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Despite their controversial loss to the Brisbane Broncos on Friday night, the Wests Tigers have had a great start to the season.
Only the most one-eyed of fans would have predicted wins over the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters, after losing three of their big four since the start of last season, plus a number of other first graders.
Ivan Cleary has done a great job to date. Firstly, recruitment has been top notch. The additions of Russell Packer, Ben Matulino and Robbie Rochow has added plenty of go-forward to the Tigers pack, as well as filling up a number of defensive holes. Packer made an outstanding 57 tackles on Friday night.
Benji Marshall is clearly excelling in the senior leadership role at the club, while Josh Reynolds waits in the wings for his opportunity, which could be sooner rather than later depending on the extent of Marshall’s ankle injury.
Nevertheless, it is defence where Cleary has definitely made the biggest difference. At this level, defence is an attitude thing, perhaps even a sign of team culture. Whatever Cleary has done in the off season, he has this team bonded and, although a cliché, working for each other.
The results are evident. In 2016 and 2017, the Tigers conceded an average of 4.3 tries per game. To date, against three of the best attacking teams around, it is less than one per game.
However, Cleary knows the job is only half done. As much as the Tigers have been restricting tries, they haven’t been able to get much over the line themselves.
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
This is not an attitude thing. The forwards have been making yards while the back three’s work rate is more pronounced this season. David Nofoaluma ran for 150m on Friday night and leads the team so far in average running metres.
Once in the opposition 20 though, the attack does take on a disjointed look and tries have been hard to come by. One in each game so far has been about enough but it won’t be enough for long.
Attacking football hasn’t really been a problem for the Tigers in recent years so you get the impression that defence was priority no one for Ivan Cleary in the off season. He has been absolutely correct in that early in the season, the team whose mistake rate is less, including missed tackles, generally prevails.
This doesn’t necessarily last the whole season. Just ask the Dragons, who are looking to jump at least one place this year.
So, that is the challenge for Cleary now. He has the defence well drilled and performing and now he needs to get the team scoring more points. This will be difficult without James Tedesco at the back but most of us also thought that the Tigers would be cemented at the bottom of the table.
It will be interesting to see how the Tigers attack progresses. If Ivan Cleary gets this working and the Tigers get a spot in the top eight at the end of the season, he would surely take his place as one of the best coaches in the game.
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