After their win against the Broncos, the Wests Tigers are just two points behind eighth place and very much still in finals contention.
However there’s no denying that it will take winning almost all of their seven remaining games of the season.
Fresh off his five try assists in said win against Brisbane, five eighth Adam Doueihi said in his interview on the WestsLife Podcast the emergency move out of Sydney is being seen by the team as an opportunity, rather than a crisis.
“We’re sort of seeing this bubble up here in Brisbane as a second chance for us” Doueihi said.
“And the boys should take a lot of confidence from the win last week against the Broncos and take into this week against Manly.”
And what the team needs to improve to get the desired results, is pretty obvious according to Doueihi:
“It’s easily our defence.
“We are talking about our defence internally and how to improve it. The past few weeks we’ve put in a few different systems and standards that we’re aiming to get to.
“I think we took a big step last weekend against the Broncos and there are a few new combos out wide and through the middle.
“We’re still trying to get used to playing with each other and knowing what each player does inside and outside of us.
“But as long as we can keep improving our defence, our attack is not going to be our issue.”
Listen to the full interview with Adam Doueihi on the WestsLife podcast now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean.
With players in the Wests Tigers lineup having been changed positions throughout the year, including Doueihi’s move from the halves to centre and then back to the halves again, he says the talk and belief in each other are big factors.
“Communication is a big one obviously,” Doueihi says.
“With new combos and also new players with different sorts of habits, it’s about players finding out what habits they are and how to have that trust to know that the inside player is going to come and help us and work out to the sideline.”
Despite the confidence of a strong run home, Doueihi says he understands the frustration of the fanbase. Especially growing up being a Wests Tigers fan and junior of the club himself.
“We’re a pretty big club and cover a lot of regions in the Sydney area,” he said.
“But we have the biggest finals drought in the competition. So when the club is losing, I guess fans aren’t happy and obviously the media are going to be into us every now and then when we are not getting the results we are after.
“We know that comes along with our job. We’ve got passionate fans and they should jump up and down when we aren’t getting the results.
“I guess until that happens, it’s going to keep happening.”
The Wests Tigers face the redhot Manly Sea Eagles at 5:30pm on Saturday at Suncorp Stadium.
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