He never entertained the notion of playing for any other team, carting the ball up and making tackles for any other area. When Woods' image and name was flashed on the big screen at ANZ Stadium prior to Sunday's clash with the Bulldogs ??? the club he is supposedly headed to next season ??? the Tigers fans booed.

Consider that: they booed their own captain as he was warming up on the field. Not pretty.

In this current frenzy of player transfers, separating reality from paper talk is almost impossible. Both Woods and the Bulldogs deny any contract has been signed, but a move to Belmore ??? postcode 2192 ??? appears likely.

The Tigers won 18-12 but Woods did not front the post-match media conference with coach Ivan Cleary.

"I've given Aaron a day off today," Cleary said before a question was asked. "To his credit, he's fronted the whole time. He showed out there where his whole focus is. We're not going to talk about recruitment either, boys ???"

There was an uncomfortable silence. "That it?" Cleary laughed, before adding of Woods: "He was outstanding. There's a lot of distractions, obviously. But I could see at yesterday's training session that they were really focused and determined."

Asked what he thought of the Tigers' faithful booing the captain, Cleary said: "Fans pay their money. they can do whatever they want."

Woods has become the latest punching bag for frustrated Tigers fans, but the mere fact he's prepared to leave the club he's followed since growing up in an apartment above a newsagent on Norton Street exposes the cancer that's stricken the club.

For how much longer will the Tigers board and management blame others for what's happened in the past year?

They stuffed up the Robbie Farah situation. They stuffed up the sacking of Jason Taylor after just three rounds. They stuffed up the re-signing of their three best players ??? Woods, Roosters-bound James Tedesco and Mitchell Moses ??? who are all local juniors.

Now? Now, there's not much left to stuff up. Tigers fans have savaged Woods and even his wife, Sarah, on social media in the past few days, but they should consider he is leaving for less money than he could have secured if he stayed.

If the current malaise was weighing heavily on him, it wasn't reflected in his performance, which was typically tradesman-like as the Tigers searched for the tonic of a victory. He played out the first half without a break, churning through 131 metres (finishing with 225m for the game) as the Tigers took a 10-6 lead at the break.

The Dogs scored early into the second half with winger Kerrod Holland scoring at the end of a 12-pass movement to level the scores. A Holland penalty in the 55th minute edged them ahead.

Woods came back on with 15 minutes remaining and the turning point came sooner after. Moses levelled with a penalty goal after Bulldogs centre Brenko Lee was pinged and unfairly sin-binned for taking out Chris Lawrence as he hunted down a kick into the in-goal. It turned the match, as a sin-binning so late in the match often does.

With four minutes remaining, Kevin Naiqama scored and the Tigers celebrated like they'd won the grand final. It came from a deflected Luke Brooks kick. Maybe they signed the right player after all.

The win could not have come at a better time but the best part is the saga that's engulfed their club is slowly abating.

"That's not the reason why they won," Bulldogs coach Des Hasler said when asked if the opposition's off-field issues had any bearing on the result.

The heat is shifting to the Bulldogs, who are particularly edgy about speculation concerning which players will need to be moved to accommodate Woods and potentially Kieran Foran, who wants to rejoin Hasler - his former Manly coach - next season.

Each Tuesday night, Woods and Bulldogs captain James Graham appear together on NRL 360 on Fox Sports. The running joke in the green room for the past two weeks is the pair should swap their club polo shirts when they go on air.

There's been plenty of talk that Graham ??? whose contract goes out to a whopping $1 million next year ??? might be shuffled out of Belmore and possibly to the Tigers.

That now appears unlikely. Graham won't be going anywhere, not least because Hasler has built a club and an attitude around the Englishman and he doesn't want to let that go.

The Tigers could've had that with Woods. He was the perfect man for the job. It's written all over him. Including his arse.