speaker 2: unhappy game. Charlie stains, Steve, you do get that out
Speaker 2: of a Charlie Stains every now and then. He has
Speaker 2: been used as a backup. He was primarily a backup
Speaker 2: at the Panthers, maybe a potential candidate for the Shredder,
Speaker 2: because I imagine that Charlie probably wants a little bit more
Speaker 2: money than a fringy winger might sort of command.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's a pity because I you know, I
Speaker 3: was off him earlier in the year, and I thought
Speaker 3: for a lot of the year when he's coming to
Speaker 3: first grade, he's actually done a pretty good job, probably
Speaker 3: better than a pretty good job. But yeah, he had
Speaker 3: an absolute stinker on the weekend. He just had flippers
Speaker 3: for the hands, that's for sure. He was terrible with
Speaker 3: poor blood. But he's just got to throw that one
Speaker 3: away forget about it and get back to playing decent footy.
Speaker 3: But if Buller comes back, I think Buller was hopeful
Speaker 3: of being back this week. So if that's the case,
Speaker 3: then Taruver back to the wing and Skelton keeps his
Speaker 3: spot because you know, I don't know before the weekend
Speaker 3: that Skelton was laid down, Like I still think i'd
Speaker 3: picked Skeleton before Stains. I think he goes starts our sense. Well,
Speaker 3: his power out of the back end is pretty important
Speaker 3: to us. But Stains was probably putting a bit of
Speaker 3: pressure on him. But Stains was playing decent footy, and
Speaker 3: Skelton's defense has has led us down and did again
Speaker 3: and when we can. But yeah, I think I think
Speaker 3: Stains might find himself back in reserve grade if if
Speaker 3: Bullet comes back.
Speaker 2: Skelton gives me sort of those hard in moment moments,
Speaker 2: hard in mouth moments. I don't have a lot of
Speaker 2: faith in him. Sometimes he he sometimes looks like everything
Speaker 2: is going to go wrong, and sometimes it does, especially
Speaker 2: as you said, with his defense Buller coming back. It
Speaker 2: would be great just to see Buller fin Bleu. I
Speaker 2: see how they combine in this in the spine and
Speaker 2: see how that goes with Dewey as well, like how
Speaker 2: that works with do we feeding into that as well?
Speaker 3: Well, you know it's the thing we do it. It
Speaker 3: pushes our halves a little bit wider and just gives
Speaker 3: that a little bit of extra space for our halves.
Speaker 3: But what excites me is the quick ball out to
Speaker 3: our centers with Buller as a running option sleeping around that.
Speaker 3: What that does, Joel, It just puts the defensive line
Speaker 3: in two minds when they know you've got you know,
Speaker 3: you've got larger faire who who can jink and go
Speaker 3: himself at incredible pace. So the defensive one has to
Speaker 3: watch for that. We know lu I likes to run.
Speaker 3: Running game was the best speed all season on the weekend,
Speaker 3: so they've got to watch him that he doesn't dart
Speaker 3: and go himself. But then he can give good ball.
Speaker 3: He can give good ball to Buller coming around you
Speaker 3: know and joining in the back line on a squeek.
Speaker 3: He can he can give it to the second row
Speaker 3: up was his name, Finnu simla Fein who coming straight
Speaker 3: or coming running an inside line, or it can now
Speaker 3: go out the back to Taylor May who gives it
Speaker 3: on to Skelton. You know that there are so many
Speaker 3: points of attack on that left side that the opposition
Speaker 3: back line have to watch for the first time in
Speaker 3: a long time. We're going to create problems for defensive ones.
Speaker 3: They're not going to know which way to go, and
Speaker 3: the minute that happens, the defensive line breaks and gaps appear,
Speaker 3: and that's how you get through and score points. So,
Speaker 3: as I said Jim, I know the weekend was poor.
Speaker 3: There's a poor performance, but what I took away was
Speaker 3: that left edge and that left edge is going to
Speaker 3: be dynamite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it gives you some hope for sure. Benji described
Speaker 2: it as the worst performance of the year so far.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've met the worst win like
Speaker 2: our worst performance in a win. I think that's probably
Speaker 2: what he meant, because I think probably the Melbourne game
Speaker 2: was our worst performance of the year. I'm going to
Speaker 2: get revert to mercy rule here, Steve. He says, apart
Speaker 2: from winning a game in the eightieth minute against the
Speaker 2: bottom place side who were ever so slightly more inept
Speaker 2: and awful than we were, there's nothing positive at all
Speaker 2: to take out of that effort today. But I would
Speaker 2: suggest what we're spoken about as a positive to take
Speaker 2: out of it. But there's some strike in that left
Speaker 2: edge that is that is not just something that looks
Speaker 2: like it worked yesterday or Sunday, like it looks like
Speaker 2: it's going to work week in week out, because they're
Speaker 2: quality players, So that's a possive.
