On July 1, the Wests Tigers suffered the worst loss in the club’s history, a 74-0 drubbing in Townsville at the hands of their old enemy, North Queensland Cowboys.
A week later they lost to the Sharks 36-12, a reasonable improvement, followed by another small step forward in a 34-18 loss to the Knights in Newcastle.
On July 18 the Tigers were very unlucky to lose 18-14 to the Dragons, but nevertheless it was another tick for the Tim Sheens coached side.
A 32-18 loss to Souths was followed by two matches the Tigers could have won, against the Raiders (22-18) and the NZ Warriors (22-30).
That’s 10 losses on the trots, and yet plenty of people are cutting the Wests Tigers some slack.
Why? Because so easily some of those losses could have been victories and the narrative a whole lot different.
But more importantly because this team seem to have finally found their way of playing footy and are competitive for 80 minutes.
The last time they won, by the way, was a 66-18 smashing of the Cowboys at Leichhardt, and you get the feeling they are about to serve up another thrashing to someone before the 2023 season is over.
It could well be the Dolphins, the Wayne Bennett coached team that seems to have run out of steam after a great start to the season.
Wests Tigers host the Dolphins at Parramatta stadium this Saturday afternoon, with a 3pm kick off.
It would have been great if the game was at either Leichhardt or Campbelltown, maybe even Lidcombe Oval, but it’s not, so let’s move on.
In the meantime, Sheens has named his 22-man squad for the Round 25 match.
It is the same extended squad which was named last week. Daine Laurie will make his 50th NRL appearance while Stefano Utoikamanu (pictured below) lines up for his 50th game as a Wests Tigers player.
TEAM LIST:
Jahream Bula
2. David Nofoaluma
3. Starford To’a
4. Asu Kepaoa
5. Junior Tupou
6. Daine Laurie
7. Luke Brooks
8. Stefano Utoikamanu
9. Apisai Koroisau (c)
10. David Klemmer
11. Isaiah Papali’i
12. John Bateman
13. Fonua Pole
INTERCHANGE:
14. Jake Simpkin
15. Alex Seyfarth
16. Alex Twal
17. Shawn Blore
