Cleary: "Now we just sit back and see what happens"

[Tiger_Fan18]

Dan Talintyre - Thu 23 Aug 2018, 10:56 PM
Wests Tigers press conference - Round 24
[media] - https://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2018/08/23/cleary-now-we-just-sit-back-and-see-what-happens/

Wests Tigers Coach Ivan Cleary says while it wasn't the prettiest win for his side on Thursday, the ability to keep their season alive for another week was pleasing.

The slender win sees Wests Tigers close the gap to the Warriors and Broncos inside the top eight to just two points with those two sides facing off against the Panthers and Roosters respectively over the weekend — a win for either side condemning Wests Tigers to a ninth-placed finish in season 2018.

But for now, Wests Tigers are still alive, and that's all that was concerning the Coach after a tough win.

"We're still alive," Cleary said with a relieved sigh.

"It was looking pretty good, actually, midway through the second half. I was disappointed with the first half — we looked distracted and didn't do what we planned to do — and didn't get it together at all.

"So the second half was much better, but it was just a scrap and a hang on to try win it at the death.

"And now we just sit back and see what happens over the weekend.

"We'll know what's in front of us once the weekend happens but it's great we're still alive."

Should the side's final homes come down to a final round clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Cleary said they would take confidence from their victory over the premiership hopefuls last month, but admitted there was simply too much football to be played before worrying too much about that game.

"We've shown this year that we can beat the best teams," Cleary enthused.

"So there's a bit of confidence there, having already beaten Souths. But we're going to have to play a fair bit better than we did tonight. We'll just see how the weekend goes and take stock from there."

:sign:

 

[Spud_Murphy]

Warriors will be safe after this weekend. I can’t see Penrith worrying them in the form they’re in at the moment. Roosters will most likely do Brisbane which will bring it down to the last game, but we’d have to beat Souths by about 100 to have any chance of overcoming the points differential, so it’s not going to happen.

We’ve shot ourselves in the foot by not being able to put the opposition to the sword in any game this season and losing to St George last week when they were there for the taking.

Winning more games than losing, or perhaps even drawing level, is a significant improvement in itself from recent years, but we’re still a long way from being a real premiership threat.

 

[cqtiger]

Warriors will be safe after this weekend. I can’t see Penrith worrying them in the form they’re in at the moment. Roosters will most likely do Brisbane which will bring it down to the last game, but we’d have to beat Souths by about 100 to have any chance of overcoming the points differential, so it’s not going to happen.

We’ve shot ourselves in the foot by not being able to put the opposition to the sword in any game this season and losing to St George last week when they were there for the taking.

Winning more games than losing, or perhaps even drawing level, is a significant improvement in itself from recent years, but we’re still a long way from being a real premiership threat.

Spud I don’t think there would’ve been one supporter who honestly believed that we would be a premiership threat this year. Looking back at the preseason there were many predicting the spoon for us.

I admit that I am disappointed on missing the finals after beating most of the high flyers this year but inconsistency has done us again.

Now we have to consolidate for the years ahead with some astute signings in the off season and for 2020.

 

[851]

Warriors will be safe after this weekend. I can’t see Penrith worrying them in the form they’re in at the moment. Roosters will most likely do Brisbane which will bring it down to the last game, but we’d have to beat Souths by about 100 to have any chance of overcoming the points differential, so it’s not going to happen.

We’ve shot ourselves in the foot by not being able to put the opposition to the sword in any game this season and losing to St George last week when they were there for the taking.

Winning more games than losing, or perhaps even drawing level, is a significant improvement in itself from recent years, but we’re still a long way from being a real premiership threat.

We have no game managers to take control when we are kicking away, has been an issue since Prince left, and our current 6,7 and 9 don't know how to do it.

 

[Aceshigh]

An early call i know but it’s lookin every bit like Gould is derailing the Panthers season , hope its the case

 

[Oggy]

How about beating the roosters rubbish teams eels knights titans raiders bulldogs

Should have won 2 of those games and not been smashed by raiders and Titans And not have to sit back and see what happens

 

[WswWt]

Good we didn’t deserve to be playing finals footy

 

[hobbo]

How about beating the roosters rubbish teams eels knights titans raiders bulldogs

Should have won 2 of those games and not been smashed by raiders and Titans And not have to sit back and see what happens

This ^^^^

Ivan’s turned into a bit of a dribbler of late .

 

[WT2K]

How about beating the roosters rubbish teams eels knights titans raiders bulldogs

Should have won 2 of those games and not been smashed by raiders and Titans And not have to sit back and see what happens

Spot on

 

[Oggy]

Hell even if we didn’t get smashed by titans and raiders and just lost those games by 2 points. We be in a good position but we got smashed by them at home!

Also that eels and knights losses have killed us.

And had that broncos game been a draw if not for the refs. We have a extra point and they have one less point. Would have slight better chance too

It’s a wasted season of beating the giants

 

[Fade_To_Black]

Good we didn’t deserve to be playing finals footy

We were as deserving of a finals berth as Brisbane at least. They have had 3 games virtually gifted to them this season by the refs.
As above poster stated it is a wasted season of beating the heavyweights of the comp.
I feel sorry for our blokes, they busted their gut for the most part.

