{"id":610011,"date":"2026-04-16T05:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610011\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:10:09","slug":"the-secret-is-out-as-wests-tigers-threaten-to-end-15-year-nrl-finals-drought-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610011\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret is out as Wests Tigers threaten to end 15-year NRL finals drought | NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

They are the story of the young NRL<\/a> season, a team that has risen to second place \u2013 equal first on points \u2013 and demonstrated both grit and flair during a winning run that threatens to end a 15-year finals wait.<\/p>\n

The secret is out for these reconstituted, red-hot Wests Tigers<\/a>. Just don\u2019t call it a revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a secret, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a revival either,\u201d says Api Koroisau, trying to keep a lid on long-suffering fans\u2019 growing excitement. \u201cWe\u2019re, sort of, just out there playing week to week and, yeah, trying to play some good footy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it sounds simple, it suddenly appears to be. After an off-season of tumult<\/a> due to boardroom wrangling<\/a> over the direction of the club, a season tainted by the departure of Lachlan Galvin<\/a>, and 15 years of mediocrity \u2013 the Tigers are finally winning again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been much winning around the club,\u201d says the hooker, now back in the Origin selection frame. \u201cSo for us, it\u2019s important to stay on track and make sure we do our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apisai Koroisau celebrates after scoring a try for Wests Tigers against Newcastle Knights. Photograph: Jason McCawley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Since their tight loss against Souths in round three, the Tigers overcame a 10-0 deficit to beat the Warriors in Auckland, their first win across the ditch in almost a decade. They snuffed out the Eels\u2019 hopes in a golden point thriller on Easter Monday, at a rowdy Commbank Stadium. Then they knocked off another form team in the Knights thanks to a breathtaking blitz at Campbelltown.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only three games, but in the short and mostly dire history of the merged entity, even fleeting success is enough to get fans giddy.<\/p>\n

The list of the Tigers\u2019 longest winning streaks reads like an abridged history of the club. Of course there are two from the premiership year of 2005, the glory capped off by Benji Marshall\u2019s flick pass.<\/p>\n

Table showing Wests Tigers winning streaks<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one from 2007, a season during which Marshall and Brett Hodgson both suffered serious injuries and the campaign ended with a final round defeat that left the club ninth, a position fans have become accustomed to.<\/p>\n

Seven wins in a row dates back to 2012, the last season coached by Tim Sheens. And the club-record nine, from 2011, when Lote Tuqiri dropped a bomb on the wing against the Warriors in the premiership that got away.<\/p>\n

If the Tigers beat the Broncos on Saturday night their streak becomes four, tying that of the 2010 side which was heavily favoured for the premiership. That iteration \u2013 again led by Marshall \u2013 let slip finals victories against the Roosters with a scrum loss against the feed, and the Dragons in the preliminary final when Beau Ryan needlessly kicked on first tackle, 30m out, with 20 seconds to play and down by one.<\/p>\n

Marshall set that famous faux pas up with a piece of magic on the other side of the field, and fittingly he has been behind the current resurgence, lazily dubbed by the rugby league media as \u201cBenji-ball\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wests Tigers head coach Benji Marshall has led the resurgent club to second place on the NRL ladder. Photograph: Jason McCawley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the tradition of Marshall the flamboyant player, yes, the Tigers now have license to promote the ball \u2013 they lead the competition in offloads \u2013 but this is a side founded in the gritty basics of possession rugby league: a physical forward pack and outside backs, invention around the ruck and composed halves play.<\/p>\n

Korisau said he has heard the term Benji-ball once or twice, and he\u2019s not sure what it means. But he certainly knows how his coach wants to play. \u201cIt is to express ourselves when we\u2019re out there,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think at the end of the day we have a set structure that we need to play by and make sure we stick to, and then opportunities come off the back of that to allow a bit more free-flowing footy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A blockbuster at Commbank Stadium against an under-strength Broncos is the first of a sequence of fixtures that will determine whether there is something to the Tigers\u2019 early season pep. Following that match come the Raiders at Leichhardt Oval, the Sharks in the Shire, then Melbourne away.<\/p>\n

Table showing Wests Tigers\u2019 win-loss record between 2010 and 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

They will be boosted by the addition of Jarome Luai this weekend, who returns after a knee injury suffered against Souths. Alex Seyfarth \u2013 the local junior and bench backrower who has played almost 100 NRL matches but never sniffed a final \u2013 says Luai\u2019s experience as a premiership winner at Penrith has helped the players keep an even keel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a pretty good group where we\u2019ve had a few players who\u2019ve had quite a lot of success, so they keep us grounded, they hold us to a standard and it\u2019s just business as usual,\u201d he says .<\/p>\n

It might only be round seven in a long season, and there\u2019s no guarantee the Tigers\u2019 form will continue. But at a club known more for fly-on-the-wall documentaries than find-a-way victories, a start like this is cause to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Seyfarth knows better than most. \u201cWe probably haven\u2019t had one of these [starts to the season] in quite a few \u2013 I definitely haven\u2019t \u2013 so I\u2019m definitely enjoying it, embracing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are the story of the young NRL season, a team that has risen to second place \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-610011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610011","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=610011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}