타이거스, 8년 만에 연승 3경기 달성 노린다
Tigers searching for third straight win to end eight-year streak
ABC News Australia
Nick Campton
EN
2026-04-09 04:09
Translated
웨스트 타이거스가 마지막으로 3경기 연승을 기록한 때는 이반 클레어리 감독 시절이었고, 벤지 마셜이 선수로 복귀를 시작한 때였다. 이제 8년의 기다림 끝에 그들은 이 기록을 깨뜨릴 기회를 맞이했다.
The Wests Tigers themselves might not be talking about it, but every sicko you know of a black, white and gold persuasion certainly is.
Sunday's match against Newcastle is not just the latest game in an unexpectedly strong start to the season, you see.
It's the chance for the joint venture to get a monkey off its back that's been there so long it's become a gorilla.
The long-suffering punters, who are in a frenzy after the win on Easter Monday, know the score: If the Tigers beat the Knights, they will have won three games in a row for the first time since Round 6 of the 2018 season, exactly eight years ago this week.
The last time that happened, Ivan Cleary was still the club's coach, and he was closer to being sacked by Penrith than he was to winning a premiership with them.
Only four of the Tigers' current top 17 had made their NRL debuts, and Heamasi Makasini, the club's latest young hope, was just nine years old.
The streak is closer to the club's last finals appearance back in 2011 than it is to today, and in the years since, they have won two matches in a row 15 times but never made it to three.
It's not a big deal, unlike it would be if they ended their finals drought. That is still far away.
But for that to happen, things like this need to happen first. It is not the salvation the long-suffering fans have dreamed of for so long, but it's a gateway leading towards the promised land.
There's a steadfast commitment at the Tigers to not talk about the past, which comes straight from coach Benji Marshall, who was six weeks into his return to the club as a player when they last brought up the hat-trick.
It's a smart move given how badly the club's reliance on its history backfired during the wooden-spoon years, and it's a mark of the playing group's commitment that all of them have fallen into line.
Even energetic centre Sunia Turuva, who will usually talk about anything with anybody, won't be drawn into it.
"We just don't want to talk about it. It's a new year, and we know a lot of people have a lot to say about what we've been in the past or where we've been at, but we have a whole new squad now," Turuva said.
"I'm just happy with where we're at."
That whole new squad is brimming with youth — with 80 NRL games to his credit, Turuva is the most experienced of the outside backs.
Fullback Jahream Bula is the old man of the back five at 24, and being around the likes of Makasini, Faletino Tavana and Luke Laulilii is enough for front-rower Fonua Pole, in his fifth NRL season at 23, to feel his age.
"I'd consider myself old in this team because of how young our boys are," Pole said.
The relative inexperience has become a strength for the Tigers, even in the absence of injured stars Taylan May and Jarome Luai. Their young tyros do not carry the scars of past struggles.
When they're faced with a mounting deficit, as the team did in their wins over the Warriors in New Zealand and against Parramatta earlier this week, they've been able to find a way out instead of being trapped in the downward spiral.
Part of that's due to the impact of bench forwards Royce Hunt and Sione Fainu, whose entrances to matches line up directly with the club's comebacks.
Over the past three weeks, the Tigers have outscored their opponents by a combined 46-0 in the 10 minutes before and after half-time, with Hunt and Fainu helping turn the tide.
"He (Fainu) gets on first, and takes a few punches, then, when I get on, we try and punch everyone together," Hunt said.
"We've got a good little combo going, and I guess we just go out there and do our job — we give energy to the boys and create momentum."
For that momentum to continue, against a very handy Knights team going through a revival of their own, Hunt and Fainu will need to do the same on Sunday, and they won't be alone.
Jock Madden must again kick the ball so hard and far you suspect it owes him money, and Samuela Fainu must again be mean enough to scare a starving dog off a meat truck.
Former Novocastrian Kai Pearce-Paul must again look like a player reborn, and Tavana, a proud son of local team Narellen Jets, must again fly like one.
They have to be consistent, and they have to do it over and over again. It's as easy to say as it is hard to do, but unlocking that ability is like getting the keys to paradise.
That's how one win becomes two, and two becomes three, and that's how teams, many months from now, find themselves still playing games that matter when the winter cold leaves the air and the land comes back to life.
Autumn dreams can die well before the spring, and the Tigers understand that better than most. They have fallen at this hurdle before, including five times under Marshall alone.
