The Wests Tigers first visit to finals since the merger. A up and down season which improved dramatically in the 2nd half off the back of an 8 game winning streak, gave the team a top 4 finish.
After defeating the Cowboys and the Broncos in Week 1 and Week 2, the Tigers took on the Dragons at the SFS for a place in the Grand final, with controversy surrounding the choice of stadium. The Dragons had qualified a week earlier and as a consequence the supporters had snapped up most of the tickets which meant the Dragons had most of the crowd behind them.... Efforts to move the game to the much larger Telstra stadium were unsuccessful.