Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire was left to rue the late fadeout that cost his side victory against the Melbourne Storm on Thursday night.
The Tigers led the AAMI Park contest by eight points with a little over 10 minutes remaining, but gave up late tries to Marion Seve and Will Chambers as the Storm clinched a thrilling 24-22 victory.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Maguire and the Tigers, who enjoyed the bulk of possession (54%) against the Storm and were arguably the better side for much of the round 10 clash.
"It was a real tough one to take actually," Maguire said after the loss.
"I thought our boys did enough until the 77th minute mark and unfortunately we missed at the end.
"Scoring 22 points and defending the way we were, I thought it was going to be good enough to get to the other end."
Match Highlights: Storm v Wests Tigers
Maguire refused to lay blame with the onfield decision from his players to turn down a shot at goal with a little under 15 minutes remaining that would have increased the Tigers' advantage to 10 points.
Veteran five-eighth Benji Marshall appeared to be the one that turned down the near certain penalty goal as the Tigers instead went for the game-clinching try.
Maguire said there was no directive from the coaches box in regards to that play and that he backed his experienced players on the field to make the correct call when needed.
"They chose to run it… you build pressure and that is what the game is all about," he said.
"You feel the momentum at that moment in time.
"There is enough leadership on the field to decide those decisions."
Maguire said there were plenty of positives the Tigers would take out of the performance and that his players would head back to Sydney knowing they can mix it with one of the competitive heavyweights.
"There are a lot of positives out of this game for my boys and the team itself," Maguire said.
"We played some real good footy and scored 22 points.
"We will take a lot of great things out of this game, (next time) we have got to make sure we nail it."
