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The Tigers have recruited well for next season: towering English back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul looks right at home on the right edge, while New Zealand Warriors favourite Bunty Afoa has made an immediate impression in the middle.
Taylan May has benefited from a full pre-season, while Jeral Skelton and Heamasi Makasini are in a pre-season shootout to decide who plays outside May on the left wing. Jock Madden has also impressed when calling the shots for the reserve side during opposed sessions.
Tigers fans started dreaming about being a “mathematical” finals chance when they led the Cowboys 28-16 with 15 minutes remaining in round 25, only to lose, then eventually drop games to Canberra and the Gold Coast.
Coach Benji Marshall told sponsors and supporters at Thursday’s launch: “Preparations for this season coming started in September. It started with brutal honesty … total transparency and clarity around sacrifice and preparation that was going to be needed, and also the standards and expectations we were going to accept, could not have been made any clearer.
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“Off the back of that you can make two decisions: you can acknowledge it and do something about it, or dwell on it and stay the same.
“I can honestly say this playing group are built different this year. The sacrifice and buy-in I’ve seen since the first week of November, all the way through to now, with countless fitness, weight and contact sessions … as a coach I couldn’t be happier with the effort and application our team has shown.”
Among the guests at the Tigers’ launch was Dennis Burgess, the Holman Barnes Group chairman who stood down from the Wests Tigers’ board before Christmas.
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