Garth Brennan’s ‘junior footy’ advice inspires Titans to victory
Titans prop Jarrod Wallace says the advice of coach Garth Brennan “to play like junior footy players” helped Gold Coast break their four-game losing streak.
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Titans prop Jarrod Wallace says the advice of coach Garth Brennan “to play like junior footy players” helped Gold Coast break their four-game losing streak.
Wallace was instrumental in the Titans’ first win of 2019 over Penrith at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday with 143 running metres, five tackle breaks and his first try of the season.
His barnstorming performance was marred by being charged with a grade one shoulder charge on Panthers’ fullback Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, which could see him sidelined for up to three weeks.
Friday’s win came during the Titans’ “Back to Juniors” round for which they donned their junior football club socks to represent their grassroots team.
And in the spirit of the round, the Titans players were instructed by Brennan to return to their junior footy days and “just enjoy the game”.
Wallace said it helped the players release the pressure and play quality, attacking football.
“This week, the biggest message from Garth was to go out and have fun,” Wallace said.
“We wore our junior socks and (Brennan) said he wants us to literally play like we did back in the day, and that’s what we did. We went out, had fun and came away with the result.
“She’s been a long four weeks.”
It was Gold Coast’s first win at home since Round 20 last year when they defeated the Warriors 36-12.
On Friday, they reverted to a side with the same scoring ability, recording six linebreaks, five offloads and 1393 running metres.
It was in stark contrast to their opening-round loss at home to Canberra when they made just one linebreak and 1058 metres.
“The effort has been there the whole month,” Brennan said. “I know they’ve copped some criticism.
“I said during the week I wanted them to take some pressure off themselves and just focus on the process more than the result.”
Titans backrower Bryce Cartwright said it wasn’t their best performance but it was the change in the teams’ attitude which had improved immensely.
“It was pretty scrappy out there at times but I thought we dug really deep,” he said.
“There was a period in the second half where we kept them in their end for like five minutes and I think that was the turning point.
“I can’t remember the last time I won a game.
“It’s such a relief and takes a lot of pressure away.”
The Titans were on Saturday awaiting scans on halfback Ash Taylor after he copped a cork to his right calf and failed to return to the field after 28 minutes.
Dummy-half Mitch Rein was also charged by the Match Review Committee for a grade-one dangerous throw, but will escape suspension if he takes an early guilty plea.
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