The Wests Tigers have managed to pull-off a smash and grab raid at WIN Stadium, hanging tough for the latter portion of the match and getting a tough win against the Dragons in their own backyard.
Tigers coach Tim Sheens nominated defence as the key to victory and was happy to see his traditionally free-flowing side exercise some caution, including opting for shots at goal.
“Semi-final football is about taking kicks at goal when you get it dead centre and you tackle your backside off, simple as that,” Sheens said.
“Play it tough when you have to play it tough, which is what they did. We’ve got to play that footy otherwise we’re going to be sunk.”
He said both sides were underdone through injuries and hinted that two of three of his men, including Farah, carried niggles into the game, though he declined to elaborate.
Farah said the Tigers just tried to brush aside any of the distractions caused by the incidents that resulted in tonight’s reports.
“There were stages there in the second half when they were coming at us, they got a bit of momentum there were a few scuffles there,” Farah said.
“But I just told the boys to just worry about the footy side of things and I thought we responded well in defence.”
Opposing skipper Gasnier downplayed the niggly incidents.
“Both teams were desperate to win. I think we were well aware of where we were both on the ladder and the game probably showed the desperation accordingly,” Gasnier said.
Dragons coach Nathan Brown said veteran hooker Simon Woolford could be sidelined for a few weeks after suffering a first-half knee injury.
“They got a fair bit of the penalties in the first half and small things went their way. In the second half we got a few things go our way which allowed us to get a bit of a roll on,” Brown said.
“We had some chances we could have done some things better.”
Sheens said former Dragon Ryan, who played his junior football with Wests Illawarra, had some great things in him but, blew hot and cold in the game.