League: Wests Tigers side to maintain approach, despite setback

Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens says he has no plans to temper his side's flashy playing style ahead of the NRL finals despite its 34-22 loss to Melbourne.

The Tigers' eight-match winning streak was brought to a halt by the miserly defence of Melbourne on Saturday, which held the visitors to just one try until the result was virtually sealed with the Storm up 22 points.

Retiring Storm skipper Robbie Kearns, who was farewelled by the Olympic Park faithful in an emotional evening, questioned whether the Tigers had the game plan to win crunch finals.

However he said Sheens, who coached Canberra to three NRL premierships, would see them through.

"It's a totally different ball game, there's a lot more at stake and the intensity is a lot higher and it's a lot faster but Tim Sheens is no dummy and I'm sure he'll have them primed up for the semi-finals," Kearns said.

"Sheens is a very experienced coach, he's been there before and won premierships. I'm sure he'll have the team play the style of football he wants them to play at the right time of the season. "

But Sheens said after the loss he didn't plan any changes, just some fine-tuning.

"Our game is to use the ball and we need to fine-tune that," Sheens said.

"We put some passes over the sidelines and behind people ... if we fine-tune that we'll be right, we're not looking at changing our style, not at all."

Tigers halfback Scott Prince admitted his team had become frustrated by their failure to crack the Storm defence, after scoring more than 50 tries over the past eight rounds.

"We just need to learn to be patient and build pressure and break good teams down and we weren't able to do that tonight," he said.

The Tigers must beat Penrith next week to secure their home final, however Sheens said he wouldn't "cut his wrists" if that didn't happen.

The Storm could steal an unlikely home final if the Tigers lost at home and the Melbourne side upset the Cowboys in Townsville.

"I don't think it would be a blow for me personally, I think making the play-offs was our first step and then we want to go as well as we can," Sheens said.

"We set a goal to make the top four and hopefully we'll do that but I'm not cutting my wrists."

The Tigers will be without key prop Todd Payten for two weeks after he injured his triceps in the first half, but could welcome back centre Shane Elford and prop Bryce Gibbs.

- AAP