'It’s not acceptable:' Maguire blasts lame Tigers

Frustrated coach Michael Maguire has challenged his embattled Wests Tigers outfit to ‘‘look in the mirror’’ and find the resolve needed to turn their faltering campaign around.

Maguire made a scathing assessment of his side following a 20-12 loss to the Raiders at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night. The defeat leaves their finals hopes hanging by a thread and Maguire says his side must harden up or risk watching another season fall by the wayside.

‘‘They’ve got to look in the mirror and find it,’’ Maguire said. ‘‘It’s pretty straightforward really. I have come to the club to change it, and I want to see the change. I’ve seen some really good stuff since I’ve been here, but we’ve got a bit of a habit at the moment where we just give games away and it’s not acceptable. We all need to make the change. I don’t normally talk about the team externally, but I’m really annoyed with where we are at this present moment.’’

The Tigers will now set their sights on a clash with the Newcastle Knights next week, who will be desperate to rebound from a thrashing at the hands of the Roosters. ‘‘Did you see what just happened out there? It’s irrelevant what happened to Newcastle,’’ Maguire said. ‘‘If we’re not hurting more than they are, we need to have a look at ourselves.’’

The victory was the Raiders’ sixth win in their past seven encounters with the Tigers and cements their spot in the top four.

The Raiders were inspired from the start, having run out past club legends such as Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Gary Belcher and Bradley Clyde who had gathered for a reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of Canberra’s maiden grand final win. Grand final hero Steve Jackson blew the viking horn and it seemed to infuse Dunamis Lui with the spirit of the valkyrie.

Jordan Rapana scores for the Raiders on Saturday night.Credit: AAP

The unheralded Lui barged over in a throwback to Jackson’s match sealer back in the day for just his third try of his career.

The Raiders went ‘new school’ after that, with Aidan Sezer putting a nice grubber in behind Wests’ line for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to run onto.

It looked like it was going to be a cricket score, but after three consecutive sets the Tigers cracked the Raiders’ line with prop Josh Aloiai barging over.

Sezer produced a cut-out pass his coach Ricky Stuart would’ve been proud of as it looped up and over perfectly for Jordan Rapana to score his 11th try in eight games against the Tigers. To make matters worse, the visitors lost Thomas Mikaele and Matt Eisenhuth after a head clash in the tackle – although Eisenhuth was able to return.

Sia Soliola’s form is giving Stuart the luxury of starting Origin star Josh Papalii on the bench.
Soliola was at his energetic best, eating up 98 metres in his first stint to get the Green Machine rolling and ending with 152.

Not to be outdone, Papalii clocked up a lazy 184m as well. The 20-6 half-time scoreline didn’t last long, with the Tigers immediately cutting the margin when veteran Benji Marshall put Wests winger David Nofoaluma over.

It could’ve been even tighter with Elijah Taylor touching down, but it was ruled a Tigers knock-on in the contest for the high ball.

The second half became an arm wrestle after that, with the crowd getting behind the Raiders' defence instead of their attack.

And how important was Sezer's try-saving tackle on Michael Chee-Kam and then Croker's to force Nofoaluma into touch just before he flicked the ball back inside for Esan Marsters to score a try that would've made for a grandstand finish.

While the Tigers game was a massive one in terms of the Raiders' history, they now face a massive one in the context of their season when they travel to Penrith to take on the Panthers, who are on a seven-game winning streak.

CANBERRA RAIDERS 20 (Dunamis Lui, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jordan Rapana tries; Jarrod Croker 4 goals) bt WESTS TIGERS 12 (Josh Aloiai, David Nofoaluma tries; Moses Mbye 2 goals) at Canberra Stadium. Referees: Adam Gee, Chris Butler. Crowd: 15,656.