The Wests Tigers’ camp looked heartbroken following their tight two-point loss to the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium.
After 79 minutes without a try, the match ended in frantic scenes as a Titans kick bounced off the goalpost. The ball was then spilled by Jock Madden in the Tigers own in-goal before AJ Brimson pounced on it for the Titans.
The Tigers’ winless start to the year now extends their losing streak to seven matches over two seasons.
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Speaking to the media post-match, Tigers coach Michael Maguire was devastated with the outcome but proud of his player’s efforts in keeping the scoreline to 6-2 until the final minute.
“It can be a cruel game,” he said.
“To see the changeroom like that, I’m actually really proud of the players, on how they continually stay at it and work.
“I’m really finding out a lot about my coaching, and dealing with the players through these periods.
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“I couldn’t be more proud of how they’re rock solid. There is a lot of hurt in the changeroom at the moment. It’s a tough one.”
Even with the latest loss adding to the pressure mounting on Maguire, he suggested that he was still having fun coaching the team.
“I’m actually enjoying my coaching, and I’m enjoying coaching these boys because of the adversity they are having to face, and they keep bouncing back,” he said.
“They showed how they can play there. If they do that over and over, we are going to put ourselves in a winning arena.”
The loss came despite Jacob Liddle courageously playing through a broken nose and the team holding control when forced down to 12 men after Tyrone Peachey was placed in the sin-bin for 10 minutes.
“It just doesn’t go the way you want it to sometimes and it’s tough to swallow but we’ve got to keep going,” Tigers skipper James Tamou told Nine after the match.
“We come up here and it’s always tough up here, you know the Titans are always tough, we knew it was going to be a tough attacking side.
“To keep them to a score like that – but close enough isn’t good enough.
“Again, we have to stay optimistic about where we’re at and just keep going.”
The contentious decision to allow Luke Brooks to kick for a two-point buffer rather than roll the dice for a leading try in the final stages of the match has already been discussed as a catch-22 situation.
“The game plan for us was long game, we knew we had the effort and the defence holding them to that scoreline,” Tamou said.
“It’s a big win (for us) but again it doesn’t give the two points.
“It just comes down to how we want to play. We knew we wanted to give every effort and (defence) so I guess that’s why the two-points came into it. And we did but, we did – I’m not taking that away from us – but as I said, close enough isn’t good enough.”
Tamou and the Tigers will aim to get their first win of the 2022 season when the face the Cronulla Sharks in round five at PointsBet Stadium.
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