GREATER belief and enjoying the simple things are the reasons behind Wagga Tigers’ brilliant form, according to assistant coach John Anstee.
Big wins away from home against Collingullie-Glenfield Park and Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes have Tigers sitting pretty in third spot on the Riverina League ladder.
Tigers return home to Robertson Oval on Saturday but the tasks do not get any easier as they prepare to welcome ladder leaders Leeton-Whitton.
Anstee said Tigers are well prepared to take on the league’s best.
“We’ve pencilled in the last month as a really big month for us,” Anstee explained.
“For us, we’re happy to have done the job over Collingullie and Mango and now we’ve got Leeton that will mean we’ve had the top three teams in the past three weeks.
“We had this pencilled in for a while and we’re really excited to be playing them.”
Anstee said Tigers are playing with confidence.
“Against Turvey a few boys were able to run into a bit of form,” he said.
“A couple of losses before that had our confidence a bit down.
“From that Turvey game, we brought that form into Collingullie and were able to beat them out there for the first time. To win out there brought a heap of belief and every week it’s growing.
“We’re back to playing and really enjoying our footy and now we’re looking forward to going up against Leeton.”
Anstee, a student at Charles Sturt University, is in his fifth season at Tigers.
Each year they have played finals, only to fall at least two games short of a grand final appearance.
Anstee, 23, believes this year could be different.
“There is probably a little bit more belief, especially the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“We’re enjoying our footy. We’re not concentrating on the result to start, we’re going out there to have fun and when we play our best footy we know we can match anyone in the league.”
Anstee said a top three finish is Tigers’ goal and a win over the Crows on Saturday will go a long way towards achieving that.
“Hopefully we can try to finish top three because that second chance is huge,” he said.
“I’ve half put in on myself, with the backline, to get it going because if we can play to our full potential that goes a long way to us getting the four points.”
Anstee, who has established himself as one of the premier players in the competition, could be in his last season with Tigers given he is in his last full year based in Wagga.
Anstee won Tigers’ best and fairest last year and has twice finished runner up.