Speaker 3: I think we've just spent fifteen minutes talking about positive
Speaker 3: that come out of that game. There's no denying it
Speaker 3: was a very poor performance, you know, the ten minutes
Speaker 3: before half time, the five minutes after half time. But
Speaker 3: they've just got to rev up in the sheds at halftime,
Speaker 3: got told to minimize their errors, and they dropped the
Speaker 3: ball from the kickoff and then do he drops the
Speaker 3: ball on the goal line in the very next set.
Speaker 3: Like there's two errors in the first minute of the
Speaker 3: second half, and I think we had two had we
Speaker 3: had two tries scored just before half time. I can't
Speaker 3: remember when the next one was scored. But we started
Speaker 3: the second half really poor anyway, So there's a lot.
Speaker 3: There's a lot to be disappointed about, but there is
Speaker 3: still positives and this team in years gone past, we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have won that game, you know, we would have
Speaker 3: been like I said, this is a couple of weeks
Speaker 3: ago on the Poden. You know, se we tended to
Speaker 3: play ten percent worse than who ever we're playing. So
Speaker 3: you know, we played the team coming first and we
Speaker 3: just get beaten. We played the team coming last and
Speaker 3: we just keept beaten. It makes no sense. Whereas we
Speaker 3: probably still did the same thing, we found the way
Speaker 3: to win. You wouldn't have done that. That's a positive
Speaker 3: in itself. It was scrappy. It was a bit of
Speaker 3: a fluke. You're gonna no one's going to look at
Speaker 3: the Warriors win against the Knives. They're going to say
Speaker 3: the Warriors are a top four team, they deserve the win.
Speaker 3: They got the win. That was a fluke. That was
Speaker 3: a bigger flute than ours. Look, you get those wins.
Speaker 3: It's two points.
Speaker 2: You could also reframe and rejig Richo's meter and say
Speaker 2: that you go from you know, because he's talking about
Speaker 2: being awful to poor to average to good de gray.
Speaker 2: But you could also look at it from the perspective
Speaker 2: of just losing no matter what happens, you lose, no
Speaker 2: matter how well you play, you lose, and then you
Speaker 2: become a team that starts to jag wins when you
Speaker 2: play poorly, and then when you become an average team,
Speaker 2: it's like you win quite regularly playing average, you know,
Speaker 2: you don't have to play out of your skin every week,
Speaker 2: and then you just you go up to the next level.
Speaker 2: So that's another way of looking at it. And I think,
Speaker 2: coming back to your word needed, I think we need
Speaker 2: some of these results to go our way, So bank
Speaker 2: a few wins, to take some pressure off, to breathe,
Speaker 2: to just get into a different headspace. And actually, because
Speaker 2: I think as a fan, like we're even as fans,
Speaker 2: we're so nervous and so anxious and so traumatized that
Speaker 2: we're so scared of it and so ready for it
Speaker 2: to go so horribly wrong. And I think some of
Speaker 2: that comes through to the players. I think that's the players.
Speaker 2: Even though we've introduced a lot of players, they tend
Speaker 2: to take that on, that scar tissue. So if we
Speaker 2: can continue to, you know, hold our head above water
Speaker 2: and just even if it's an even if it's not
Speaker 2: quite fifty percent win rate over the next twelve months,
Speaker 2: you know, but we're in the fight and we're getting
Speaker 2: some results, then that's something to build on. And then
Speaker 2: you can build off that and get up into it
Speaker 2: being a better team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the old habits re emerge pretty quickly.
Speaker 3: You know, we are You mentioned this at the top
Speaker 3: of the pod. We are fragile, and once we start losing,
Speaker 3: we probably panic, We lose confidence. We're not used to
Speaker 3: resurrecting ourselves from failure. We're just used to being in failure,
Speaker 3: and so it's difficult. And we lose one game by
Speaker 3: a couple of points, and we lose the next week
Speaker 3: a couple of points. Then all of a sudden, we're
Speaker 3: looking at the next game where we could lose three
Speaker 3: in a row, and all of a sudden, we've won
Speaker 3: two from ten. Right. Unfortunately, that's how this season has
Speaker 3: panned out. Could have been very different. You take the
Speaker 3: Lucky Galvin disaster out of the season, and this season
Speaker 3: could have looked very, very different. And I think we
Speaker 3: could have been like you said, I think we could
Speaker 3: have been at the just outside the eight probably, you know,
Speaker 3: really pushing to get into that seventh or eight spot.
