Wests Tigers v Canterbury Bulldogs: Consistency Key Against Struggling Dogs
Leichhardt Oval, Saturday 26 March
3:00pm
It’s been a mini rollercoaster for Wests Tigers to open the season with two solid wins sandwiching a very ugly 44-6 loss to the Warriors at Leichhardt Oval in Round 2.
To their credit, and possibly a promising indicator of character this season, Wests Tigers responded with an impressive 44-16 victory last week over major contenders, the Wyong Roos.
“(We’re) 2-1, a bit up and down,” Wests Tigers coach Paul Stringer told NSWRL.com.au.
“We put in a good performance Round 1, Round 2 was very disappointing.
“Last week, I was really rapt with our performance again. It’s just a matter of consistently playing well and not be one of those teams that are going to be playing good one week and thinking they’ve done the job and can relax.”
The Wests Tigers cannot afford to relax against a winless Canterbury Bulldogs, still desperate for their first win after a bitter last-minute 26-24 loss where they led for 79 minutes over the Manly Sea Eagles.
Stringer is certainly not taking them lightly, citing altering lineups as an ongoing challenge in the competition.
“Every side in this competition is tough – It’s a tough competition,” Stringer said.
“It’s hard to gauge in this competition till you get a few games into it to see who’s going to be the good sides and the not-so-good sides. Sometimes it’s really hard to prepare for who you’re playing against.
“As long as we worry about our backyard, get our preparation right and do the right things, we are in for a crack.”
TEAMS:
TIGERS 1 WATSON HELETA 2 JOSH ADDO-CARR 3 NATHAN MILONE 4 CHANCE PENI 5 JAYDEN WHEELHOUSE 6 JACK LITTLEJOHN 7 JOSH DRINKWATER 8 JORDAN GRANT 9 JACOB LIDDLE 10 DALLAS GRAHAM 11 MICHAEL CHEE KAM 12 ASIPELI FINE © 13 ROD GRIFFIN 14 JEREMY MARSHALL-KING 15 JOEL EDWARDS 16 TYLER CASSEL 17 JESSE PARAHI 18 WESLEY LOLO COACH PAUL STRINGER
BULLDOGS 1 BRAD ABBEY 2 TYRONE PHILLIPS 3 KERROD HOLLAND 4 REUBENN RENNIE 5 JARROD MCINALLY 6 MATT FRAWLEY 7 DANE CHISHOLM 8 MAKAHESI MAKATOA 9 BRONSON GARLICK 10 RAY MOUJALLI 11 GRAHAM CLARKE 12 RENOUF TO’OMAGA 13 PAT O’HANLON 14 BRAD KEIGHRAN 15 ELIAS SUKKAR 16 JAKE KAMIRE 17 GEORGE TSIKRIKAS COACH ANDREW PATMORE
