After four losses in a row, Wests Tigers fans are rightly asking if this is going to be another wasted year.
On social media some fans were already speculating about replacing the coach, Jason Taylor, while others were critical of the players for alleged lack of effort.
The truth is that the true fans really hurt when their club loses, especially a few on the trot.
That is why some fans go overboard with their criticism and come across as witless drongos.
But an analysis of why fans vent the way they do is for another day.
After the defeat at the hands of the hapless Knights on Sunday, I went back and had a look at the game, paying particular attention to how our boys performed defending close to their line.
What I saw was the team performing and competing well in a general sense. The effort was definitely there, 100 per cent sure on that.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]But I also tried to study closely the game plan by Taylor and how the Tigers rolled on in attack and how they defended when the other mob had the ball.[/social_quote]
Well, what I discovered was that Robbie Farah was right.
Speaking after the game, the Origin hooker said that poor execution was the team’s key downfall.
If you watch the game yourself you will see that a poor kick to the sideline and a pushed pass by Mitchell Moses almost certainly cost us two tries during the match.
I am not saying Moses was the only one to blame for the loss; I am using him as an example of poor execution that cost us points which would almost certainly have given victory to the Wests Tigers not just against Newcastle, but also the Titans away and the Sharks at Campbelltown.
So while we execute poorly at key moments in attack, when defending the Tigers give away dumb penalties, which are obviously costly.
But take away these penalties, improve our execution in attack and the Wests Tigers in my view become a team that’s 10-20 percent better. Maybe more.
And this would no doubt translate into more wins and premiership points.
I am a Jason Taylor fan and I have no doubt the coach is on to what the team problems are and will be working very hard to rectify them.
For our sake – and his – let’s hope he’s successful sooner rather than later.
