If Wests Tigers want to properly farewell Robbie Farah – and maybe even Benji Marshall – playing finals football would be the way to go.
Mind you finals football is a distant memory for the joint venture and its long suffering fans, 2011 being the last time the feat was achieved.
To be fair, the club was unlucky to miss out making the cut on three or four other occasions.
Robbie has now announced he is retiring at the end of this season, and it’s possible Benji may do so likewise, so what better way to farewell them than one last shot at the title they won together in 2005.
It all starts this Thursday at Leichhardt where Wests Tigers will host the North Queensland Cowboys in round 20 of the NRL premiership.
A win for the home side would put them inside the top eight on 20 points, at least until the completion of the round.
Then the club would need to win at least four of its remaining five matches to make the finals, and on paper it’s not mission impossible.
It will face the Bulldogs in round 21, followed by Manly, the Knights, Dragons and Sharks.
All will be tough matches, but Manly and the Sharks loom as the biggest hurdles for Wests Tigers.
But given what we’ve seen so far, the Michael Maguire coached team looks capable of beating anybody.
Unfortunately, it’s also shown that it can be beaten by anybody as well, through a drop in intensity or just silly handling errors.
But if the Wests Tigers can get the basics right in every game over the next six weeks they will be there at finals time.
Maguire has named an unchanged team against the Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval this Thursday night – kick off is at 7.50pm.
WESTS TIGERS V COWBOYS:
1. Corey Thompson
2. Paul Momirovski
3. Moses Mbye (captain)
4. Esan Marsters
5. David Nofoaluma
6. Benji Marshall
7. Luke Brooks
8. Josh Aloiai
9. Robbie Farah
10. Oliver Clark
11. Luke Garner
12. Michael Chee Kam
13. Ryan Matterson
INTERCHANGE:
14. Matt Eisenhuth
15. Thomas Mikaele
16. Alex Twal
17. Chris Lawrence
