Maguire: ‘This team is heading in the right direction’

Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire has shared how he was pleased with his side’s effort and commitment to each other despite a 36-22 loss to Parramatta on Easter Monday.

Having trailed 16-0 early in the encounter, the home side managed to fight their way back into the match to close the gap to just two points, before the Eels raced home.

Although Maguire’s men weren’t able to claim the two competition points, the coach saw plenty of positive signs at Stadium Australia.

“One thing I know about this team is that they’re heading in the right direction,” Maguire said after the game.  

“We’re not getting the rewards at times but this side has shown plenty of good signs.

“The effort was there — we just need to execute at the right times. We managed to fight our way back in the game and the game was there for the taking.”

Maguire, however, was disappointed in his side leaking three early tries and said they need to start better in games

“We made it hard for ourselves in the first 20 minutes but if we can get our start in order, it will help us moving forward,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say it wasn’t good enough because we saw the effort from the team.”

“If you look at our games — we played Canberra, who have been a strong team for quite some time and we put up some good fight in that one.

“We got a result last week and now against a strong team, we showed that we can mix it with them. Now it’s about the finer details of the game.”

Wests Tigers will now turn their attention to next Sunday’s clash against the North Queensland Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval.