Coaching Insider: Round 3

Wests Tigers Head Coach Michael Maguire said his side will be continuing to move forward as they take the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

Maguire understands his side has had an impressive first two rounds but will be focusing on the Round 3 clash against the Bulldogs as a fresh start.

“We’ve got plenty of work with learning how to keep backing it all up and getting performances similar to what we’ve shown in the first two rounds,” Maguire said.

“The consistency the boys have had away from the field has been really pleasing.

"The fact they’re very focused around what we need to do on the training park — we're obviously getting benefits from that when we play.

"As a team, we’ve just got to make sure that’s our main focus now – to be consistent with our training and looking forward to this weekend and nothing more."

After a successful start to the season, Maguire said he was expecting a tough task against the Bulldogs this week, who themselves will be determined to bounce back from disappointing defeats to the Warriors and Eels to start the season.

“At the end of the day, one thing you learn from this game is if you get ahead of yourself, you’ll get bitten," Maguire enthused.

"We’re focused around what we need to do, we’ve shown two strong performances, but every performance is a different one and that's a great challenge for our players.

“If they keep doing what they’ve been doing and playing their part for the team you get the ability to put pressure on the opposition team.

"What’s happening in the other camp, I’m not sure, but I know what’s going on here and they’ve got their heads down.”

Maguire also gave an insight in to how the senior guys are helping the team each week and how this is being shown in their performance on-field.

“I’ve got some good senior guys that have experienced a lot throughout their careers — they’ve been in situations like this — so they can use this time to understand what we need to do for the team," Maguire said.

"You’ve got to build your game, and not put pressure on yourselves.

“I’ve been coaching for a long while and worked with a lot of different players and this bunch of boys have a lot of capability within this group.

"If they work hard and together then they’ll be able to be a stronger team and that’s what we’ve really worked on.

“It’s all about what the team requires," he added. "We have players that are very capable of playing in this team currently playing in reserve grade [and] they’re coming out and training at the highest of levels. But we also understand it’s only Round 3 and that we’re still a long way from where we need to be.”