After eight years of pain and too many ninth-placed finishes, the Tigers have a chance to win it all back
The Tigers face a final-round shootout to make the finals, a task they’ve failed at three times before, once in totally humiliating fashion. Find out why this Sunday’s deathmatch with Cronulla could be different.
Close your eyes and you can already see it.
Leichhardt Oval, Sunday afternoon, the hill is heaving, the sun is shining, the Tigers are playing and there is hope in the air, hope of finals campaigns and big-ticket matches, hope of real, tangible success which has been so rare in the joint venture’s history.
At dummy-half a club legend is playing in what may be his last game, for a team that’s put a run together at just the right time. The opposition might be tough, but if the Tigers are good enough they’ll win, and if even if they lose every yard the opposition gains, they’ll have to pay for it in Tiger blood.
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Only it’s not this weekend, it’s back in Round 26, 2016. And the opponent isn’t the staggering Sharks, it’s the brawny and brilliant Raiders and the retiring legend is Dene Halatau, not Robbie Farah, and instead of a glorious victory or a valiant defeat it’s a 52-10 belting.
The last time the Tigers had a chance to win their way into the finals with a last-round victory those sweet September dreams turned as bitter as the cans Farah sank on the scoreboard, an emotional return to the finals vanishing beneath Joey Leilua’s behind-the-back flick passes.
It wasn’t a game for Canberra, it was a hunt and they were the sort of attacking team who could transform attacking art form into a blood sport.
Elijah Taylor is one of only five survivors from that day backing up for Sunday’s clash with Cronulla and the hardworking backrower believes the 2019 Tigers are far better equipped to deal with such a situation compared to their 2016 counterparts.
“We had a lot of experienced players out of that game – Teddy (James Tedesco) didn’t play and I think Woodsy (Aaron Woods) only played half the game,” Taylor said.
“We’ve got a lot more experience now, Benji and Chris Lawrence and Robbie Farah, if he plays. Ryan Matterson, Josh Reynolds, they’ve played in big games.
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“That whole off-season was a very long off-season. We were very disappointed with how we finished our year – there was a bit of a surge towards the back end of the year but we came up short.”
The 2019 Sharks are a long way from the 2016 Raiders – Canberra were the best attacking team in the competition that year and rode the crest of a nine-match winning streak. From the start, the Tigers were understrength and overmatched.
This time around, despite Cronulla’s star power, the two sides are dead even.
Three years ago Farah’s career seemed doomed to death in exile. Now he’s racing the clock to run out on the eighth wonder one last time. The bright young things are gone, replaced by battle-hardened veterans who know a thing or two about a thing or two.
But 2016 isn’t the only time the Tigers have fallen short it everything on the line. They’ve finished 9th five times and the three times they’ve had a chance to make the playoffs with a win in the final round they’ve lost each time.
Taylor himself has the second longest finals drought of any player in the league in terms of games…second to Tigers teammate Ben Matulino. Luke Brooks, Lawrence and Farah fill out the top five.
That’s what happens when a team has spent eight years out in the cold, and it all adds up to Sunday being the club’s biggest match in years, bigger than the 2016 game cause they might actually win it this time.
There’s an indefinable belief which permeates the club right now, to the point where they don’t just think they can beat the Sharks, there’s a belief they can go deep into the finals.
“One of the things Madge said when he first signed with the club, he doesn’t want to make up the numbers, he wants to make a run for it and win the competition,” said in-form pivot Benji Marshall.
“And I genuinely believe if we can get into the top eight we can have a good crack at trying to win it, for sure.
“You shouldn’t be in this sport if you don’t back yourself. I feel like we’ve built a lot of belief in the last few weeks and found something within the way we’re playing that we’re enjoying.
“It’s confidence, it’s belief. The season’s a marathon, and we’re at the back end of that marathon, and we need to make it happen this week.”
The Tigers hold their destiny in their own hands, and everything they’ve done - even the big loss to Canberra - over the last eight years has brought them here, and all those finals dreams can live again under the Leichhardt sun.
Originally published as After eight years of pain and too many ninth-placed finishes, the Tigers have a chance to win it all back