Even after watching his team throw away a game they should have won, Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall is sure they will still hold their gloves up in the fight to make the finals.
On a wet and wild Sunday at McDonald Jones Stadium, the visitors led Newcastle 6-0 at half-time but they lost their grip on the game because of poor handling and conceded two second half tries to suffer a 12-6 defeat.
It was their sixth loss from their past eight matches, leaving Wests Tigers (18 points) in 11th position, four behind eighth-placed Cronulla, heading into their game against the last-placed Dragons at Kogarah next Saturday.
Doueihi pulls off an impressive strip
“I said to the players just then, that they’re a good side, Newcastle,” Marshall said. “Honestly, I reckon they’re a top-four side at the moment, the way they’re playing.
“They’ve got some great players, and I thought we did a good job handling their runners of the footy, but at the end of the day, the result was there for us to take it, and we didn’t.
“So that’s the part that hurts, and it’s frustrating, but if you look at the process of the game, there’s a lot that we can take away that we need to keep doing.”
Marshall believed the Knights could have lost a player to the sin-bin for a professional foul midway through the second half, after Kalyn Ponga’s try-saving tackle on a run-away Heamasi Makasini.
Tony Sukkar Try
“But that’s not the reason why we lost the game," he said. “I thought for most of that game, I thought we were the better team, to be honest, and I thought we lost it. A couple of key moments in the game are hurting us at the moment.
"Look, there was a lot that I liked today, but the fact that we couldn’t ice the game, given the possession that we had, the good-ball sets we had ... we had moments there where we still could have won it.
“It’s frustrating, because the result of that game was very important to us.”
Centre Taylan May was an early casualty for Wests Tigers, leaving the field midway through the first half after aggravating a right-shoulder injury.
On a positive note, halfback Adam Doueihi made a successful return after eight weeks out nursing a shoulder injury, and his long and short kicking game troubled the Knights.
Doueihi created the Tigers’ only try in the 10th minute, first wrestling the ball away from Newcastle centre Dane Gagai and counter-attacking with a run of his own, then delivering the final pass for second-rower Tony Sukkar to score.
“It was good to have him back,” Marshall said. “He did some good things so we’re happy to have him back.”