Speaker 3: But we're not, and I think our confidence is diminished
Speaker 3: as we go. So even though we were rubbish on the weekend,
Speaker 3: we found a way to win. We got two points
Speaker 3: and they got to, you know, sing the song in
Speaker 3: the sheds and a little bit of belief would have
Speaker 3: come out of.
Speaker 2: That, you know, And we can't change it now, and
Speaker 2: it's all moot. But if Torrell grounds that ball in
Speaker 2: the first round against the Knights, and you know who
Speaker 2: grounds that ball against sous and we're sitting another four
Speaker 2: points up the ladder, it's a totally different conversation. And
Speaker 2: that's what happens when you get to be a club
Speaker 2: that just keeps the winds ticking over. You don't have
Speaker 2: to be the world's best team, but you keep the
Speaker 2: wins ticking over, and the world starts to look different.
Speaker 3: Isn't an interesting, Joel? How the journalist journalistic world works.
Speaker 3: So if we look at that other fella, he played
Speaker 3: seventy nine minutes of rubbish and did one minute of
Speaker 3: good stuff, and everyone's talking about the one minute. We
Speaker 3: played seventy nine minutes of rubbish and played one minutes
Speaker 3: a good football and everyone's talking about the seventy nine minute.
Speaker 3: How's that fair?
Speaker 2: It's all showbies, Steve don't there's no journalistic integrity. It's
Speaker 2: all show bis. I'd like you to please identify what
Speaker 2: the one minute was that we played. Well, can you
Speaker 2: go back and tell me one minute that was or
Speaker 2: is that just accumulation over the eight?
Speaker 3: Well, you know that last, that last part, And I've
Speaker 3: heard a few people bag Jerome Loi for that when
Speaker 3: when he ran down the left side, he was half
Speaker 3: a meter from from scoring a try, you know, and
Speaker 3: he would have got all that lads of will And
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, okay, he did take it away from
Speaker 3: the posts, but the opportunity was there, and I don't
Speaker 3: think we want to lose that. He saw an opportunity
Speaker 3: to win the game and he took it. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 3: the structure to set the field goal wasn't there, and
Speaker 3: I've banned on all year about us not playing with
Speaker 3: enough structure. But what he did then he was so
Speaker 3: close to go there and we and we got back
Speaker 3: and we kicked the field goal. So that's the minute
Speaker 3: I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Have him have a break for a second. I'm going
Speaker 2: to read a couple of comments that have come through
Speaker 2: on the West Tiger's podcast forum Tiger's I definitely more
Speaker 2: talent in the team than they showed today. Either these
Speaker 2: guys aren't up to performing week in week out, or
Speaker 2: it's just poor coaching, probably both. They don't look professional
Speaker 2: at all. Tiger's I is saying Bird is lucky to
Speaker 2: have an NRL contract at all, yet he starts in
Speaker 2: our side. That just shows we are way too low
Speaker 2: on cattle and tigertown sfs a little bit of a
Speaker 2: longer one, but saying it's true that we have not
Speaker 2: had attacking structure. Partly that is because we lost one
Speaker 2: of our starting halves who demanded to be the center
Speaker 2: of attention, and it's partly because we have no attacking philosophy.
Speaker 2: Do we play with the dominant seven? Do we play
Speaker 2: a ball playing lock? Do we center our attack off
Speaker 2: our nine? We have a new attempt to each week
Speaker 2: depending on who is in the team that day and
Speaker 2: the result of the previous week's game. I'm giving Benji
Speaker 2: a pass because we have been competitive without a game plan,
Speaker 2: and I put that down to his capacity as a
Speaker 2: men manager. But things need to change for next season.
Speaker 2: If that means we need to bring in new assistance,
Speaker 2: and so be it. But we need to develop and
Speaker 2: identify a game plan that we can stick to week
Speaker 2: in week out despite the results. I think that's a
Speaker 2: really good point, Steve, because it seems like exactly as
Speaker 2: Tiger town SFS says that even within the context of
Speaker 2: a game. We saw that last week where we shift
Speaker 2: things around in the middle of a game, and I
Speaker 2: wonder if that sort of fragility, that sort of, for
Speaker 2: want of a better term, schizophrenic sort of way that
Speaker 2: we play in attack is not being helped by the
Speaker 2: fact that we keep sort of chopping and changing the
Speaker 2: way that we're doing it. And you made the point earlier,
Speaker 2: the Gallvant situation was definitely a big hiccup in all
Speaker 2: of that. So maybe that's something that we can work
Speaker 2: on over the course of the rest of the year,
Speaker 2: is get a style and then perfect the style.
