The job is only half done for Ivan Cleary

*on top of which they were given

You earn luck. The Tigers were written off as wooden spoon contenders, on top of which they were the toughest opening rounds of any team. Just about everyone expected they'd be thrashed in their first five matches. They deserve credit.

Can we just clear up one myth about the Tigers - Their forwards have not made more yards than their oppositions. in the literal sense, that is the actual numbers. Team attitude in defence is great. That is about it. People can complain about the final penalty on Friday night (and if Greenberg had come out and said ' That was dreadful, nobody is getting competition points from this game', I think all neutral supporters would have agreed that would have seemed appropriate) . But, they have a try from a ball bouncing off a head, they have a try from an offload hitting the ground - those two plays only need the pointy rugby league ball to bounce slightly different and they are 0-3 and the conversation is totally different. about Ivan Cleary and the Tigers.

As far as I can see Tigers need to improve three areas of attack. 1. Forwards are making good yards but no players trailing for offloads especially in the opposition half - Reynolds presence will help this 2. Full back is going good but not Tedesco, they haven’t injected themselves in to the attack in the ‘red zone’, this presents limited options and makes the ball runners easy targets for defence. Not sure Lolohea is the answer 3. Brooks need to better consider his options, he seems intent on playing the first man, who is constantly getting smashed. Friday nights game provided a few good examples of this there were a couple of instance where Lawrence was the lead runner and was given the ball, but smashed. The play were notable because Lawrence sucked in defenders leaving a two on one a couple of times had Brooks played the second man Tigers would have been more threatening

Thanks David. Great piece, I agree and I've been waiting for years for two new things for the Tigers to start a season with 1 A bigger go forward pack and 2 Ability to tackle down any team, and hold out a winning lead So far so Great!

A lot of the enthrallment was because it was so bad and close and due to the Tigers being on a three part fairy tail roll TB. The so called ' worst set in history ' had me laughing out loud, it was hilarious . if I was a ref I would penalise Rochow for that same incident but for a different reason but not in extra time.. I hate players in the ruck touching each other , just keep away and don't harass in any way the bloke playing the ball or run forward into the marker. It happens constantly and needs to be cracked on even if they have to penalise Manly.

Neither team showed up to play in this one. That 4 and 5th tackle play where Benji threw the ball along the ground and Brooks passed to no one and there were a couple of other fumbles and dud passes was just about the worst passage of play I’ve ever seen.

"That was one of the worst games I’ve seen in a long time. " You can't have seen many Tigers games in recent years. I'm a Tigers fan and I'm sad to say I've seen many worse than that.

The 2 points is about as much as I'll take from the game but you're right, they have been blowing an ave 20 penalties per game this season to set the standard and now he blows one in OT everyone goes back to previous seasons. However, it is a rod for their back as every GP event will be held to this standard.

They can hope for 20yo Benji but 30yo Benji is keeping them in these contests. His boot baffled Melbourne and his reads in D halted a lot of Easts and Brisbane plays. He's not running through defenses anymore but he's keeping their in check.

Enthralling contest? That was one of the worst games I’ve seen in a long time. Neither team seemed that keen to win and if the Tigers had showed even a little bit more interest they wouldn’t have been in that position. Contextually with how golden point has been refereed over the years (ie whistles going in the pocket) it was an atrocious decision. But if this is a marker that they’re not going to do that any more - I can certainly live with that. We’ve all been howling about the refs doing that for years. Even then I think there’s question marks over the decision about whether Rochow was only not square because the Broncos player walked off the mark. The second marker was certainly never square but he didn’t affect the play at all. Your point about the bunker is a really interesting one. A try in the corner in the fourth minute and the bunker will be all over it. A match winning field goal in the 85th minute doesn’t get looked at. In the game context, which one is the more critical decision?

So isntead of looking at these 3 games v the whole of last year lets look at games against these 3 teams last year 2017 - 4 games - 4 Losses For - 50 points - Average 12.5 points Against - 120 Points - Average -30 points 2016 4 games - 1 win 3 losses For - 75 points - Average 18.75 Against - 98 points - Average 24.5 2018 - 3 games - 2 wins. 1 loss For - 27 points -9 points (down 3.5 on last year) Against - 25 points - 8.3 points (down 22 points on last year) So only 3 points worse in attack but 22 points better in defence You also need to remember that the Wests Tigers came into 2018 with a best spine of Lolohea(1/3), Reynolds(0/3), Brooks(3/3), Liddle (0/3) So effectively they have missed 3/4 of their spine for these 3 games Imagine what would happen if the same happend for their oppostion - Roosters without Tedesco,Keary and Friend or Storm without Slater, Munster and Smith - Do you think they'd be winning and scoring lots of points

With the season 1/8 gone I'd say the job is 1/8 done.

It would have been interesting if the field goal attempt had of hit the post, the Broncos almost score a try and the ref says to the bunker ' I'll call that try but if it's not a try it's a penalty to the Broncos for markers not square' The bunker gets involved and we get the right call.. How about the bunker gets involved anyway, a field goal to win the game is the same thing as a try but we can't rule on one of them?

The "Cleary effect" is also about belief and spirit and this something the West Tigers have prided themselves on even before they became a joint venture. These guys clearly like playing with each other and their keenness to do well as a team will have flow on effects across the Club. Sure, they need to do a lot more in attack but their game plans to beat potential top 4 sides have been top drawer, way better than most other sides could do in 2017. It will be interesting to see how Cleary goes about maintaining this approach through a long season. Hopefully he'll continue to get it right and his players will buy in every week.

Cleary has done an outstanding job with recruitment and coaching. Great work in calling out the atrocious decision which destroyed an enthralling contest as well. He desperately needs a couple of players who are dangerous runners of the ball and Tedesco is a massive loss. I can't see them having a worthwhile attack this year but I wouldn't mind being wrong. I tipped them for the spoon and I still do despite Cleary's efforts but they have clearly got the right coach.