Forget forward-planning or a forensic review of what could have been in 2020, the last 80 minutes of the Wests Tigers' NRL season will be a celebration.
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On Saturday night the club will farewell club legends Benji Marshall and Chris Lawrence.
Marshall is the physical embodiment of the club's identity while Lawrence is one of the staunchest club men to ever play the game.
And after a tough season, they both deserve the chance to smile.
"They've been through all the ups and downs of club land, to be solid all the way through in many ways," said coach Michael Maguire of Lawrence and Marshall on Friday.
"Their leadership and their personalities around the club that's one, but also too what you see on the field, they're very professional with how they go about it.
"They turn up and give their best week in and week out and that's something there that the clubs are always aspiring to."
Between them, Lawrence and Marshall have played 510 NRL games for the club, which is a huge loss of experience leading into 2021.
The Tigers stormed into the 2020 season with high hopes of not just a finals finish, but an NRL premiership.
A 48-0 win over Brisbane in round 10 put them into the top eight with 10 rounds to go, but since then they have claimed just two wins on a slide down the ladder.
The most frustrating trait of the Tigers in recent seasons is their inconsistency.
They have an ability to jag an upset win such as their 34-32 victory over Manly in round 17, or collapse under pressure, typified in their 44-4 loss to Newcastle four weeks prior.
Amazingly, they have the longest finals drought in the NRL with nine seasons.
And should they beat Parramatta and Gold Coast lose to Newcastle, they will finish ninth for the third-straight season and their seventh overall in the club's 21 seasons.
It's this pattern of constant contradictions that Maguire will be looking to fix in 2021.
"The big one we've got to continually work towards is the processes about how you win a game," he said.
"At times we're really good with our attack but it's about putting them both together and then doing that consistently throughout an 80-minute period. "It's about building the processes and what we require to win the big games."
Australian Associated Press