Speaker 3: Yeah. First, I think that's an outstanding comment. I agree
Speaker 3: with nearly everything that he said there. Yeah, I think
Speaker 3: I think definitely Galvin situation muck us up because we
Speaker 3: were we were putting together a style of play that's
Speaker 3: centered around Lochlan Galvin and what he wanted and his
Speaker 3: desire and need to call the ball every single play,
Speaker 3: and Jerome Lewi trying to build the guy's confidence, I imagine,
Speaker 3: was trying to give him the lead there that that
Speaker 3: in hindsight, that was a mistake but I think you know,
Speaker 3: before the blow, we were all on board with with
Speaker 3: what was what was happening. The only thing I disagree
Speaker 3: with that but we don't want we want a basic structure.
Speaker 3: I agree with that, but we don't want a game
Speaker 3: plan at set in stone week to week two week.
Speaker 3: We've got to adjust just to the opposition, look at
Speaker 3: their areas of weakness. And that's one of the things
Speaker 3: that frustrates me a little bit is that we don't
Speaker 3: seem to do that enough. That our game plan is
Speaker 3: centered around us and and our strength, which is kicks
Speaker 3: the box, but it's not centered around opposition weakness enough
Speaker 3: and where we should be attacking across their defensive line.
Speaker 3: I suppose as they become more confident and played with
Speaker 3: play together more often, then the game plan might expand
Speaker 3: and that that will start to happen. But nearly everything
Speaker 3: that was said there's you. I think we've got the
Speaker 3: playoff appy to play around the ruck. I think we've
Speaker 3: got that sort of When we do that well, we
Speaker 3: play well. The only the only concern with that is
Speaker 3: we tend to be less dominant as the year goes on,
Speaker 3: And I don't know whether that's because Happy's playing too
Speaker 3: many minutes and gets tired. Earlier in the season. We
Speaker 3: look more dominant than we do through the ruck were
Speaker 3: in the back end of the season. But I think
Speaker 3: Happy controls the ruck beautifully. If we can get If
Speaker 3: we can get Luay and phone Who playing the way
Speaker 3: they did in the work getting down that left side,
Speaker 3: and do that consistently throughout the season, I think our structure,
Speaker 3: the way we move around the football field will look
Speaker 3: a lot better.
Speaker 2: It was an interesting strategy starting with Hope and benching Happy.
Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure what the thinking or what the
Speaker 2: logic behind that might have been, other than it maybe
Speaker 2: it protects Happy a little bit from the collision early
Speaker 2: on in the game when the forwards a fresh show.
Speaker 2: I'm just not exactly sure. But I don't think that
Speaker 2: helped with our red zone attack that first couple of
Speaker 2: times we got down there before we scored the first try, Like,
Speaker 2: we really look clunky clunky in the red zone with
Speaker 2: Tristan Hope at hooker. So yeah, I'm not sure what
Speaker 2: the logic might have been with that.
Speaker 3: No, I haven't got an answer for Joel. I don't
Speaker 3: know whether I was flabberg acid to be honest, when
Speaker 3: I saw that that he wasn't going to start the game,
Speaker 3: I really liked it. I know he's gone now, but
Speaker 3: I really liked it when we had Abby playing for
Speaker 3: thirty minutes, he go off just before halftime, have a
Speaker 3: break before halftime, after halftime, and come back on with
Speaker 3: twenty five to thirty to go and telling the Silver
Speaker 3: come on the back end of our first half and
Speaker 3: with his nippiness around the ruck would sort of get
Speaker 3: in there amongst the tied forwards and create havoc. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure that Hope can has that ability to do that.
Speaker 3: He can company can come on and just do a
Speaker 3: job while Happy has a breather, But I don't like
Speaker 3: it at the start of the game. They are better
Speaker 3: minds than me that that might be able to come
Speaker 3: up with a plausible explanation, but I certainly don't think
Speaker 3: it worked.
Speaker 2: And the service from dummy half from Hope was a
Speaker 2: few passes are a little bit off, and there was
Speaker 2: some clunkiness in our passing game yet again where the
Speaker 2: ball wasn't hitting tended to I think got better as
Speaker 2: the game went on, but I noticed that in that
Speaker 2: first half where the ball just wasn't hitting the man
Speaker 2: in the right spot. So that's something to continue to
Speaker 2: work on it. Maybe that's an attention to detailed things, Steve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, but I do I do want to
Speaker 3: say I think we looked again it's down the left side.
