He will go down as one of the greatest forwards to have played for Balmain, and in the NRL, and now, he wants his beloved Tigers team to take the game to the Dragons this week, as their season hangs in the balance.
That man, is Paul Sironen.
Sironen bleeds black and gold, and now, he wants the Tigers players to do the same, and adopt a ruthless approach to their clash with the Dragons, as their season well and truly, hangs on a knife-edge.
The time has come for a few of our blokes to put their hand up – to be ruthless,” Sironen said.
“We’re not putting teams away at the moment. Opposing sides know that, whenever they play us, they’ll always be in the game until the very end because we just can’t seem to finish them off.
“Every team has a defining game in their season and this one’s ours, no doubt. We need to adopt that same tough, no-nonsense attitude the Dragons already have.”
It will not be an easy task for the Tigers, with the Dragons being premiership favourites, and with all of their Origin stars bar Dean Young set to back up, the game will not get any easier for the Tigers.
“And I think they’ll come straight back without skipping a beat,” Sironen said. “For guys like Gasnier, Ben Creagh, Jamie Soward, having been beat by Queensland earlier in the week won’t be a problem at all.
“If anything, I think they’ll be bouncing. Just look at they way they continued playing during the City-Country period. I guarantee they won’t be suffering an Origin hangover on Sunday afternoon.”
The Tigers team of 2011, whilst similar to that of 2010, have not produced the same form this season, and it is costing the club dearly.
“You’d really have to ask Ricky Stuart or Bob Fulton that one.”
“Obviously, Robbie and Chris Heighington, they’re two terrific players but the form over the team over the past couple of weeks has cost them. I’d love to see both of those guys pushing on the door of Origin selection but for that to happen the team needs to start winning games and winning them in a convincing fashion.”