BY CURTIS WOODWARD
@woodward_curtis

A few weeks ago, Wests Tigers captain Moses Mbye had a forgettable night. He copped it from plenty of fans including one who thought it was okay to message Mbye on his personal Facebook page and tell him how “bad” he was.

Rugby league fans are a fickle bunch, some would say Wests Tigers supporters are some of the worst. But hitting up Mbye on his Facebook page?

Mbye deserves a personal apology from anybody that knocked him and made him the scapegoat just because his team was struggling. Recent weeks suggest there’s plenty of men that have been far worse than him.

On Friday night in Townsville, playing at centre, Mbye busted his arse.

He gave his guts.

A true captain’s knock.

The little bloke kept showing up and led his side with his actions.

Despite media conjecture in the weeks leading into the match, Mbye backed up coach Michael Maguire’s words. Mbye is their captain. And so he is.

There was a moment late in the match where North Queensland’s Michael Morgan hit winger Kyle Feldt with a crisp pass that caught Wests Tigers winger Robert Jennings out of position and gave Feldt an easy passage to the line that gave North QLD the lead.

As soon as Feldt touched down, Mbye turned on one blade of grass and went to his winger and comforted him. That’s what captains do. This is why he’s Wests Tigers’ leader.

On the same night Mbye shut down the haters, more eyebrows were raised about the future of Wests Tigers mainstays Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah.

A day after reports surfaced the pair wanted to play on in 2020, their team shot to an early 18-0 lead. From there, North QLD scored the next four tries. There was no real fight back. No, shall we say, game management?

New South Wales half Nathan Cleary, all of 21-years-old, copped it from most of the state the other night for not getting the Blues home. Where were Marshall and Farah as the lead dwindled?

If we can bag a kid on Wednesday in a sky blue jersey, surely we can question the leadership of Marshall (34) and Farah (35)?

Funnily enough, just as Wests Tigers fans were arguing that the old, trusted duo was good for the team moving forward, young rake Jacob Liddle dragged the game back for his team.

Plagued by injury and questions over his size, Liddle split the Cowboys up the middle with minutes to play to give Wests Tigers a chance of stealing back a match they should have won twenty minutes prior.

A glimpse of the future.

Then Michael Chee Kam went for the line and was hit over the face by a covering Cowboy.

Some will argue, including Channel Nine’s Phil Gould that despite being tackled illegally, he had the ball stripped in a fair play.

That’s great except for the fact that if Chee Kam wasn’t smashed in the jaw, he has more chance of defending the ball from the incoming North QLD player. It’s a penalty try every day of the week.

Try MCK, assist Liddle.

What came next was horrendous.

A perfect example of why golden point is the dumbest… scratch that… one of the dumbest things in rugby league.

The quicker everybody forgets this game the better.

That’s guaranteed for most Wests Tigers fans who are happy to see the gods of 2005, Benji and Robbie, run around again and again.

@woodward_curtis

Catch Curtis and The81stMinute Commentary Team this Sunday from noon on steelesports.com.au for Western Suburbs up against Newcastle!