Wests Tigers halfback Robert Lui has revealed how the pain of last year's NRL preliminary final loss to St George Illawarra helped spur Friday night's stunning second half revival against the Dragons.

The Tigers were knocked out at the penultimate stage by the eventual champions in an absolute thriller at ANZ Stadium, the memories of that night still fresh in the minds of Tigers players as they rallied from 12-6 down to leave the Dragons on the brink of elimination with a 21-12 win at the same venue.

"It was in the back of our mind, like out there when things were down the boys were saying 'remember this, remember that," Lui revealed.

"I don't hate the Dragons but I like playing against them, I don't know why.

"It's just the thing I think because they beat us last year and I just wanted to beat them that's all.

"It was good to get a win, the Dragons are a top team."

Having emerged with a win following an error-riddled first half, the belief is now burning bright within a Tigers playing group that has won a club record nine straight games.

While the dynamic second half display once again proved few team's can conjure up points like the Tigers, it was their defence during a dire first period that helped pave the way for the win.

"Our first half was ordinary, we're going to go back to the chalkboard and look at the first half and see what we can be better at, but we're going to take the win, it was a good win tonight but we've still got a long way to go," Lui said.

"The belief's there and we know we can win games when we're on fire and from one to 17, the whole top 25, we all believe and if we commit to that belief we can win the grand final."

Veteran winger Lote Tuqiri, who won a premiership with Brisbane back in 2000, said the Tigers had the right attitude to go all the way.

Certainly the win over the Dragons turned bookmakers into believers, after they pushed the Tigers into equal favouritism with Melbourne having made them outsiders for Friday's night's game.

Depending on results, the Tigers will either play a semi-final in Sydney next week or go straight through to host a preliminary final in a fortnight.

"We have clawed teams back and we've believed in what we're doing and what's got us out of trouble," Tuqiri said.

"We back ourselves and that's been the mainstay of what we've done and it's a real good team vibe at the moment - it's good to be a part of.

"It was really good for us this week, I thought that no one gave us a chance (against the Dragons).

"The bookies didn't really give us a chance and that probably worked in our favour because we knew we could beat those blokes.

"We had the runs on the board, we had eight wins behind us and we knew we were better than that, so keep not backing us because it'll work in our favour."

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