Speaker 3: We didn't go to the right often enough to comment,
Speaker 3: which which is a bit of a concern because Stafford
Speaker 3: Teller has got a lot to offer on the right
Speaker 3: and so we've got to make sure I know that's
Speaker 3: that of a dynamic left, but we've got to make
Speaker 3: sure we get the ball to staff for Towe as well,
Speaker 3: because he's a good attacking weapon. But I thought we
Speaker 3: looked the best at times. The flow was the best
Speaker 3: it's looked all season for short for short bursts. What
Speaker 3: really got got me worried in that game on the
Speaker 3: weekend was that it was our defense, like we just
Speaker 3: weren't working to get the lack of awareness. Lack of
Speaker 3: it like the first try, the first try to where
Speaker 3: I think it was Jamie Campbell through further long ball. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it lod up through long ball. You know at they
Speaker 3: score like against Skelton was just so far in field,
Speaker 3: but there was no awareness, There were no awareness of
Speaker 3: where their their players were. And again the try where
Speaker 3: Campbell kicked across field, again there was just no one
Speaker 3: there and there was no one with him of that player.
Speaker 3: So and then there was another time there where Tower
Speaker 3: came running in and they were attacking our line, and
Speaker 3: our defensive one was retreating, like you don't retreat when
Speaker 3: you're that close to the line. You've got to go.
Speaker 3: And then Tower obviously realized that, tried to rectify it
Speaker 3: and then ran in one hundred miles an hour. And
Speaker 3: when he did it on his own, well that's just
Speaker 3: useless unless you're going to ball and all and wrap
Speaker 3: him up and put him on the ground quickly. That
Speaker 3: that's that's a recipe for disaster. So our a defensive structure,
Speaker 3: a defensive plan working together. It just seems that there's
Speaker 3: a lack of awareness and they're not trusting each other,
Speaker 3: they're not in sync. And put that together with some
Speaker 3: of the mistackles in the middle the first contact miss
Speaker 3: is in the middle and the straight mister, there was
Speaker 3: a few bit where where players will just step round
Speaker 3: on the weekend defensively, that was, Yeah, it needs a
Speaker 3: lot of work.
Speaker 2: Well, I'd suggest that the combination between and I would
Speaker 2: hope that the combination between Taylor and May and Gireal
Speaker 2: Skelton will improve the more they played together. That was
Speaker 2: the first time that they played on that edge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the point, that's the point.
Speaker 2: We look particularly poor. I thought on the right side,
Speaker 2: for Poll missed a really poor tackle around the halfway
Speaker 2: mark that that led to the Titans getting down there
Speaker 2: and the scoring.
Speaker 3: And Bruce was Jack Bird as well, Jack Burbdon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, just on that right edge. You would
Speaker 2: hope next year Kay Peers Paul obviously will be on
Speaker 2: that side of the field that that that's out of
Speaker 2: the field becomes more potent and becomes more reliable in
Speaker 2: defense when he's there. So hopefully that's the case. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to mention one other thing, and that is
Speaker 2: Happy not looking at the ball, not looking at the
Speaker 2: play the ball, and the Titans stealing the ball. I mean,
Speaker 2: I thought when that happened, I thought, this is not
Speaker 2: going to be our day. This is horrible, this is terrible.
Speaker 2: There's a steve the encapsulation of attention to detail.
Speaker 3: Am I right, Yeah, absolutely, you know that sort of
Speaker 3: thing could happen to anyone and he's the sort of
Speaker 3: guy that you normally would think if you're going to
Speaker 3: put someone up there who is professional and does dot
Speaker 3: all the i's crossed the tease, it's happy, But in
Speaker 3: that instance he certainly didn't. But can I also mention,
Speaker 3: while while we're talking about the middle, I don't know
Speaker 3: who's going to be available next week. And I think
Speaker 3: you nailed it at the beginning of the pod. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure whether you said it or whether you read
Speaker 3: it from the forum, but the only reason Jack Bird's
Speaker 3: there is because of our lack of depth. Right that
Speaker 3: he was poor, really poor on the weekend. He's been
Speaker 3: poor for a few weeks now.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I love what he was bringing off the bench to
Speaker 3: the early in the season, coming off the bench when
Speaker 3: we're all fit and fresh. But yeah, he looks absolutely
Speaker 3: busted at the moment. And I don't know, I don't
Speaker 3: know how long he signed for, but two years. I
Speaker 3: don't know that we can we can carry him for
Speaker 3: that long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't see im unless there's an injury that
Speaker 2: we're not aware of. He just looks he looks tired,
Speaker 2: and he looks worn down. And starting in the back
Speaker 2: row is no mean feat. And maybe that's passed him
Speaker 2: by a bit. I mean there's a lot of miles
Speaker 2: in those legs, and he's had the arthritis issues, and
Speaker 2: I know that he trained to play a lock. But
Speaker 2: I think it probably shows you. Probably the other point,
Speaker 2: Steve is that because we've got plenty of middles, it
Speaker 2: shows you that I think, sayfar stays in the in
Speaker 2: the back row numbered when Jack Bird's taking your spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. I think what's going to happen,
Speaker 3: you know, with the guy coming from Newcastle and then
Speaker 3: we've got samuela fail on the left. I think over
Speaker 3: the off season and the preseason that sea Fath will
Speaker 3: be looking up back back onto the bench in the
Speaker 3: middle rotation, which I think is the best best spot
Speaker 3: for him. He is. He's not a weapon out in
Speaker 3: the edge. He's not quick enough, he's not losing enough.
