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Michael Maguire has spoken of his pride in Luke Brooks after the much-maligned playmaker proved the matchwinner in a 23-22 thriller over South Sydney.
It was a second consecutive single point win at CommBank Stadium, with Brooks the hero this week after Jackson Hastings had sealed the deal to beat Parramatta on Easter Monday.
“Someone like Luke Brooks has gone through a fair bit in his career and what a special moment it was to see him kick the field goal,” said the Tigers coach.
“He’s been challenged as long as I can remember. He’s got a good partner in Jacko now and they’re doing a good job together.”
The lead changed hands five times and the game was level for long periods, but the Tigers were able to final ice their opportunity when Souths could not.
The Tigers’ win was based on consistency and application: they completed at a stunning 98% and had just three errors against a Rabbitohs team that made 14.
Maguire said that the win was a vindication of the work that his team had done in their losing streak in the knowledge that their luck would turn.
“The real pleasing part is to back up what we’ve been doing and the little gains that we’ve been continually talking about internally,” he said.
“We said a few weeks ago that we weren’t too far away and we’re starting to show that the work that we’ve been putting in works.
“The belief around the group grows off the back of performances like that.
“What I’ve seen over the last month is how the group has really galvanised among themselves, with great leadership from players.
“We’ve changed a little bit. I said before we started the season that we were tinkering with our attack and we wanted to change a few things.
“We missed out on things in a few games where we didn’t get that reward of winning.
“Guys like Jimmy (Tamou) have been around and have been at teams that have experienced that, and calling on that experience and understanding that we are going through a period where if you stay at it, the gains that we are working on will work.”
“Sure enough, over the last two weeks, we’ve shown that.”
For the second week in succession, their opponents assisted the Tigers, but they again managed to keep themselves in the game and take their chances.
Souths will lick their wounds and count their losses. They lost Hame Sele to one of the worst concussions of the season within the first eight minutes, then Jacob Host (shoulder) at half time, Junior Tatola with fifteen to play and Liam Knight in the closing moments. The Tigers also saw Daine Laurie (medial) taken off.
“I thought the Tigers were pretty good, they did what they thought they would do but completed high and we made errors,” said Jason Demetriou.
“We’re not giving ourselves a chance. Every loss this year I’ve come in and said the same thing: we’re under 70% completions, 16 errors and a lot of them in the back of the field. It’s not good enough.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of shape, execution and things like that. I thought we looked dangerous when we got through our sets but it’s individuals: loose carries, not taking ownership of the footy and pushing loose passes that we don’t need to push.
“It’s a reoccurring thing that we need to address.”
Indeed, the only time Souths looked efficient was when they had a man extra just before the break.
“I thought we played our best footy with a man less,” said Demetriou.
“We got through our sets and played more composed because we knew we had to. It’s a mindset that we needed to have more.
“We spoke at half time that we went a man down and completed, put pressure on them, got repeat sets and won 10-0 during the period. Then we don’t complete off the kickoff.
“It’s happened multiple times this year off the back of points that we come up with an error. Then we went 8 or 9 sets where we don’t touch the footy. That takes it’s toll and fatigues you.
“It’s something we continually talk about. It’s not just one person every week, it’s different people at different stages of the game. It’s errors at crucial times.”
Early on, there were indications that this would be tight, with the teams trading tries in the opening minutes.
Souths lost their first man of the night, Hame Sele, in a sickening attempted tackle that saw both teams stop in their tracks to assist him, before Daine Laurie tapped on for David Nofoaluma to score.
Laurie was caught high by Taane Milne as he made the pass too, with the Souths man earning a ten-minute sit down in the process.
Despite the 12 men, Souths got their first good ball and made it count. Alex Johnston thought that he was over in the corner after carrying five tacklers towards the line. Just as he thought he was done, the ball came out towards Cody Walker, who strolled over.
Last week against the Bulldogs, South Sydney had delivered a masterclass in how to play with the man advantage, and they were now showing how to go a player light.
They dominated the ball – 70/30 for ten minutes – and scored again, with Johnston going one better to score. Luke Garner, backpedalling as Cody Walker advanced, might want his time again.
With the game returned to 13-a-side, the momentum shifted back. Jackson Hastings and Luke Brooks combined, Campbell Graham misread the pass and Ken Maumolo found the space at the corner.
There was almost a defining moment on the brink of halftime. Nofoaluma stole the ball from Blake Taaffe and with the Souths line shot, Lachlan Ilias was offside and stopped the try. The ref waved six again rather than call the clear professional foul that would have seen Ilias binned.
The Tigers might have preferred the advantage with Souths still scrambling, but it worked against them.
They got to a kick that Mansour fielded and found that all the chasers had run beyond him. The Souths winger got the ball to Graham, then to Ilias, but the halfback didn’t have the speed to complete the 95m move.
The most ironic try of the year had been averted, but Alex Twal was adjudged offside at the next play and Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski was less lenient.
Souths would capitalise. Keoan Koloamatangi went close, and when Souths recycled possession, Ilias slipped a kick through for Josh Mansour.
The Bunnies were then rescued twice by the bunker. First Brooks, then Jock Madden, thought they had scored after poorly defended kicks, but the bunker fortuitously intervened.
The luck would run out. Souths spilled another kick – though the call looked very contentious – and from the scrum, the Tigers spread to David Nofoaluma to level the scores. From the sideline, Hastings hit the post.
The luck was really, really out for South Sydney. Ilias threw a pass into Graham – who thought he was a decoy – and popped up for Brooks to run 60m in.
Wests have often been their own worst enemy this year and would be again. Starford To’a spilled a kick and though the Tigers scrambled well, they conceded a set restart on the last tackle. It wouldn’t be passed up: Ilias put Koloamatangi through a hole to return the game to parity.
The field goal competition was started early by Hastings – sending two wide – before Jai Arrow, inexplicably, had a go himself.
Jock Madden had another crack and Souths were very unlucky again, with the charge down catching one of their men offside. From the resulting scrum, all it took was the Tigers to work to the posts and do the rest.