Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor has adopted a glass half full approach following his side's 19-18 loss to the Storm in golden point, saying the joint venture club has shown enough progress to suggest the wheels are turning in their favour.
After two solid wins to start the season, the Tigers have gone five weeks without a victory, but the signs are there to suggest that they are not far off.
In fact, the 2005 premiers have suffered defeat by narrow margins of 12, 8, 8, 2 and 1 in those matches, including Sunday's golden point thriller to last year's preliminary finalists.
Taylor said that while the results aren't going his side's way, he is still proud of the way the Tigers are playing in 2016.
"We talked last week about wanting to be tougher and play a tougher style of footy and we saw that tonight and it's really encouraging," he said.
"Over the years Wests Tigers have beaten Melbourne at this ground but usually it's been with passes sticking and the scoreboard ticking over.
"We didn’t get the result tonight but the fight was great and that's what it takes in this competition. We're not changing anything. We're just changing our mindset and we're working hard on it. That was really good tonight because it was tough.
"We've got a room full of absolutely dejected players on the back of the effort they put in. We put so much effort in every week but we just have made it too hard for ourselves to win, and tonight we were much tougher and we gave ourselves a big chance of winning."
Sunday's one-point loss wasn't without controversy. Chris Lawrence was denied what appeared to be grounds for a penalty try in the 10th minute, while the Storm scored a second-half try on the back of what was eventually deemed a high shot on Tigers fullback James Tedesco.
Despite the 50/50 calls going against his team, Taylor didn't want to use the rulings as an excuse, instead choosing to commend his side for overcoming a six-point deficit late in the game to force golden point.
"We can't use those excuses. We were there…we got to extra time. We had a chance to kick two field goals," he said.
"But what's great is the way we got to extra time. We were behind by six points and we fought our way to get the scores level. We didn't try to come up with a miracle to get the scores level and that's what we're trying hard to improve.
"We played hard towards the end of the game to get ourselves a chance. We got that chance…we scored a try, Jordan Rankin kicked a great goal under pressure to get us level.
"And then in extra time we did it as well as the Melbourne Storm but they kicked a field goal on us, but we did it as well as them and that's progress for us.
"Our fans should be excited for the future for Wests Tigers."