Speaker 3: But put him in the middle, not starting, I don't
Speaker 3: think at the stage, but put him in the you know,
Speaker 3: in the middle on the bench, and him coming after
Speaker 3: twenty five minutes, you know, I think he's does more
Speaker 3: than a good job really and you know the effort
Speaker 3: is going to be there. You know that's going to
Speaker 3: be there from him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean we've spoken about do he, but
Speaker 2: I would I think we need to buy Hasset from
Speaker 2: the Pathers. From what I've seen of him, very I
Speaker 2: could see him being the long term West Tiger's number thirteen,
Speaker 2: So that would be a player. I'd like to see
Speaker 2: Kobe Heatherington re signed with the Broncos, so he's not coming,
Speaker 2: so we may have some clarity around that lock position. Shortly,
Speaker 2: it's such a vital position in the game in this
Speaker 2: day and age. I've got to give, as I seem
Speaker 2: to be doing every time I'm on the pod, giving
Speaker 2: Si Feinu a rap. Once again, I thought he was
Speaker 2: really good off the bench. I would still start him.
Speaker 2: I would start him over twelve and move Twell back
Speaker 2: to the bench personally, but I thought Siani was really
Speaker 2: good again. I thought Suka had a pretty good game
Speaker 2: as well. What I think the thing that stands out
Speaker 2: when we look at the forwards, Steve is the impact
Speaker 2: that Reagan Campbell Gillard had for them off the bench.
Speaker 2: I think his performance was. You know, he's definitely getting
Speaker 2: towards the end of his career. I'm not saying sign him,
Speaker 2: but if we can have someone like that, coming off
Speaker 2: the bench and making that kind of impact that he did.
Speaker 2: I thought he was he was very impressive. But I
Speaker 2: think the thing too that they studied the Tigers very
Speaker 2: well and their line speed when they were offside. Pretty
Speaker 2: much every play the ball, they were up on the
Speaker 2: Tigers very quickly, which needs to be factored into our performance.
Speaker 2: We really had very little space to operate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that that's some I think LaDou
Speaker 3: Faner's finding that out pretty quickly. Like I think opposition
Speaker 3: teams have worked out that he's a weapon and he's dangerous.
Speaker 3: He's kicked off the mark and they are getting up
Speaker 3: on him fairly quickly. Very very different. Game two against
Speaker 3: the Warriors, though, I well, we were pulled this weekend
Speaker 3: because of basic errors, you know, one on one missus,
Speaker 3: lack of awareness in defense, dropping the ball at key times.
Speaker 3: We got done against the Warriors because we were manhandled
Speaker 3: by a better forward pack that just absolutely demolished us
Speaker 3: and rolled through the middle. Now they've got some big guys,
Speaker 3: you know, their lock and and as you say, Campbell
Speaker 3: Gillard and also what's the other guy came in off
Speaker 3: the bench for fea. Yeah, Like they've got some big
Speaker 3: forwards and they can roll down the middle. I don't
Speaker 3: feel that we were I don't feel we lost the ruck.
Speaker 3: We weren't losing meters through the middle of the field
Speaker 3: like we were against the Warriors. Actually, I think we
Speaker 3: we held our own. I think we made it hard
Speaker 3: for ourselves, but for very different reasons. So there was
Speaker 3: too many there were too many misstackles in the middle.
Speaker 3: If you go to the statue, our tight forwards and
Speaker 3: happy between them missed a lot of tackles one on
Speaker 3: one missus or ineffective tackles at the very least. So
Speaker 3: that was a problem. But the fact that the Titans
Speaker 3: definitely did not roll down the middle of the field.
