Well, thank God this season is over. The NRL season is a long one for everybody, but I honestly believe the Wests Tigers fans deserve a medal.
No doubt someone somewhere will remind us that the team finished 13th, compared to the wooden spoon in the previous three seasons.
Yes, and nobody is disputing there are green shoots in the team that Benji Marshall is carefully building through astute signings and talent identification in the club’s own pathways at Campbelltown and Balmain.
But for some reason that last round loss to the Titans on Saturday night on the Gold Coast hurt a little extra.
We don’t want to be too harsh on the boys, but how can you play so differently in two halves of footy? Is it even possible or is it a Wests Tigers specialty, as so many fans believe.
The saying, laced with sarcasm, “we can still win this’’ may not be completely exclusive to the Tigers fans, but I would bet that they employ it more than any other set of fans.
So, on Saturday the Tigers are on fire, Royce Hunt scoring a double no less, and go to the half time break leading 28-12.
Had Api Koroisau’s radar been more accurate it would have been 30-12.
But it wasn’t just the team’s attack that was creating havoc for the home side, producing five tries in a terrific 40 minutes of football.
Gold Coast scored the pair of first half tries during a short period of domination, but other than that the defence from the Tigers was as solid as a rock.
Second half: Titans score four unanswered tries to win the game 36-28.
It was, by the way, the second shut out in the last 40 minutes in a row for the Tigers, who also failed to bother the scorers a week earlier against the minor premiers.
Marshall said after the game that while he was disappointed with the second half performance, the boys “ran out gas’’.
“And that’s on me because I have been really pushing the boys these past six or eight weeks,’’ he said.
Marshall said that while it was an improved performance overall “there is still a lot of work to do’’.
You bet there is.