Flanno fear for rising Dragons stars as \u2018bad sign\u2019 rocks club; Storm \u2018shock\u2019 over wild plummet \u2014 Talking Pts<\/a><\/p>\nBenji breaks down Golden Point win | 07:22<\/p>\n
The Wests Tigers are playing a potent brand of expressive attack under coach Benji Marshall, bolstered by a resilience in defence not seen at the club for 15 years. <\/p>\n
The side\u2019s preparation under head of high performance Peter Moussa has been keenly advocated by the playing group for building the new brand of depth and resilience. <\/p>\n
The by-product is a composure that has galvanised the side in huge pressure moments, according to Fox League commentator and analyst, Andrew Voss. <\/p>\n
\u201cTwo weeks ago against the Warriors, that was the best I\u2019ve ever seen from them tactically under Benji Marshall,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re dialled in and they\u2019ve believing what their coaching staff have put before them and now they\u2019re getting the confidence of winning as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight at the moment, if they\u2019re put in a close situation this Sunday I don\u2019t want to be betting against them. It must be great to be at training at the Tigers at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunia Turuva and his Tigers teammates pray together after a win in Auckland.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
While the Tigers are capitalising on the building blocks developed over Marshall\u2019s three years at the helm, there\u2019s evidence that Newcastle started the season with a clear slate under new coach Holbrook, stripping back the bad habits of 2025 and keeping things simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cI reckon there\u2019s evidence that Holbrook has stripped back everything, and I know it sounds like words, but absolutely he\u2019s gone back to square-one again,\u201d Voss commented. <\/p>\n
\u201cHolbrook has had six months of hard work to get them to this point. From November through to April, there would have been no shortcuts taken at Newcastle. They\u2019ve been honest, they\u2019ve obviously had accountability on the poor form of last year and they\u2019ve started over again. Leave your egos at the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dominic Young (L) says the Knights are thriving this season under new coach Justin Holbrook.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Young concurred, praising Holbrook for his ability to identify each player\u2019s individual role and the accountability that is attached to it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re aware it\u2019s only early in the season, we need to keep the momentum going and building, and we need to keep picking up the two points each week and obviously be playing finals footy,\u201d Young said. <\/p>\n
\u201cJustin is an attack-minded coach and he really knows how to unlock us and get the best out of us as well, which is really showing on the field. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has made our game plans and our identity as a team so simple. Everyone understands it, everyone knows their role. It\u2019s easy for everyone to go out there on the weekend and do what they\u2019ve been told to do. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely added a lot of connection to the group with how he is, too. He has been great for us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Connectedness aside, the key trait unifying these two unlikely top four sides is their underdog status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the top-four clash that seemed highly unlikely at the beginning of the NRL season, and even less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19974,64,63,9421,19061,291541,22691,61783,10744,763,291540,52529,72590,131074,291546,291543,4495,257608,4598,291544,65282,672,291547,159,85,2617,291545,96581,4515,230890,291542],"class_list":{"0":"post-597380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andrew-voss","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-benji-marshall","12":"tag-coaching-staff","13":"tag-connected-teams-win","14":"tag-final-clash","15":"tag-finals-footy","16":"tag-fletcher-sharpe","17":"tag-fox-league","18":"tag-getting-results","19":"tag-jack-gibson","20":"tag-justin-holbrook","21":"tag-keeping-things","22":"tag-key-personnel-loses","23":"tag-lengthy-injury-wards","24":"tag-newcastle-knights","25":"tag-opening-weeks","26":"tag-penrith-panthers","27":"tag-peter-moussa","28":"tag-pressure-moments","29":"tag-richmond-tigers","30":"tag-rocks-club","31":"tag-rugby-league","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-star-winger","34":"tag-top-four-clash","35":"tag-underdog-status","36":"tag-wests-tigers","37":"tag-winning-form","38":"tag-winning-starts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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