After three years blighted by instability and acrimony Aaron Woods believes Wests Tigers are on track for a strong NRL season under new coach Jason Taylor.
The joint-venture tasted a first round one success since 2012 on Saturday when they edged out Gold Coast 19-18 at Cbus Super Stadium and Woods said the players are benefiting from a change of approach under Taylor – the team’s third coach in four seasons.
“From what I have seen so far he’s awesome,” Woods said.
“I only came back after Christmas and he’d already put in a lot of new structures in attack and defence but they have been pretty easy to pick up.
“He’s put a lot of pressure on me and Keith (Galloway) up front to do certain things that we haven’t had to do before and if I am honest I do feel more comfortable when I am defending.
“I think under him we can have a good go at it this year.”
Taylor had been out of head coaching since being shown the door by South Sydney in 2009 but is credited with playing a major role in helping the Sydney Roosters to the 2013 premiership in his role as Trent Robinson’s No.2.
One of the criticisms aimed at his predecessor Mick Potter was that he was a poor communicator who struggled to get his message across to the players and Woods said that’s not been a problem under Taylor.
“He gets in there at training and if you stuff up he let’s you know, but he doesn’t make you feel like a goose,” he said.
“He tells you where you went wrong and if you do stuff up what you can do to get out of it. It’s a plan for a plan.”
In addition to his work on the training field Taylor has revamped the Tigers’ sports science and medical department after crippling injury lists cruelled the Tigers during the last two seasons.
Outside back Tim Simona revealed the players now have a strict diet they’ve been ordered to follow and he’s already feeling the benefits.
“JT’s very big on injuries and he’s massive on diet,” Simona said.
“He thinks eating the right things reduces injuries in the long term and the boys are working really hard on that.
“It’s made me feel better. I wake up in the morning feeling a lot clearer and I think all of us we are enjoying training a lot more.”
