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Can Tigers maintain the momentum?

Stick with it, Tigers fans, it may be worth it in the long-run. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Roar Guru
3rd March, 2017
6

Last night we saw the Wests Tigers playing at very close to their best.

Of course, Souths didn’t have Adam Reynolds.

Nor did they really have Greg Inglis after a knee injury put him out of action in the opening minutes, even if he did manage to subsequently ground one of the oddest tries I’ve seen.

Still, the Tigers were close to the top of their game.

Rumours of Luke Brooks going to the Bulldogs aside, if this is the squad we have in the short term, can they keep it up?

Is this just the surge of the first week of footy?

Is it just the adrenalin kick of needing to show Farah they don’t need him any more?

Could it be the absence of Reynolds and the partial absence of G.I. providing them with an easy win?

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Or has the addition of Suli, the consolidation of the spine and the greater discipline of the forwards really created a new potential for the Tigers?

Few commentators would dispute that James Tedesco was the man of the match from the moment he brought home the second Tigers try of the night at the twentieth minute.

Following a massive hit from Sam Burgess on Elijah Taylor – one of the most emphatic Rabbitohs moments thus far – the Tigers forced a goal-line drop out, with Robbie Farah on the other side of the Steeden.

Moments later, Tedesco managed to make it past Burgess, Alex Johnston and a horde of Souths defenders to smash it over the line.

A classic Tigers moment and an iconic Teddy moment, it seemed to unfold in slow motion, implausible and inevitable at the same time.

It wasn’t just a matter of dexterity, either, but brute strength, with Tedesco showing what an utter beast he can be when launching off the left leg into a maelstrom of forwards.

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Yet Teddy was just as good at grounding the ball on the other side of the line as well, eluding Cody Walker’s kick chase to save the Tigers from an almost certain goal-line dropout at the forty-fifth minute.

Once again, Teddy slammed through a wall of Rabbitohs jerseys to get the Steeden back into the field of play.

If Tedesco was on fire, then the halves were nearly as good.

Mitchell Moses put in one of his best kicking games in some time, managing five out of six conversions (and even then the sixth was pretty unlucky, bouncing off the posts).

He also grounded the fourth try of the night, after Tedesco caught the ball on the full just after half time and passed it to David Nofualuma, who slammed through the Bunnies’ defence to hand it back to the fullback once again.

James Tedesco of the Wests Tigers fends off souths rabbitohs player

In the right place at the right time, Moses scooped the Steeden up from Teddy and dashed fifty metres down the field to ground it right beneath the posts, setting himself up for the easiest conversion of the night.

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In its statement of purpose, it was the perfect riposte to Greg Inglis’ try at the end of the first stanza.

Luke Brooks was also in top form, demonstrating the deftness of his kicking game under tight conditions and setting up lots of stuff up the left wing, even if the other players didn’t always manage to finish the job.

In the fifth try of the night, Tedesco launched a harbour bridge pass to Moses Suli who set up Brooks for his first four-pointer of the 2017 season.

It was a terrific sequel to Mitchell Moses’ try ten minutes before.

Only Aaron Woods was left without points on the board, though an extremely near miss in the last minute momentarily looked to have changed that.

Still, Woodsy made his mark felt on other parts of the field, playing a particularly critical role in the first Tigers try of the night, which was grounded in the first minute by Ava Seumanufagai, of all people.

Following a deft offload from Woods, the Steeden travelled across the field through Moses Suli, Elijah Taylor and Michael Chee-Kam (cast against type at centre) before the burly prop got it to ground.

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It was a good sign for the health of the Tigers’ big men across the night, with Chris Lawrence also managing to bring home a try halfway through the first act.

Crushed by a rabid pack of Rabbitohs props, it initially looked as if the grounding of the Steeden would be a matter of total speculation.

Yet in one of the rare instances where the Bunker really works, fate decreed that the camera would manage to capture the ball going to grass at just the right moment, and Lawrence racked up another four points for the Tigers.

Both Seumanafagai and Brooks’ tries were also a testament to the rising star power of Moses Suli.

After a fumbling start, Suli started to get his first-grade legs, appearing to simply walk through the Souths’ backline at the fifty-sixth minute, in one of the sudden stop-and-swivel movements for which he is already renowned.

Of course, it goes without saying that David Nofoaluma was brilliant as well.

As the most reliable player in the Tigers’ stable – more reliable even than Tedesco – he managed play and orchestrated offloads like a true professional.

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Like the most professional players, too, you only really notice him when something goes wrong, which it didn’t last night.

While not all the Tigers players’ were equally brilliant, only Jamal Idris really stuck out, coughing up the ball on the two occasions he made contact.

On the other side of the Steeden, Bryson Goodwin put in a terrific night for the cardinal and myrtle, racking up a hattrick and providing the struggling Bunnies with what little forward direction they could muster.

For both the first and second try, Goodwin paired with John Sutton for a decoy move – the first involving Cody Walker, the second involving Greg Inglis – that the Tigers should have been better placed to anticipate and intercept.

Yet it was Goodwin’s third try that arguably stole the show in the second half of the game.

Scooping up the Steeden from Sutton once again, Goodwin leapfrogged over Nofoaluma to plant the ball right in the left corner of the field.

Bringing home 14 of the Bunnies’ 18 points, he was a sight for sore eyes in a team that was continually struggling to make metres and organise their defence.

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Robbie Farah, in particular, put in a pretty quiet night, with his loss of the Steeden to Chris Lawrence at the eleventh minute feeling pretty indicative of the game as a whole.

At the very least, though, the prospective absence of Inglis and Reynolds means that Michael Maguire probably doesn’t have to worry much about whether to include Farah or Damien Cook.

They’re both needed now and my best bet is to put Cook at hooker and Farah at halfback.

Speaking of Inglis, the big man himself managed to ground the ball a minute before half time despite not being able to walk.

Minutes before he’d asked Madge to take him off the field, only to find himself spearheading the Bunnies’ first stanza surge.

That he managed to stay on for the remainder of the game and do some strategic damage was a tribute to the myth and mystery that is G.I.

I might write something about that in a separate article, though, since there was something about Inglis’ performance that went above and beyond anything else in the game.

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The burning question now is whether the Tigers can maintain this momentum.

Next week’s match against the Panthers will be a good litmus test, but, in the meantime, what do you think?

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