Friday was a bit of a sombre day for the Wests Tigers, with breaking news about Tim Simona’s alleged betting transgressions preceding the trial against the Cowboys by a couple of hours.
The last clash with North Queensland was the peak of the 2016 season, the moment when it looked as if the Tigers just might make the finals.
The last match at Campbelltown also saw Ryan James putting James Tedesco out for the rest of the season, setting up the dramatic loss to the Raiders the following round.
The prospect of playing the Cowboys at Campbelltown was therefore a reminder of the best and worst of the 2016 Tigers season.
On top of that, Jarryd Hayne seemed to claim Campbelltown so definitively that it felt as if the Tigers had to stamp their pawprint on their home venue once again.
As it turned out, they didn’t manage to bring home the win, with a late error from centre Watson Heleta gifting the Cowboys their final try to bring the score to 18-16.
Still, the closeness of the score spoke to a match in which both teams had some good moments, and both teams had some stuff they could have done better.
Whether because of the memory of the clash against the Titans, or the golden light pouring over Campbelltown Oval, James Tedesco was raring to go.
Probably the best player of the match all round, he was continually trying to find open space.
Aaron Woods was also pretty dexterous, opting for offloads a bit more than usual.
With Brock Corfe providing the commentary for the first half and John Skandalis taking over the reins for the second half, it felt a bit like a heritage game, a reminder of the continuity between past and present Tigers generations.
Without either Luke Brooks or Mitchell Moses in the halves, there was understandably a lack of vision around some of the fifth-tackle decisions.
Still, it was heartening to see the Tigers making some good defensive decisions early in the game, with a bevy of forwards managing to stop a blinding charge from Jason Taumalolo and subsequent offload to Jake Granville turning into the first Cowboys try of the evening.
Moments later, Johnathan Thurston knocked on – a strange sight – and the Tigers could breathe again.
Woods, in particular, did a good job of unsettling Lachlan Coote, who was off for most of the night.
Still, the Cowboys managed pretty well without Coote’s regular fullback vision.
At the seventeenth minute, Thurston appeared to be trapped with few options at the fifth tackle, only to kick through a long skidding grubber that found Michael Morgan at just the right time.
Minutes later, Justin O’Neill scooped up the Steeden after Teddy dropped it at the end of a mad dash to set up Kyle Feldt for another run that came to an end just as quickly, thanks to Matt McIlwrick’s calm defense.
Sensing things were desperate, Nofualuma managed to score one of his trademark tries in the “David Nofualuma Corner,” the site of the Dally M 2013 Try of the Year.
No other part of Campbelltown Stadium feels as if it belongs to the current Tigers crop quite like that top right corner, so it was great to see Nofa reclaim it as his own.
The fact that Teddy went on to convert it made the return to Campbelltown feel complete.
The sense of continuity was enhanced by Josh Aloiai burning through the North Queensland defense moments after replacing Woods at the 35th minute.
Aloiai played every game of his debut year, so it was great to see him maintaining the same momentum as soon as he got back on the field.
With the memories of Ryan James still lingering it also seemed to empower the Tigers to see such a spectacular try from a ball-playing forward of their own.
Yet with Ben Hampton scoring right under the posts at half time, the Cowboys made a clear statement of intent.
Sometimes defense dissipates in those final moments before the siren, and so it was with the Tigers, allowing the young utility to simply stroll through.
Things got pretty scrappy in the second half, and it wasn’t until Nofualuma put down another try at the 66th minute that things got exciting again.
At first, the four-pointer felt like it might belong to Kevin Naiqama or Watson Heleta, but replay showed that it was Nofa who managed to get the ball to ground.
It wasn’t quite a team try, but there was a similar kind of feeling.
Nofualuma has a great way of converging and condensing all the Tigers’ energy, so it felt appropriate that he ended up taking the credit.
With Heleta providing Granville with the opportunity for the Cowboys’ final try, though, the game was won.
On the Tigers’ side, Jack Littlejohn distinguished himself, putting in a beautiful spiralling kick at the 58th minute to force a goal-line dropout and a repeat set.
Jamal Idris and Moses Suli seemed to have synergy, but didn’t get a lot of opportunities.
On the Cowboys side, Thurston’s worst day is still better than anyone else in the game.
His work with Morgan in the opening half was a reminder of how much the Tigers need Brooks and Moses for their fifth tackle decisions.
Luckily, it was a relatively injury-free trial, although Antonio Winterstein was carried off with a right-ankle niggle that might see Kalyn Ponga playing a bit earlier than expected.
Kyle Feldt and Joel Edwards were also taken off after a head clash, but will hopefully be right for Round 1.
Despite the Cowboys’ win, then, it felt more or less equal in terms of quality.
Both teams were doing what they should be doing in a trial – flexing their muscles, getting back into shape, and seeing what more needs to be done.
It’ll be interesting to see how they perform when they return with a full squad to face each other at 1330SMILES in Round 6.
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