Brooks: 'Winning makes life easier'

A week is a long time in rugby league and winning makes life much easier — that’s how Luke Brooks feels following the team’s 16-8 triumph over St George Illawarra in Round 8.

The Wests Tigers halfback feels the relief following the club’s first win in over a month and said their performance against the Dragons has lifted the side’s confidence ahead of Saturday’s clash against the Gold Coast Titans.

“When you win, everything feels better, so we need to keep winning,” Brooks said.

“Winning changes a lot ... It’s a lot better. A lot more sleep after the game. We definitely needed that win and hopefully we can build some momentum off the back of that.

 “There’s been a lot of pressure on us as a club and winning solves it. It’s an easy fix —You’ve just got to win, and all the chatter stops.

“Winning builds belief and confidence so we can take plenty of confidence from that game. Last week was definitely one of our best weeks in training, so that’s the blueprint. We’ve got to train well and that builds confidence going into the game. We know we’re capable of doing it.”

Wests Tigers were defensively impressive against the Dragons in Round 7 as they conceded just one try in an 80-minute performance — and Maguire will be looking for a replicated effort against the Titans.

“The main thing was our defence. Only conceding eight points was a big key to winning the game. We haven’t been happy with our defensive performance over the past weeks, so it was good to hold the Dragons down to only eight points,” Brooks said.

“We just wanted to work for each other. We weren’t happy about the performance against Manly. It was pretty embarrassing. We wanted to come out and we know what were capable of. We’ve just got to do that every week.

“We’ve proven that we can match it with a good team, so we’ve got to go out and do that every week. I think the main thing. It’s just our defence. If we can bring that defensive attitude in each week then we’ll go a long way with competing teams.”

Brooks is building a halves combination with Adam Doueihi, who is in red-hot form.
The five-eighth ran for 142 metres and notched three line-break assists in the win over the Dragons.

“I think Doueihi has been one of our best over the past few weeks,” the halfback said.

“I felt on the weekend his running game was really good and that’s when he’s most dangerous, when he’s running with the ball. I think he’s playing some really good footy.”

Brooks was also impressed by the performance of debutant Zac Cini, who scored a try, recorded 153 running metres and made two line-breaks in his first NRL match.

“All his mates in the corner there were outstanding,” Brooks said.

“It was good to see him and I’m really happy for him to have such a good game in his first game.”