Wests Tigers head coach Benji Marshall has revealed the plan for his team is to win as many games as possible over the final weeks of the season, rather than worry about blooding players for next year.
The joint-venture outfit won their second game on the trot on Sunday afternoon, defeating the desperate Manly Sea Eagles.
Manly now join the Tigers in the same mathematical basket when it comes to finals qualification, with the Tigers finally hitting their stride on either side of the bye, having beaten the Canterbury Bulldogs a fortnight ago in horrendous weather conditions.
There have been some reports, however, that the Tigers would look to debut the highly-touted young centre Heamasi Makasini either this week or next, but Marshall shut down that idea quickly when quizzed.
"He hasn't been training with us, he has been at school. He trained once this week. He is doing his HSC so it's hard," Marshall said on Makasini, who only turned 18 recently.
"We aren't really in a position where hey, let's go and blood some people for next year, we want to finish as high as we can, and we are taking that seriously.
"The short answer is probably not."
The question came about given an injury for Starford To'a.
The recently re-signed outside back could be finished for the season, but Marshall was also wary that the pair play on opposite sides of the field.
Marshall said he was impressed with the way his side has continued to fight, and said they have played their best football for the season over the last fortnight.
"Just the effort and the fight we showed today. Obviously [against] a desperate Manly team, probably needing to win to make the semis," Marshall said.
"I thought we toughed out and played some high-quality footy.
"Just the attitude towards the way we want to play. This week, we trained accordingly. I thought we had a real good week going into playing against the Bulldogs, and then they backed it up after a bye."
The coach said the club haven't even talked about playing finals footy.
"I don't want to sound blunt, but we haven't even talked about that this week. All that matters is if we lose, we are done anyway, so we have to go one week at a time and put everything into performing each week," he said.
"What I will say is that the last couple of weeks we have found what works for us and our style and the way we need to play. As a coach, I've probably learnt the most in the last couple of weeks about our team than I have my whole career."