Speaker 3: In fact, we probably we probably got the better of them,
Speaker 3: I would say in that.
Speaker 2: Regard, aside from Campbell Gillard, i'd suggest, which is why
Speaker 2: my word was physicality, but not in the traditional sense
Speaker 2: of physicality where we've been smashed all over the field.
Speaker 2: It was I thought we did well in that regard,
Speaker 2: and there was one guy in particular that sort of
Speaker 2: led the way in regards to that. It goes to show,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes you don't need to add in a
Speaker 2: huge amount. It goes to show that sometimes the team's
Speaker 2: not as far. And I know it was a terrible performance,
Speaker 2: and I'm not saying that we've turned the corner, but
Speaker 2: sometimes just the injection of one player in one position
Speaker 2: kind of can bring up the team. If that makes
Speaker 2: a little better sense, Like you know, I think that's
Speaker 2: if there. Albeit it was dreadful and it was terrible,
Speaker 2: but I think there's something to work with this team.
Speaker 2: And if we can just continue to strengthen the weaknesses,
Speaker 2: and there's probably still two or three, then I think
Speaker 2: we could make that next move up. And I think
Speaker 2: Tailorm is the first step in that. Now, let's hope
Speaker 2: he turns around Steve and signs another contract with US
Speaker 2: and doesn't get poached next week because he's off contract
Speaker 2: next year. That would be classic Typers.
Speaker 3: It will apparently feel good tonight is saying he's the
Speaker 3: best young footballer he's ever never met.
Speaker 2: He's never met.
Speaker 3: Look, look, we are still aways from being a good
Speaker 3: football team, but I don't think we're that far away
Speaker 3: from having the right personnel to be a good football team.
Speaker 3: A lot of these guys that we've got can do
Speaker 3: the job. We've just got to become a more disciplined
Speaker 3: football team. We've got to become a better structured football
Speaker 3: team in attack and defense, and we've got to we've
Speaker 3: got to put a little bit of finesse. Finesse is
Speaker 3: not the word, but I suppose professionalism or class class
Speaker 3: is the word. We've got to add a touch of
Speaker 3: class to what we do. We make mistakes at four times,
Speaker 3: we go to sleep at the wrong moments, right, But
Speaker 3: I believe that this group, with a couple of additions,
Speaker 3: we're pretty close to having the personnel that then need
Speaker 3: to be coached into doing improving in the areas that
Speaker 3: lacking at the moment. But I don't know. I would
Speaker 3: suggest that the fact that this was probably Leui's best
Speaker 3: game in attack has probably got something to do with
Speaker 3: the fact that he had a Tailor may outside of
Speaker 3: him and was probably confident that if he could, if
Speaker 3: he could create something, he could get a ball to
Speaker 3: Tailor Maye, who could then do something with what Lui
Speaker 3: has created. So naturally, Leui is just a little bit
Speaker 3: more confident, you know, before he starts to play, and
Speaker 3: that's that looked that way. It looked that way out
Speaker 3: out on the field. You know, Luis was markedly better
Speaker 3: in the way he attacked them, the way he straightened
Speaker 3: and gave space to Taylor Maine.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, good points. I think the thing when
Speaker 2: you talk about being more disciplined or more controlled or
Speaker 2: more finessed, see I don't see that in this team.
Speaker 2: I don't think you're going to turn this team and
Speaker 2: this coach is going to be able to recreate the
Speaker 2: Melbourne Storm. I think what we should be aiming for
Speaker 2: is we should be aiming for a penrith of you know,
Speaker 2: the last few years where it's just that all out
Speaker 2: attack where it's you can improve the defense, defense, defense, defense,
Speaker 2: concentrate one hundred percent on the defense, but score lots
Speaker 2: of points. I think that's that's probably the team that
Speaker 2: I see there, and their potential is to go all
Speaker 2: out on the attack and not become and not become
Speaker 2: a disciplined, well drilled team, but just be more of
Speaker 2: a well classic West Tiger's flairy type team.
Speaker 3: Well, if we just look at defense from we're marveled
Speaker 3: at the scramble, the grit, determination and the effort, effort
Speaker 3: on effort, and that scramble defense that we've shown up
Speaker 3: and channel now as we've got a little bit as
Speaker 3: injuries creep in and players are playing a bit busted,
Speaker 3: and that's diminished a little bit. But if you can
Speaker 3: turn that attitude of scramble into good structured defense. But
Speaker 3: where you you coached a structure, you're all on the
Speaker 3: same page. You all buy into that structure. You all
Speaker 3: know what the man either side of you's job is.
