Michael Maguire urged Wests Tigers halfback Luke Brooks to rediscover his running game during the week with that advice working a treat in the 22-16 win over the Brisbane Broncos.
Brooks, who had 10 runs and made just 25 metres in the 9-8 loss to Penrith, upped the ante at Suncorp Stadium to make 158 metres from 20 incisive runs against the Broncos to give the Tigers more venom in attack throughout the night.
"I spoke to Luke that he probably didn't run as much as last week, and when Luke runs that is when he is right on his game," Maguire said.
"He definitely showed that tonight. He took the line on and broke the line in the first half. When running he is a real threat, and with the players around him knowing what he is capable of I think we came up with some better attack than what we have shown."
The other area of halves Josh Reynolds and Brooks's play that impressed the coach was composure. It was lacking against the Panthers but the final match winning run by Michael Chee Kam came after Reynolds and Brooks combined to keep the ball alive rather than take an ill-judged shot at field goal.
Match Highlights: Broncos v Wests Tigers
"They set up for the field goal… and they could have had a rushed kick but they obviously went for the play. You could see that people were in the right positions. The boys actually practised that," Maguire said.
"They are growing and with Benji [Marshall] there I have a good mix of boys. We have changed the style of how we play and the expectations of our halves and they are adapting really well.
"All three of them have been doing a great job. That was a game that came down to our last play and sure enough they did a good job."
Maguire said it was "the resilience this team is building" that most impressed him after the heartache of the golden point loss the week before.
"I said that we have to learn from that and it was great to see that the boys learned tonight and just hung solid for 80 minutes," he said.
"It is something we have been talking about but we have fallen short here and there. Tonight they really believed in each other and it was good to see them looking after each other through many passages of the game and the ebbs and flows. They responded."
The defensive clout of the Tigers had come to the fore this year under Maguire, conceding just 59 points in five games. It was showcased again when the Tigers hassled the Broncos into error, when they were setting up for their own field goal late on.
Maguire cheers home Chee Kam
"The players have said they want to be a team that works hard in that space. The club has always been spoken about as not being as solid at times in their defence and they have gone away and worked hard at it," Maguire said.
"In games like that there were certain times where [the Broncos] could have scored but they stopped it. It says a lot about the team working really hard for each other and that is what I am really proud of."