Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire won't cop talk his team's season is over, adamant they can still defy the odds to feature in the NRL's finals.
The Tigers' insipid loss to the Warriors last week was seen as the death knell by most for their season, leaving them in 13th and again battling for consistency.
But working in the merged club's favour is they still have one of the softest runs home and will finish this weekend four points out of the top eight if they beat Canterbury.
When Maguire was asked by a reporter on Saturday how he would keep players motivated with the finals all but gone, the under-fire coach shot down the suggestion.
"Well I wouldn't say that, I disagree with you there. The competition is wide open," Maguire responded.
"Last week would have been handy, but this is another week where, if we take some harsh lessons from last week ... we can get a really positive outcome.
"The season's a funny one, it's ebbed and flowed, we've got three or four teams right at the top but there's plenty of footy to be played.
"I'm a big believer that you know if your group comes together in the right manner and belief, then you can create what you'd like to create."
After Sunday, the Tigers have North Queensland, Cronulla, Penrith and the Bulldogs again on their run home to the finals.
They would likely need to win all five to challenge, needing other results to go their way in the process.
But that would require a consistency in their game yet to be seen, given they still haven't strung three straight wins together in three years under Maguire.
But the 2014 premiership-winning coach insisted he'd seen enough to know it was still possible, even with a younger side that he wants to build for the future.
"Sometimes it's youth (that creates inconsistency), but I think that's a little bit of a cop out because everyone's playing first grade for a reason," Maguire said.
"I go back throughout the season, I've seen some really good passages.
"And whether it was against Penrith, St George and Newcastle we have had some really good performances.
"If we identify those throughout a game at a high level we can get some really positive football off the back of that."
