{"id":788585,"date":"2026-07-09T06:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788585\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T06:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:09:09","slug":"benji-marshall-admits-nrl-finals-a-long-way-away-for-the-wests-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788585\/","title":{"rendered":"Benji Marshall admits NRL Finals a long way away for the Wests Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers<\/a> coach Benji Marshall says his side isn’t worrying about its increasingly precarious NRL finals position.<\/p>\n

Instead the men from Concord are focusing purely on putting in a consistent performance ahead of Friday night\u2019s crucial Round 19 home clash against the high-flying NZ Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sitting twelfth after three straight losses, Marshall was blunt<\/a> about where his attention lies when speaking with the media this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not even talking about finals to be honest, it\u2019s more about getting our process right consistently because at the moment we\u2019re very inconsistent, playing well for 20 minutes, then not playing well for 20,\u201d Marshall lamented.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0NRL 2026 team lists – Every club’s confirmed lineup for Round 19<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get an 80-minute performance this week,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Admitting his side is down on confidence compared with earlier in the season when the Tigers sat third after Round 8, Marshall said that would return through hard work rather than just results alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence comes from doing the hard parts of the game well and we know we can do it because we\u2019ve seen it… it takes one game to refind that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tigers will be without Api Koroisau for the next month after the star hooker suffered a pectoral injury in the disappointing loss to the Dragons<\/a>, with 22-year-old Josese Lanyon set to start at No.9 in just his fourth NRL game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was better news elsewhere for the Tigers with PNG-bound captain Jerome Luai returning from the delayed concussion that ruled him out of Round 18 while boom forward Samuela Fainu has also passed a fitness test to return early from the foot injury that has seen him sidelined since Round 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when you give injury updates you give worst case scenario,\u201d Marshall explained of Fainu\u2019s surprise return against the Wahs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to overpromise and underdeliver to your fans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the subject of under-delivery, Marshall also reflected on the poor 24-10 loss to the Dragons and identified two clear areas where he expected to see big improvement this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to fight harder to play the ball quicker to give ourselves a chance,\u201d he declared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we need our spine to connect in good positions, we need to get our strike players\u2019 hands on the ball a bit more, so we’ve done a little bit of work there as a spine and as a team (this week).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tigers host the Warriors at Campbelltown on Friday night. Kickoff at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall says his side isn’t worrying about its increasingly precarious NRL finals position. Instead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-788585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788585","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=788585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}