NRL 2022: Wests Tigers hero Jackson Hastings opens up on long road to NRL redemption
Jackson Hastings has never done things the conventional way and his pre-game preparation for the Tigers clash with Parramatta was a bit different ... and it worked.
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The night before icing the biggest upset of the season with a 38-metre field goal, Wests Tigers hero Jackson Hastings was headbutting hotel room walls.
Hastings had been handed the No.7 jumper in a halves switch with Luke Brooks for the Easter Monday blockbuster against Parramatta and could barely contain his excitement.
The fact Hastings had spent the three weeks prior suspended and cooped up in Michael Maguire’s coaching box, as the club slumped to five-straight losses, only fuelled the 26-year-old’s feverish energy.
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“I was bouncing off the walls, I stayed in a hotel [Sunday] night on my own. I was just head butting the walls, ready to go,” Hastings said.
“Sitting in the box with Madge, he is just pure emotion. He just cares so much about the club. That’s what people don’t see, everyone just gets caught up in the results.
“We have to go out there and repay him. I know it’s only one win, but I feel really good for Madge. It’s massive for us as a club.”
With the game in the balance, Hastings called on the big-game experience earned while exiled in England to slot the winning field goal in the dying seconds.
As the ball sailed through the posts, Hastings searched for a familiar face in a sellout crowd at CommBank Stadium.
“I cried. It was my 50th game. I’m a massive Mummy’s boy. I still live at home like a big baby,” Hastings said.
“I spotted her blonde curly hair in the crowd, when I kicked it I started pointing at her.
“She did it the hard way, a single mum with three kids. She struggled to pay rent, it’s not a sob story but she did everything for me. For someone who didn’t have a lot she made sure I had everything.”
Monday night’s 21-20 thrilling win did more than resurrect the Tigers’ ailing season, for Hastings it was the start of his NRL redemption story.
Hastings burst onto the scene as a teenager in 2014 ready to walk in the footsteps of his father and legendary Roosters halfback Kevin Hastings.
After an ill-fated stint at Bondi Junction, Hastings joined Manly but was released in 2018 after falling out with then coach Trent Barrett and senior players.
With no other suitors, Hastings found himself on the NRL scrap heap.
Hastings was able to salvage his career in England and spent four seasons between Wigan and Salford, where he won the Man of Steel (player of the year) and saved the club from relegation. But deep down Hastings always felt like he belonged in the NRL.
“I have always backed my ability and I have always thought I was good enough,” Hastings said. “There were just little aspects of my life that I let myself down in. I’m able on the run to know that I’m making the wrong decision or saying the wrong thing.
“I’ve worked so hard mentally on being a better person, role model, teammate, son.
“Hopefully that’s showing to my teammates.
Tigers teammates swarmed Hastings as the buzzer sounded on Monday night. The moment not only vindicated him but also the club who signed the playmaker on a two-year deal.
“They all individually walked around and gave me a massive hug and kiss on the head,” Hastings said. “If they didn’t like or care about me they would not have done that. That’s the best feeling knowing my teammates care about me because I care about them.”
Hastings gets another shot of redemption in round nine when he comes face-to-face with Sea Eagles skipper Daly Cherry Evans. The fractured relationship between the pair during their time at Manly was highly publicised.
But a more ‘mature’ Hastings is now better prepared to deal with volatile situations.
Like the fiery moment when he barked orders at his troops behind the post after the Eels hit back with a try to Reed Mahoney in the 52nd minute to narrow the Tigers lead to just four points.
“It probably looked bad but it was more me saying ‘believe in each other here’. Belief has been the word the whole pre-season.
“It’s easy to believe when your winning, when you are losing, you are getting bashed in the media saying you’re no good, you’re wooden spooners … that’s when you see what type of characters you have in your squad.
“They all looked me in the eye, nodded their head and that’s all I needed. We need to replicate that in future games.”
While Hastings might be the man of the moment, he was full of praise for under-siege halves partner Brooks and his showing against the Eels.
“You don’t know if he puts on a brave face every week or he’s genuinely just a happy person but the mental toughness, resilience to go out there every week and knowing he’ll get blamed if the result doesn’t go your way … he showed a lot of courage on Monday night.
“He looked pretty good at six tonight Brooksy, when he walked about into the sheds his little face was beaming with a smile, it was so good to see.”
How career-saving win was almost ‘butchered’
“It was never in doubt.”
As soon as Jackson Hastings struck the match winning field goal in the dying stages, the Wests Tigers saviour knew the ball would sail over the black dot.
“It’s easy to say now but it was never in doubt. I didn’t know whether to celebrate straight away because I would have been embarrassed if it fell short or went right,” Hastings said after the Tigers’ thrilling 21-20 win against Parramatta at Commbank Stadium.
“As I ran, I could see Madge [Michael Maguire] on the big screen jumping out of his seat. It’s my 50th NRL game, under pressure.”
With scores tied at 20-all, the Tigers looked destined to extend their losing streak to six straight games until Hastings stepped up to deliver the biggest upset of the season.
“I said to the boys ‘I tried to make every tackle that set but there was kick pressure from Mitch [Moses]. Then me and Jock Madden had a miscommunication and I thought ‘we’ve butchered this’.
“We’ve had two chances and stuffed it.”
