Wests Tigers

Mitchell Pearce, Aidan Guerra and Connor Watson all scored two tries each in the 40-18 victory.

The 25-year-old will join the club for the remainder of 2017 and the 2018 NRL seasons.

Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary welcomed Watene-Zelezniak to the club.

As the Wests Tigers use three grounds – Leichhardt Oval, Campbelltown Stadium and ANZ Stadium – throughout the season, they have only met the Sharks on seven occasions at the venue since 2000.

The Belmore outfit held a two-point lead before Brenko Lee was sent to the sin-bin in the 68th minute for a professional foul that would later allow the Wests Tigers to take control and storm home.

 While Ivan Cleary kept things simple in his first stint as coach against the Cowboys, moving Idris to the right side to partner in-form winger David Nofoaluma provided a right-side attack that had been lacking in recent weeks.

Regular fullback Lachlan Coote missed the match against Wests Tigers with a calf injury of his own and hooker Jake Granville is out for up to six weeks with a broken leg. Utility Ben Hampton deputised at hooker on Saturday night, but may now be needed in the halves.

New coach Ivan Cleary is looking forward to seeing his team take the field against the North Queensland Cowboys on Saturday night, and many expect him to make changes at the club in the coming weeks.  

"In a way it's been good to come up here and get out of Sydney," Cleary said.

Cleary will take on the role of Head Coach until the end of the 2020 NRL season.

Cleary, 46, has coached 252 NRL games at the New Zealand Warriors and Penrith Panthers, plus was Head Coach of the 2015 Prime Minister's XIII team and was named the 2014 Daly M Coach of the Year.

While most of the focus is on Robbie Farah taking on his former club, forgotten man Idris is set to line up in the centres for the Tigers, when they take on the Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.  

While the Cowboys got the result courtesy of a late sideline conversion from Johnathan Thurston, the Tigers controlled most of the game despite missing several key players.

Taylor said his side would take plenty of positives away after competing well with the full-strength Cowboys team.