Brooks honoured to captain Wests Tigers for first time

Wests Tigers halfback Luke Brooks has spoken about the privilege of captaining his team for the first time in his career.

Brooks was handed the captaincy for last Friday’s clash against the Warriors after skipper James Tamou was ruled out with a minor injury.

A local junior, the halfback said it was a privilege to lead his side out and something he’d be open to do on a permanent bass later in his career.

“It was a great honour. I never thought I’d be the captain of this club,” Brooks said.

“Once we knew Jimmy [Tamou] was out, ‘Madge’ [coach Michael Maguire] told me that I’d be captain. It was pretty special to lead the boys out.

“Maybe it’s something I want to do further down in my career. It’s something at the start of my career I didn’t think I would do.

“I’m maturing a bit and have a lot more experience — it might be a case down the track.”

Although Brooks was overwhelmed to skipper his side for the first time, he was disappointed with the on-field result as Wests Tigers fell to the Warriors.

The halfback has admitted his side will need plenty of improvement when they face the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.

"We have a game plan and what we practice at training is what we want to do on the weekends, but I feel that we didn't do that," Brooks said.

"If we had played in the second half like we did in the first half and built pressure we definitely would have won the game.

"I think we have shown glimpses of good quality football and I believe we have got some good young players coming through and they will learn a lot from the games we should have won.

"I think we are on the right track and it is just about finding that consistency and playing our best footy for as long as possible."