“There was a minute left and I said to Brooksy ‘get us over half way and I’ll have a shot from wherever it was.
“I couldn’t have hit it sweeter, it felt nice.”
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With the No.7 on his back and the keys to command the side, Hastings showed long suffering Tigers fans that there is still life in coach Michael Maguire’s side.
That there is still life in the Tigers’ season.
The victory was the club’s first in 247 days.
For coach Maguire, his days at Concord were supposed to be numbered.
But now Maguire has delivered a masterstroke that could save his career at Concord.
Or at least buy the under siege coach some more time.
The move to put Brooks in the No.6 jumper and give Hastings control of the Tigers raised eyebrows.
On the surface it was at least an early admission by the coach that Brooks is not the answer to the Tigers’ woes.
But it’s a decision that has earned the maligned Brooks some respite from relentless criticism.
Without the pressure to make the right call from first receiver, Brooks set-up two tries from five-eighth in the opening 25 minutes.
Before Monday’s clash, Brooks had only managed two try assists from five games.
Even more promising for Tigers fans was how well Hastings and Brooks linked together in attack.
While Brooks rediscovered the confidence that abandoned him in recent times, Hastings found a new role as the Tigers chief playmaker.
The 26-year-old barked orders with authority as he marshalled his troops to a much needed victory.
“It worked today so it would be silly to go away from that. They play a bit of a dual role anyway. As long as they show what they did today, I’m happy to put any jumper on either of them,” Maguire said after the match.
Hastings said the emotional victory had released the pressure on the entire club but was also a shot in the arm ahead of next week’s clash against South Sydney.
“It’s going to breed confidence at our club,” Hastings said.
“We have to understand we can match it against anyone if we turn up with the right attitude and mentality and there is no better test than against Souths who are starting to hit some form.”
HASTINGS FROM NRL VILLAIN TO HERO
Raising from the dead on Easter Monday, the Wests Tigers have dealt the Parramatta Eels a brutal reality check on their quest to keep pace with the big guns of the NRL.
After rejecting a shot at field goal three separate times in the last 10 minutes, Jackson Hastings finally stepped up to the plate as the siren sounded and drilled a field goal from just inside 40m. It sailed over the black dot (just) to seal an early contender for upset of the season, 21-20.
The Eels came into the round six encounter with a chance to break a game clear in third and crash Penrith and Melbourne’s party at the top of the ladder.
They would’ve liked their chances; the Eels had won four of their last five Easter Monday clashes with the Tigers, who were the only team yet to win a game in 2022.
But the Tigers weren’t about to give the chocolates up so easily this time around, not when pressure on Michael Maguire and Luke Brooks was approaching critical mass.
In front of a packed house of their home fans, Parramatta was ambushed by a side with everything to prove.
“Our concentration around the detail of the game wasn’t good enough,” said Eels coach Brad Arthur at full time.
Perhaps spurred on by the return of his halves partner Jackson Hastings, Brooks was the Tigers’ first-half saviour after a week of intense scrutiny around his position in the side.
He sent a pearler of a pass to Luciano Leilua for the Tigers’ first try and then found David Nofoaluma with a cutout pass for their second.
The Eels had ample chances of their own; on three occasions in the first half, they were given free passes into enemy territory through penalties.
But you don’t win games of footy when you make nearly twice as many errors as your opponent, not even when you’ve got Mitch Moses sending grubbers to the in-goal for Clint Gutherson to pounce on.
“When you complete like that and you’re not prepared to build pressure, there’s a lack of respect for yourselves and the opposition,” Arthur said.
Down 14-10 at the break, Parramatta needed to shake off the errors that hampered their first stanza.
But unfortunately for the home side, the hungry Tigers could smell blood in the water and came out of the sheds bolder than ever. After losing a captain’s challenge early in the half, the Tigers backed themselves to push the Eels in a scrum and allow Brooks to retrieve the loose footy.
It was the confident kind of play that had been completely absent from the joint venture’s game this season.
The Eels, in turn, fluffed their lines. It took Daine Laurie failing to catch a bomb for Parramatta to finally level the scores late; Marata Niukore was the recipient of an especially lucky bounce and fell over for a try.
When the Tigers rejected three chances to take a shot at field goal, their fans would’ve been watching through their fingers.
But Moses kicked the Eels’ only shot wide and it proved fourth time lucky for Hastings, who finally chose to kick.
On the most chocolatey weekend of the year, nothing will be sweeter for the Tigers than this win.
“I’m really pleased with my players. It’s really nice to see a smile in the change room,” Maguire said. “We’ve obviously faced a fair bit over the last five weeks and to see the smiles, the togetherness that they had. It was pretty special.”
IN THE WARS
Tigers hooker Jake Simpkin fell to the turf in agony contesting a line drop-out in the second half and needed to be carted from the field with an ankle injury. In his absence, Brooks shifted to dummy half.
Less than 10 minutes later, Ken Maumalo required attention for a knee injury and was subbed off. Still, the Tigers soldiered on.
Maguire said early indications were that Simpkin and Maumalo could line up against the Rabbitohs next weekend.
The Eels weren’t without injury concerns of their own; Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Tom Opacic left the field with what appeared to be ankle and neck injuries, respectively.
Arthur said the players would need further assessment before a call could be made on their ability to line up in next week’s clash with Newcastle.
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