Maguire pleased with Wests Tigers' resilience in defence

Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire was pleased to see the Leichhardt faithful rewarded with plenty of reasons to celebrate following his side’s 26-6 win over Penrith Panthers on Friday night.

The home crowd were vocal all evening as they got behind their side and spurred them on to the club’s fifth win of the season.

“It hurt last time we were here [at Leichhardt Oval], but it was nice to see the fans enjoy it this time,” Maguire said.  

“We had a tough time at Leichhardt last time we were here [against North Queensland], so it was nice to see the crowd come into the game. That’s off the back of the boys defending for each other and the crowd rode the wave with us.”

Wests Tigers became the first team to defeat the Panthers in 2021 as they snapped the ladder leaders’ 27-game winning streak in regular season matches.

Although Maguire was pleased with upsetting the Panthers, he was more impressed with his team making it back-to-back wins for the first time this year — and praised his side’s resilience in defence.  

“Two in a row is the pleasing part,” Maguire said.

“The boys have been working hard in defence and that showed ... we’ll continue to improve.

“The pleasing part was the players stuck together. All the boys jumped in and did their role.

I was pleased that we defended well.”