Speaker 3: You know what your job is. Then you go out
Speaker 3: on the field with confidence that that structure is going
Speaker 3: to keep other teams at bay, hold them at bay.
Speaker 3: And then you add the effort and the ability to scramble,
Speaker 3: then you've got a rock hard defensive line. That's where
Speaker 3: we've got their effort. We've got the players with the
Speaker 3: mindset to go out there and do it. What we
Speaker 3: haven't got is that consistent approach of that structure. That's
Speaker 3: what still needs to improve. Whether we've got and I
Speaker 3: don't know, I don't know, I don't I think Benji
Speaker 3: is the guy. I do. But you said at the
Speaker 3: top shold, and I tend to agree with you. I
Speaker 3: think we've got to have a look at who we've
Speaker 3: got under Benji. And I'm not being disrespectful of the
Speaker 3: guys that are there. I just I think we need
Speaker 3: to have a good look at it.
Speaker 2: I think that will be the end of season review findings.
Speaker 2: Is that we've got to get more support around Benji.
Speaker 2: I think just my crystal ball says that. So, speaking
Speaker 2: of Steve's crystal ball. So it's a it's a win,
Speaker 2: it's seven wins. What does the rest of the season
Speaker 2: look like? Is this a flash in the pan we've
Speaker 2: we'll put it away now for the rest of the year,
Speaker 2: or there'll be a late season flurry. And are we
Speaker 2: out of contention for Eddie's It's now the Eddie Otto
Speaker 2: Wooden Spoon. The NRL's renamed it because he's always talking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: Well, we're not going to get the spoon, that's that's
Speaker 3: for sure. We never would. I don't know what he's
Speaker 3: talking about.
Speaker 2: He just he's a trebler, isn't he.
Speaker 3: He lives in a world of mystery. So we're not
Speaker 3: going to get the spoon. How are we going to finish?
Speaker 3: I can't see this. I can't say this. I'd love
Speaker 3: to see this beat one of Panthers all Bulldogs the
Speaker 3: next two weeks, but really I can't see it. I
Speaker 3: think we can beat I think we can beat who
Speaker 3: we've got after that. So I'm looking at as we go.
Speaker 3: The Eagles are there playing quite well. We're be able
Speaker 3: to get that. We've got the Cowboys. We can get that.
Speaker 3: We've got the Titans again. I think we can get that.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to say, so we might get six
Speaker 3: more points, six six more points. Maybe if we're really lucky,
Speaker 3: we get eight more points that includes the by so
Speaker 3: that that would be we would that take us to
Speaker 3: ten wins?
Speaker 2: That right, Yeah, three more wins would take us to
Speaker 2: ten ten wins.
Speaker 3: So ten wins at from where we are now, that
Speaker 3: wouldn't be bad. Losers on twenty six points with three buyers.
Speaker 3: That's that's not about. You know, when you look at
Speaker 3: the season, you think of that Rabbit's game and the
Speaker 3: Newcastle games you're talking that were. You know, we were
Speaker 3: pretty close to a decent season. I'll wait till Wednesday
Speaker 3: night for Edie how that opens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. But Eddie might be I think,
Speaker 2: found some newfound confidence in the West Tigers. So he
Speaker 2: seems to go from North Pole to South Polet pretty quickly, Eddie.
Speaker 2: So we'll wait to see what he comes up with.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we'll leave it there, Steve, and great
Speaker 2: to do a post edition, post victory edition of the
Speaker 2: West Tigers podcast. And when is the Ambush going to
Speaker 2: be coming together once again for another fan event?
Speaker 3: So the next Ambush event will be at Combank Stadium
Speaker 3: the Bulldogs game. So I think that is a two
Speaker 3: o'clock game, so we'd be having we'll be having our
Speaker 3: ambush event around well, once gates open. She's around the
Speaker 3: one o'clock mark, and we've been the members bar there
Speaker 3: at combat. Uh, so hopefully we'll have a guessed you
Speaker 3: know that the Tigers will said, we'll have a guess
Speaker 3: for that one. We haven't got an organized.
Speaker 2: You can see a flockland Galvin's.
Speaker 3: Available, well, he might be right.
Speaker 2: Bring your rotten tomatoes.
Speaker 3: The three just get there. Let's get there, let's rev
Speaker 3: up at the ambush around, Let's get to our seats.
Speaker 3: And then they've built these boarders. Jeez, that's a game.
Speaker 3: I want to see this win.
Speaker 2: I'd like to beat bees Panthers this weekend as well.
Speaker 2: All right, Steve, thank you, we'll catch you down the track.
Speaker 3: Here's Joe seeing