Jason Taylor wants his Wests Tigers to play a certain way and it was evident on Sunday in the Tigers’ 22-12 loss to the Newcastle Knights at Hunter Stadium.

Forget the Wests Tigers we once knew, the one that boasted Benji Marshall, Scott Prince, Brett Hodgson and Robbie Farah. That Wests Tigers shocked the rugby league world when they won the 2005 NRL premiership on the back of a carefree attacking mindset that left their opponents scratching their heads wondering what the hell just happened to them. For years following that fateful October night, the Tigers have failed to deliver, time and time again frustrating their fans and themselves.

That’s why Sunday was so hard to watch for Tigers fans.

Ten years on from their first and only title, Wests now boast Luke Brooks, Mitchell Moses and James Tedesco.

The automatic and rather unfair thing to do is compare these youngsters with the ones that proceeded them and the assumption is these kids are going to do something similar.

But to put 2005 in perspective, every star in the universe aligned for the Wests Tigers. Without detracting from their achievement, because they did thrash everyone put in front of them, a thousand things have to fall your way to do something as special as that. Rugby league is a different game now too and the ability to run rough shot for fifteen weeks and claim a premiership is almost impossible.

Tigers fans have to quickly realize that flick passes and chip kicks aren’t going to help develop Brooks and Moses.

And that’s why we saw the grinding, almost boring game plan from Wests on Sunday.

Coach Taylor wants it simple and he wants his team to still be in the contest with twenty to play.

On Sunday, the Tigers scratched and battered their way but came up short. At times it was ridiculously obvious what Taylor’s orders were.

Five hit-ups for a bomb, defend, five hit-ups for a bomb, defend.

They had their chances but in the clutch they couldn’t get across the line. Newcastle, with more experience and happy to grind out eighty minutes too, won because at this point they have a little more polish.

“We hadn’t put our stuff together as well as we would’ve liked in the game,” Taylor said after the loss.

“It’s easy to think we would’ve won the game from there but we had a couple of other opportunities and we weren’t able to put it together.

“To be honest, we probably wouldn’t have put it together, because why was that one going to be any different. We lost our way a bit with our control at the try line and that’s disappointing.”

They sure had their opportunities and you could see the talent, if only in sporadic patches.

Moses picked up a loose ball on his own fourty metre line deep into the second half, dashed through a gap in the defensive line, beat two others before chip kicking for a flying Tedesco who forced a desperate Akuila Uate in-goal.

In another play trademarked by the Tigers, Tedesco toed through a kick, before kicking it again and again eventually seeing the video referee give Brooks a try.

Get used to this Tigers fans, because Taylor knows the best way forward for his young spine is to stay patient and learn how to win the game with ten minutes to play rather than lose it in the first-half.

The Tigers won a similar game earlier in the year against Parramatta at ANZ Stadium which featured a miraculous Pat Richards try assist when the veteran winger was about to be flung into the sixth row of the western grandstand.

Parramatta led 6-4 with ten minutes to play before the Tigers went bang-bang-bang and won the match 22-6.

You’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some.

That’s the nature of development, that’s the process for these Tigers.

Eventually we’ll see the very best of Brooks, Moses and Tedesco over extended periods.

What’s that old story about the old bull and the young bull?

@CurtisWoodward1