Before he bows out Robbie Farah is determined to return the Wests Tigers to the top eight and break the longest current finals drought in the NRL.
The Tigers took a big step towards playing in September with Thursday’s 28-4 defeat of North Queensland, which saw them provisionally skip into seventh spot.
The occasion was an emotional one for Farah, who announced his retirement earlier in the week and had more than 100 friends and family at Leichhardt Oval to commemorate his 300th match, which he brought up a week earlier.
When the 35-year-old crossed for a try after darting out of dummy-half in the first half the crowd broke into a “Robbie” chant, which he admits nearly brought him to tears.
Farah said he was driven to go out on a high and wanted to see his beloved side back in the finals before he hangs up his boots.
The Tigers haven’t been to the post-season since 2011 – and no other team in the competition has been absent from the top eight for longer.
“That’s the goal – I want to leave on a high,” Farah said.
“For us that’s getting back to semi-final footy. It’s been since 2011 and that’s way too long. We’re in the top eight now, there’s still seven games to go this weekend.
“All we can do is keep winning, we did that tonight. Hopefully we can back it up against the Dogs and build a bit of momentum, just make a late run for it.”
While Farah will bring an end to his 17-season career at the end of the year, good mate Benji Marshall is expected to play on having flagged his intention to go around again in 2020.
Marshall was tight-lipped on his future, politely declining questions about his plans for next year.
The Tigers only play one current top eight side – Manly – in the run to the finals, along with matches against Canterbury, Newcastle, St George Illawarra and Cronulla.
But Marshall said they couldn’t take anything for granted with their season on the line, pointing out that 15th-placed Canterbury – who they meet next week – knocked them over in a 22-8 upset in round three.
“We can’t control the past or what’s happened,” Marshall said.
“This group, we’ve started to build a bit of confidence with what we’ve done the last couple of weeks.
“We also know we’re one or two losses away from being out of contention as well. One game at a time is true.
“We’ve struggled against Canterbury the last couple of years. It’s a big game for us.”
