Wests Tigers stun Melbourne Storm 22-4 in NRL round 16

THE Wests Tigers might have posted their fourth win in five games but it still may not be enough to save coach Mick Potter.

THE Wests Tigers might have posted their fourth win in five games but it still may not be enough to stop club power-brokers from sharpening the knives on first-year coach Mick Potter.

In drizzling rain at one of the club's spiritual homes last night, the Tigers mustered a magnificent wet-weather performance underpinned by some brutal, rushing defence in the opening 30 minutes.

It was a wonderful performance and one of the upsets of the season over Melbourne.

There were flashes of brilliance everywhere, but none was better than the 100m first-half movement orchestrated by rookie flyer Tim Simona off his own goal line,and finished by centre Blake Ayshford and guaranteed to be a contender for try of the year.

But the harsh reality, irrespective of the club's mini-revival mid-season, is that The Sunday Telegraph has been told there are Tigers power-brokers plotting to get rid of Potter.

There are elements of the club's 10-member board, split 5-5 on all issues due to the make up of Balmain and Western Suburbs directors, debating whether to tap Potter on the shoulder at season's end.

West Tigers v Storm

On the evidence submitted by the players last night, the club still appeared to be rich in character, epitomised by the performances of captain Robbie Farah, five-eighth Benji Marshall and prop Aaron Woods.

The other standout performers were the Tigers' back three of Simona, David Nofoaluma and James Tedesco, who handled the Storm kicking game from Cooper Cronk, Brett Finch and Billy Slater brilliantly.

Tigers skipper and NSW Origin hooker Farah, fresh from racking up 52 tackles in an 80-minute performance three days after Origin II, singled out the rookie trio's magnificent efforts.

At the same time, Farah was brutally honest about the position the club finds itself in.

"We're heading in the right direction but the fact of the matter is that those seven losses in a row mean that we need to keep winning footy games," Farah said.

"We're not in the eight, our for-and-against is terrible so we can't just say we've won four in a row and that's good enough. We've just got to keep winning

"For us to make the eight this year we need to win the majority of our games to finish the year. The pleasing thing is we've come out of the tough period and we're heading in the right direction."

Potter, who would be aware his position is under review, commended his players for a performance built on true grit.

The coach even cracked a smile about Ayshford's try.

"It was a crowd pleaser wasn't it? It certainly had the coaching staff up off their feet," Potter said.

Wests Tigers

Tigers skipper Farah countered: "Yeah I reckon I had the speed to go myself."

Retrieving a Slater kick from the left corner of his own goal line, Tigers winger Simona showed blistering acceleration to evade opposite winger Sisa Waqa and race 50m.

Simona then linked up with star five-eighth Marshall, who threw a long ball for Farah to charge into open space as the Storm attempted to scramble.

Farah hit Ayshford running a brilliant line, with the Tigers centre judging his dive at the line from 5m out to perfection to slide across with three Storm defenders all over him.

In fairness, the Storm was missing captain Cameron Smith and English five-eighth Garreth Widdop.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy admitted the performance was uncharacteristic.

"I thought we tried hard but it looked like we were just a team thrown together on the night that hadn't played together before or trained together before," he said.

"We had five sets down their end in the first half and we scored one try and they scored too. The cohesion was way off.

"I don't know what the crowd was but they were pretty hardy fans to come out in these conditions and the Tigers should be proud of their fans for coming out."

Simona was the star for the Tigers in the opening half, showing a brilliant turn of foot to bag an 85m try against the run on play when opposite winger Waqa dropped a Slater pass with a try beckoning for the visitors.

WESTS TIGERS 22 (B Ayshford B Marshall D Nofoaluma T Simona tries B Marshall 3 goals) bt MELBOURNE 4 (M Blair try) at Leichhardt Oval. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 5,288.