 

[Fade_To_Black]

Good we didn’t deserve to be playing finals footy

We were as deserving of a finals berth as Brisbane at least. They have had 3 games virtually gifted to them this season by the refs.
As above poster stated it is a wasted season of beating the heavyweights of the comp.
**I feel sorry for our blokes, they busted their gut for the most part.**

Same. I feel sorry that for once in a very long time the team seemed very united and had a common goal, were mostly competitive and we almost got there.
Benji and Farah’s competitiveness helped show the younger lads how to be persistent - even if it was to a fault. And whether you agree or not, Packerlino, Eiso and Rochow were instrumental in showing how to be team players.
I think the younger players like Marsters, Brooks and Nofo deserve to have a little taste of success. To know what it feels like to be part of a winning culture. We also had players like Corey Thompson, Twal and Naiqama be consistently good all year (though Naiqama’s been playing a bit nervously since the Dragons game). Even MCK really stood up at times.
Call me soppy but for me, I just wanted to see us make the 8 because of Chris Lawrence alone. Our best clubman, someone who has always been vocal of putting the team first, deserved to be rewarded especially for his efforts this year.

But in saying that, though I am proud of what we’ve achieved(being wooden spoon favourites pre-season) sadly we just don’t have a squad that would be able to win more than one finals game anyway. We have shown all year that we can’t keep the intensity or defensive work up or even close out games. Hopefully the team will see this year as the beginning of the road to success. Here’s hoping we just acquire the right players to help get us there again.

Great post. IMO though even if we just scraped into the 8 we would've been a decent chance to beat anyone- beating quality wasn't our problem it was the rubbish teams that caused us grief. That is the single most frustrating part of season 2018\. We (the team and the fans) deserved a bit of finals fever this year.

 

[old_man_tiger]

Good we didn’t deserve to be playing finals footy

We were as deserving of a finals berth as Brisbane at least. They have had 3 games virtually gifted to them this season by the refs.
As above poster stated it is a wasted season of beating the heavyweights of the comp.
**I feel sorry for our blokes, they busted their gut for the most part.**

Same. I feel sorry that for once in a very long time the team seemed very united and had a common goal, were mostly competitive and we almost got there.
Benji and Farah’s competitiveness helped show the younger lads how to be persistent - even if it was to a fault. And whether you agree or not, Packerlino, Eiso and Rochow were instrumental in showing how to be team players.
I think the younger players like Marsters, Brooks and Nofo deserve to have a little taste of success. To know what it feels like to be part of a winning culture. We also had players like Corey Thompson, Twal and Naiqama be consistently good all year (though Naiqama’s been playing a bit nervously since the Dragons game). Even MCK really stood up at times.
Call me soppy but for me, I just wanted to see us make the 8 because of Chris Lawrence alone. Our best clubman, someone who has always been vocal of putting the team first, deserved to be rewarded especially for his efforts this year.

But in saying that, though I am proud of what we’ve achieved(being wooden spoon favourites pre-season) sadly we just don’t have a squad that would be able to win more than one finals game anyway. We have shown all year that we can’t keep the intensity or defensive work up or even close out games. Hopefully the team will see this year as the beginning of the road to success. Here’s hoping we just acquire the right players to help get us there again.

Great post. IMO though even if we just scraped into the 8 we would've been a decent chance to beat anyone- beating quality wasn't our problem it was the rubbish teams that caused us grief. That is the single most frustrating part of season 2018\. We (the team and the fans) deserved a bit of finals fever this year.

Finishing 9th would be easier to cop if we had finished in the 8 in recent years. I agree with you and Lauren that we deserved better, and it's twice as painful because the wait has been so long.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

We did deserve better, given the start to the year. We've been clunky in attack but in real terms we've only been comprehensively beaten what two or three times this year (18 points plus.)

We've been in virutally every game no matter how poor we've been. Prior to this year, we seemed to be always good for a regular 20 point pasting when we weren't on and despite a huge amount of missed tackles we still managed to be able to stay with teams based on our defence this year. It's been a better year but still fallen short for the wrong reasons. We phoned it in against the teams we expected to win against and drove the top four sides into the ground. Tragic to think that before next weekend we are 4-1 against the top three sides. We should be sitting next to them.

 

[851]

No good of beating the top 4 teams if you lose to all but 1 of the bottom 8, poor game management, so god damn frustrating

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Time to crack open a Tooheys Ivan.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

No good of beating the top 4 teams if you lose to all but 1 of the bottom 8, poor game management, so god damn frustrating

No that's true, I didn't say it was acceptable. Good to see we have made some improvement though.

 

[851]

No good of beating the top 4 teams if you lose to all but 1 of the bottom 8, poor game management, so god damn frustrating

No that's true, I didn't say it was acceptable. Good to see we have made some improvement though.

Wasn't referring to you, it was just me giving my opinion on us missing the 8 again, gets a bit monotonous

 

[OldMagpie]

Oh Well ! I’m still sitting back and seeing.

 

[MacDougall]

Honestly I thought it wouldn't hurt, but it does.

Oh well, we did better than everybody thought we would. We can feel good about that. Hope for more improvement again next year. Hope we see some signings and some new guys come through and shake things up.