The NRL spotlight may have temporarily shifted from Ivan Cleary’s coaching future, but the pressure is still on the West Tigers mentor to keep his side’s finals hopes alive.
The Tigers sit two wins out of the top eight following Brisbane’s 38-18 victory over South Sydney on Thursday night.
He admits the Broncos’ upset threw a spanner in the works and sets up a must-win clash against St George at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.
“It makes our job a little bit harder,” he said.
“Their win last night put a bit more of a gap between us but we do play twice before they play (again), so the ball’s in our court.
“(But) we’ve got to win the first game.”
The Tigers have found their feet after hitting a rough patch of mid-season form, Cleary said.
“The boys have got a bit of confidence,” he said.
“Since Robbie (Farah) and Moses (Mbye) came into our team, we’ve had a few games together now and I think those combinations are growing.”
The Tigers firmed into favouritism for a fifth win in six starts after Dragons captain Gareth Widdop was ruled out with a dislocated shoulder.
But Cleary expects Widdop’s five-eighth replacement Kurt Mann to present a threat of his own.
“Our preparation will stay the same,” he said.
“They’re chock-full of internationals and Origin players and Kurt Mann himself has played a lot of football in different positions in that team.”
Cleary was last week caught up in the NRL coaching merry-go-round, denying reports of a potential move to fill the vacant Penrith job.
His counterpart Paul McGregor’s future was also placed under a cloud this week after St George slumped to a 40-4 loss, the Dragons’ fifth in six matches.
But Cleary wouldn’t buy into talk the fifth-placed Dragons were choking away their season.
“There’s lots of labels out there,” he said.
“You either read into it or you don’t. We know we’re going to face a pretty determined outfit tomorrow night.”