Coaching Insider: Round 13
Wests Tigers Head Coach says he's wary of the threat the Sydney Roosters possess as his side get ready to face the Tricolours tomorrow afternoon at Allianz Stadium.
Having already beaten the Roosters once this season, Cleary said he expected the home side to thrive on the opportunity in front of them this week, despite missing four key players to Origin commitments.
"They're all big games from here on in," Cleary said.
"It's certainly a good challenge against the Roosters so we're looking forward to it after getting our act together late in the game last week. We'll definitely need to start better than that this week.
"It's just the nature of the competition and the Origin period.
"When players get an opportunity it can be a really positive thing for a side so I don't think you can say that they've got a few out and we'll be right. It all comes down to team performances and which ever team performs the best is going to win rather than who's in our who's out for them this week.
As the team reaches the halfway point of the 2018 season having exceeded the expectations of many, Cleary said there were changes that still needed to be made to the way his side plays — particularly in attack — in order to continue their strong start to the year so far.
"Like every team, we're just looking for consistency," Cleary said.
"I've been reasonably happy in that regard over the last three weeks. We played really well against the Cowboys and got rolled against Penrith up there... and last week we did enough to win.
"We feel like our game is progressing and evolving throughout the season, but at the same time, we probably need to find more of what we did to win games at the start of the year.
"I think every team's attack has to evolve throughout the year," he continued.
"I've been fairly happy defensively; I think that's been pretty consistent throughout the year. But your attack definitely needs to evolve and we're still trying to come to grips with that.
"We know what track we're on and we're going to keep working away at it."
See what Ivan Cleary had to say about this week's game in full in the video above!
