West Tigers coach Tim Sheens is hoping history doesn't repeat itself as his team makes a late bid to reach the NRL finals.

A 34-14 home win over North Queensland at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday moved the Tigers up to 18 points, two wins away from eighth spot.

But Sheens has bad memories of some of his club's other late attempts to reach the post-season.

"The last time we beat the Cowboys was here, we beat them by a cricket score, they went home with their tails between their legs," Sheens told reporters after the game.

"Then they won the next six and we didn't make the semis and they went into it."

Sheens stressed the importance of the Tigers avoiding any blowout losses in the run home as he believed a finals position could come down to points differential.

"We got eliminated by the Broncos a couple of years ago. We finished eighth and they beat us on 70 points over a full season.

"The next seven games, it's not about how many we win, it's a matter of playing well every week.

"Twenty-eight points you would probably be right, 26 points could mean for and against. It could be as close as that.

"The next seven games have to be strong, whether we win or we lose, we can't have any blowouts."

Cowboys coach Neil Henry warned his sixth placed team could miss out not just on the top four, but the finals altogether unless they start to win in Sydney where they haven't prevailed since late in 2007.

Henry said it was a fact that the away record of the teams which travelled substantial distances in the NRL was not very good.

"That's just a fact, we are no different," Henry said.

"We've got four away and three at home and if we can't win a couple of these away games, we are not going to feature in the top four by any means and if we don't win a few, we won't be in the top eight.

"The challenge is ahead of us to find some consistency away from home.

"We are seven from nine at home."

The Tigers reported no injury problems while Henry said forward Antonio Kaufusi had a knee knock and they were having to cope without injured Origin forwards Luke O'Donnell, Aaron Payne and Matt Scott.

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