With Robbie Farah finally gone, Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor believes he has a side capable of playing the style of football that will earn an NRL finals berth in 2017.
Club legend and 2005 premiership winner Farah was released from the final year of his contract with the Tigers on Saturday night.
On Sunday he did a lap of honour at halftime during the Tigers' 52-10 loss to Canberra, that bundled them out of finals contention.
In Farah's absence Mitchell Moses has become the key to the Tigers' attack and the young five-eighth brought them to the brink of their first finals appearance since 2011.
Next year, in the final year of his three-season contract, Taylor will be without the Farah dramas that have plagued the club for more than a year.
Farah is yet to reveal where he will play. South Sydney are favourites to secure his services.
"It will be good to have that calmed down," Taylor said.
"And we can settle into the pre-season and just worry about training."
"For the past few years we have had that playing style where we threw caution to the wind.
"But now we are more composed and more controlled, playing a style that wins us games more consistently and that is going to get us to the semi-finals."
Farah remained sitting on the scoreboard on the Wayne Pearce Hill drinking well after the fulltime siren on Sunday.
At halftime he gave an emotional interview with broadcaster Fox Sports.
"It's been really tough, I can't lie about that," he said.
"I'm a passionate person. I'm an emotional person and sometimes that gets the better of me.
"It's definitely got the better of me in the last couple of weeks and it's been difficult but to have this support throughout has made it much easier to deal with.
"It's been a tough 12 months and the time's right for me to move on now.
"It's probably not going to sink in until I am wearing different colours next year. It is something I thought I would never do but I'm looking forward to a new challenge.
"I know I've still got some really good footy left in me and I can't wait to show that next year."