But while three victories, even in a row, would not make them conquerors, it would be a run of success they haven't enjoyed in an age.
If they can pull it off, bigger, brighter things will feel more possible, and even if they don't want to talk about what came before, the only way to slay the greatest demons of the past is to get started on the smaller ones.
Sunday's match against Newcastle is not just the latest game in an unexpectedly strong start to the season, you see.
It's the chance for the joint venture to get a monkey off its back that's been there so long it's become a gorilla.
The long-suffering punters, who are in a frenzy after the win on Easter Monday, know the score: If the Tigers beat the Knights, they will have won three games in a row for the first time since Round 6 of the 2018 season, exactly eight years ago this week.
The last time that happened, Ivan Cleary was still the club's coach, and he was closer to being sacked by Penrith than he was to winning a premiership with them.
Only four of the Tigers' current top 17 had made their NRL debuts, and Heamasi Makasini, the club's latest young hope, was just nine years old.
The streak is closer to the club's last finals appearance back in 2011 than it is to today, and in the years since, they have won two matches in a row 15 times but never made it to three.
It's not a big deal, unlike it would be if they ended their finals drought. That is still far away.
But for that to happen, things like this need to happen first. It is not the salvation the long-suffering fans have dreamed of for so long, but it's a gateway leading towards the promised land.
There's a steadfast commitment at the Tigers to not talk about the past, which comes straight from coach Benji Marshall, who was six weeks into his return to the club as a player when they last brought up the hat-trick.
It's a smart move given how badly the club's reliance on its history backfired during the wooden-spoon years, and it's a mark of the playing group's commitment that all of them have fallen into line.
Even energetic centre Sunia Turuva, who will usually talk about anything with anybody, won't be drawn into it.
"We just don't want to talk about it. It's a new year, and we know a lot of people have a lot to say about what we've been in the past or where we've been at, but we have a whole new squad now," Turuva said.
"I'm just happy with where we're at."
That whole new squad is brimming with youth — with 80 NRL games to his credit, Turuva is the most experienced of the outside backs.
Fullback Jahream Bula is the old man of the back five at 24, and being around the likes of Makasini, Faletino Tavana and Luke Laulilii is enough for front-rower Fonua Pole, in his fifth NRL season at 23, to feel his age.
"I'd consider myself old in this team because of how young our boys are," Pole said.
The relative inexperience has become a strength for the Tigers, even in the absence of injured stars Taylan May and Jarome Luai. Their young tyros do not carry the scars of past struggles.
When they're faced with a mounting deficit, as the team did in their wins over the Warriors in New Zealand and against Parramatta earlier this week, they've been able to find a way out instead of being trapped in the downward spiral.
Part of that's due to the impact of bench forwards Royce Hunt and Sione Fainu, whose entrances to matches line up directly with the club's comebacks.
Over the past three weeks, the Tigers have outscored their opponents by a combined 46-0 in the 10 minutes before and after half-time, with Hunt and Fainu helping turn the tide.
"He (Fainu) gets on first, and takes a few punches, then, when I get on, we try and punch everyone together," Hunt said.
"We've got a good little combo going, and I guess we just go out there and do our job — we give energy to the boys and create momentum."
For that momentum to continue, against a very handy Knights team going through a revival of their own, Hunt and Fainu will need to do the same on Sunday, and they won't be alone.
Jock Madden must again kick the ball so hard and far you suspect it owes him money, and Samuela Fainu must again be mean enough to scare a starving dog off a meat truck.
Former Novocastrian Kai Pearce-Paul must again look like a player reborn, and Tavana, a proud son of local team Narellen Jets, must again fly like one.
They have to be consistent, and they have to do it over and over again. It's as easy to say as it is hard to do, but unlocking that ability is like getting the keys to paradise.
That's how one win becomes two, and two becomes three, and that's how teams, many months from now, find themselves still playing games that matter when the winter cold leaves the air and the land comes back to life.
Autumn dreams can die well before the spring, and the Tigers understand that better than most. They have fallen at this hurdle before, including five times under Marshall alone.
But while three victories, even in a row, would not make them conquerors, it would be a run of success they haven't enjoyed in an age.
If they can pull it off, bigger, brighter things will feel more possible, and even if they don't want to talk about what came before, the only way to slay the greatest demons of the past is to get started on the smaller ones.