THE Tigers were one of the surprise packets of the 2018 season and with a little more luck could have found themselves playing finals football.

Under Ivan Cleary, the side brought a new hard edged approach to their football, but they failed to deal with their early success and the target that it put on their back.

A rejuvenated Benji Marshall had a terrific season, after returning to his old club and despite missing the finals, he is confident the club is heading in the right direction.

“There were a fair few positive signs this season,” Marshall explained.

“Where the team ended up on the ladder as opposed to last year and more importantly the culture and the turnaround of how the club is looking on and off the field.

“We have made some great strides in bringing our fans back to watching our games, after a few big wins over Melbourne and the Roosters, so there are a lot of positives despite the fact we didn’t make the top eight.”

One of the key areas of improvement was the side’s defence, which was up their with the best in the competition, especially in the early rounds.

Marshall’s first stint with the club was highlighted by mesmerising attack, but he is most proud of the defensive starch the team now has, in his second incarnation as a Tiger.

“It has just been about the attitude of working hard for each other,” Marshall said.

“At the start of the year, we didn’t know what our identity was going to be as a team and in looking for that, we found out it was going to be our defence.

“You need a solid foundation with your defence in order to win a competition, so to finish third in that category was a big effort from the boys.”

While the Tigers made giant strides, they still missed out on the top eight by six competition points and a massive points differential.

Despite coming a more than respectable ninth in the tightest top eight race in history, finals footy and a premiership is the main goal, so in Marshall’s eyes the Tigers fell short.

“Handling success was a bit of a problem for us this year,” Marshall admitted.

“We had a couple of wins and then a loss and it became a bit of a trend like we didn’t know how to sustain success.

“We will be better next year for our experiences this season and understanding that when we do put it together, we can achieve big things.

“We also missed Josh Reynolds and having him back in the side will be a big bonus as well.”

Reynolds’ injury ravaged season was made easier to bare by the brilliant form of Marshall, who was one of the club’s most consistent performers.

“I was really encouraged by my year and that was probably the most fun I’ve had in a season for a long time,” Marshall said.

“My form was a bit like the teams in that I had a couple of good games and then a not so good game.

“Like the team I need to work on my consistency, but also getting my body injury free.

“I played the last six weeks injured because we didn’t have any back up, so getting injury free will be a big thing for me so I can have a big year next year.”

One distraction that the club had to deal with in 2018 was the conjecture over the future of Ivan Cleary, who was reported to be considering a return to the Panthers to coach his son Nathan.

However Marshall is confident his coach is in it for the long haul.

“I definitely think he will be with us,” Marshall confirmed.

“He has made his statement pretty clear about that and just from being around him, you can sort of just tell that he is excited with the way we are building as a club.

“Hearing him talk at the awards night, he has so much confidence in what the club can achieve next year.

“He coached a few things this year that really helped us, like behaviours on the field that people don’t see like filling the space or chasing back on kicks and scramble defence.

“He reminds me of Wayne Bennett in that he coaches behaviours rather than just skill and game plan and he drives the culture of the club, which is more important.”

The club also unearthed some young talent in 2018, with Esan Marsters impressing Marshall from the early rounds.

“Esan Marsters announced himself as an up and coming star,” Marshall said.

“He had a great year for someone who was playing his first full season of NRL.

“The evolution of Luke Brooks was also good to watch and especially defensively and the way he ran the ball was pretty exciting, for what he can do in the future.”

Marshall spoke to us at the launch of Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Forsaken, which saw him go head to head with Australian Hip Hop’s most notorious artist, Briggs in the ultimate Sport vs Music Destiny 2: Forsaken gameplay battle.

Benji and Briggs jumped into Destiny’s new competitive game mode, Gambit.

“It’s an awesome game and we got to play the new Gambit feature, which sees four of us playing against four other guys,” Marshall said.

“I went up against rapper Briggs, which was a bit of competition and I had to represent the sporting world proud.

“Briggs is pretty good and he was trash talking me all day, so it was interesting.”

Marshall lifted the lid on the gaming craze that has swept the NRL in recent seasons.

“Most of the NRL are gamers now because we can’t sleep after games. It has become a bit of a culture amongst the NRL and everyone is doing it.

“The game is exciting and addictive and when you are not playing it, you are thinking about playing it again.

“It is one of those addictive games where you just play all night, so the Mrs won’t be too happy, but oh well,” Marshall said with a laugh.