Maguire reflects on ups and downs of Cowboys victory

Wests Tigers Coach Michael Maguire said he was impressed overall by his side's ability to execute skill and attitude in tonight’s win over the Cowboys while conceding there was plenty to improve on.

With the stark contrast of a 34-point first half with just a lone Moses Mbye penalty goal in the second, Maguire said he was pleased to see the control from the side in the opening 40 — something which dropped away late in the contest.

"There was definitely two halves to that game," Maguire said.

"The first half we were in control and we were playing how we set out to play and in the second half we lost control.

“One thing I did have was a team playing off the back of our conversations in the past couple of weeks. It’s around the attitude that I’ve been talking about and it was good to see they’re willing to talk about what they need to do to fix that up.

“It was a real team performance in that first half," he said.

"We spoke about what we wanted to do and we were able to go out and do it but we need to be sure we lock down 80 minutes – that’s our key.”

Maguire was impressed that his squad are taking recognition and looking for ways to resolve when it comes to sorting out issues in game.

“It was good to see the players not happy at the fact we surrendered what we did in the first half into the second half,” Maguire said.

I keep talking about the 80-minute performance and we’re going to keep hunting for that one into the following week's game.

Michael Maguire

“That’s something there we’ll talk about and work on during the week. There was a play there on our right edge where they got a runaway try and I don’t think we responded as well as what we responded before and that’s pretty obvious to us.

“How we work through that moving forward — we discuss that and go that route as we’re building the team. I keep talking about the 80-minute performance and we’re going to keep hunting for that one into the following week's game.”

With Robert Jennings (hamstring), Alex Twal (knee) and Zane Musgrove (foot) all leaving the game due to injury, Maguire enthused he was impressed by his squad's ability to step up and fill in the gaps.

“We had three down there — those things happen at one stage and you have to find your way to win,” Maguire said.

“That’s what I was pleased about the team because whatever role they had to play they did that and played longer minutes.

"Someone like Matt Eisenhuth hadn’t played in some time; Sam McIntyre was on debut. They all came in and played long minutes so I was really pleased for those boys and they did the job for their teammates.”