Don't mention the finals just yet: Maguire

The Wests Tigers jumped from four spots on the Telstra premiership ladder with their convincing 28-4 win over the Cowboys on Thursday night but coach Michael Maguire is wary of finals talk.

"I don't think we need to look too much further than next week," Maguire said.

"The reason why we play the game is to play finals the boys know that. But if they get too far ahead of themselves you can fall short.

"They've got to make sure they enjoy the fact we've had strong wins… but it's back to work as we know."

The Tigers have not played finals footy since 2011 but leapt from 11th spot at the start of round 20 to seventh on the back of the 24-point win.

Naturally there are still seven games to play this weekend, but the Tigers will fancy their chances against 15th placed Bulldogs next week to keep their top-eight hopes alive.

"Let's get through the weekend and see where we end up," Maguire said.

"We need to turn up and do it again next week… it's a good test for us now," he added, knowing that his team has not won more than two games in a row in 2019.

This is now the third time the Wests Tigers have earned back-to-back wins – getting that third one is the target.

"Tonight I thought that was our best defensive effort since I've been here. Now it's [about] maintaining that," Maguire said.

"Just how hard they are working for each other is something we definitely need to take into the next game.

"We've been up and down throughout the season. We want to make sure we build into our next game.

"At this time of the year we need to build a lot of momentum off the back of what we're doing because we're in a very tight situation."

Having a rejuvenated Robbie Farah, even if he is retiring at season's end, is helping.

"He's been playing some really good footy. What he is doing at the moment is that he's playing really composed around his game. That's what the team needs.

"As much as he's a big competitor, he's playing a really controlled game for us."

Maguire also explained the recent appearance of his beard.

He said a skin cancer doctor burnt off a few sun spots on the right side of his face so he couldn't shave. The ensuing beard formed and he received so much teasing from the players about it, that he decided to keep it to annoy them.

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