Tigers fans may be daring to dream after their side’s impressive 34-18 win over premiership heavyweights Manly but skipper Robbie Farah says his has achieved little as far as he is concerned.
Against the same defence that held the Roosters scoreless last week, the Tigers racked up 26 points in just over half an hour and now sit in fifth place after striking wins over the Gold Coast, South Sydney and now last year’s grand finalists.
But despite the win, which came in front of a rapturous Leichhardt Oval crowd that braved sleeting rain, Farah kept his side’s impressive start firmly under raps.
“We’ve won three games. I don’t think Souths were in red-hot form. I think they’d be the first to admit that.
“I think we just handled the conditions better today than Manly did. We blew them away in the first half and it was always going to be tough for them to come back in those conditions.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves. There’s a lot of work to do but we’ve seen that we can play that way against one of the best teams in the comp.”
The Tigers dominated from the outset with a physical display that will have every other side in the competition on notice but Farah was circumspect after the match, declaring his side was intent on simply putting together solid back-to-back performance.
“They’ll take notice but again we’ve had two good performances, a poor one against the Warriors, so for us the challenge is finding that consistency,” Farah said.
“And that’s what we’ll keep striving for and that’s what the good teams do week in week out, they show up."
The home side was led by young forwards Aaron Woods and Martin Taupau off the bench, who both ran for more than 140 metres and broke the Manly line, while Farah and fellow veteran Braith Anasta controlled the match with pinpoint short and long kicking games in the wet.
Farah, who scored his team’s first points and also had a hand in another four-pointer, said confidence at the club was growing after last year’s disappointing return of just seven wins for the season.
“I think there’s a quiet confidence already within the squad and within the joint,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of losses this year but in both those losses it’s been more so that we’ve thrown the game away a bit and played poorly.
“I thought last week the scoreline didn’t reflect the way we played and we took some positives out of that, and knocking off one of the premiership favourites is a big win for us. It’s another step in the right direction.”
On a day where the Tigers could do little wrong, their skipper went on the offensive in regards to Manly’s controversial first try, which was scored by Jamie Lyon despite the scoreboard clock showing time had expired for half-time before the final play had commenced.
On field referee Ashley Klein told Farah he hadn’t heard the manually released siren and in the post match press conference the skipper fumed over the call.
“It doesn’t matter if I heard [the siren], the ref didn’t,” Farah said.
“It’s not good enough. They can’t keep coming up with those errors week-in week-out.
“They’ve got to be better because we were lucky it didn’t cost us today, but it’s going to cost a team a big game, and it’s just not good enough.”
One of the few concerns for the Tigers will be the health of boom young fullback James Tedesco, who again failed to complete a full match when he limped off midway through the second half with an ankle injury.
Coach Mick Potter said the extent of Tedesco’s injury would not be known until he had completed an MRI scan later in the week.
Against the same defence that held the Roosters scoreless last week, the Tigers racked up 26 points in just over half an hour and now sit in fifth place after striking wins over the Gold Coast, South Sydney and now last year’s grand finalists.
But despite the win, which came in front of a rapturous Leichhardt Oval crowd that braved sleeting rain, Farah kept his side’s impressive start firmly under raps.
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“We’ve won three games. I don’t think Souths were in red-hot form. I think they’d be the first to admit that.
“I think we just handled the conditions better today than Manly did. We blew them away in the first half and it was always going to be tough for them to come back in those conditions.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves. There’s a lot of work to do but we’ve seen that we can play that way against one of the best teams in the comp.”
The Tigers dominated from the outset with a physical display that will have every other side in the competition on notice but Farah was circumspect after the match, declaring his side was intent on simply putting together solid back-to-back performance.
“They’ll take notice but again we’ve had two good performances, a poor one against the Warriors, so for us the challenge is finding that consistency,” Farah said.
“And that’s what we’ll keep striving for and that’s what the good teams do week in week out, they show up."
The home side was led by young forwards Aaron Woods and Martin Taupau off the bench, who both ran for more than 140 metres and broke the Manly line, while Farah and fellow veteran Braith Anasta controlled the match with pinpoint short and long kicking games in the wet.
Farah, who scored his team’s first points and also had a hand in another four-pointer, said confidence at the club was growing after last year’s disappointing return of just seven wins for the season.
“I think there’s a quiet confidence already within the squad and within the joint,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of losses this year but in both those losses it’s been more so that we’ve thrown the game away a bit and played poorly.
“I thought last week the scoreline didn’t reflect the way we played and we took some positives out of that, and knocking off one of the premiership favourites is a big win for us. It’s another step in the right direction.”
On a day where the Tigers could do little wrong, their skipper went on the offensive in regards to Manly’s controversial first try, which was scored by Jamie Lyon despite the scoreboard clock showing time had expired for half-time before the final play had commenced.
On field referee Ashley Klein told Farah he hadn’t heard the manually released siren and in the post match press conference the skipper fumed over the call.
“It doesn’t matter if I heard [the siren], the ref didn’t,” Farah said.
“It’s not good enough. They can’t keep coming up with those errors week-in week-out.
“They’ve got to be better because we were lucky it didn’t cost us today, but it’s going to cost a team a big game, and it’s just not good enough.”
One of the few concerns for the Tigers will be the health of boom young fullback James Tedesco, who again failed to complete a full match when he limped off midway through the second half with an ankle injury.
Coach Mick Potter said the extent of Tedesco’s injury would not be known until he had completed an MRI scan later in the week.
