It may have taken eight weeks, but the Gold Coast Titans are finally on the board in 2024, with a hard-fought 27-24 victory over the One New Zealand Warriors.
Travelling to New Zealand for the country’s first home ANZAC Day game since 2015, the Titans started slowly before wrestling back momentum and producing a gritty defensive effort in the final 20 minutes to record their first win of the season.
Speaking on SENQ Breakfast, Gold Coast prop Jaimin Jolliffe told Corey Parker how the team has slowly built over the opening rounds.
“We had such a tough pre-season and the start has been terrible, but it feels like over the last few weeks we’ve been building a brand and a style of football we want to play,” Jolliffe said.
“We knew we were under the pump, and they scored a couple of tries off kicks, and we weren’t perfect, but especially the last 20 (minutes) it was a really great attitude from the boys. At no point did we not have that belief that we could turn them away.
“Des (Hasler) talks on it a bit, you want to be the underdog and you want to prove people wrong… we use that adversity to our advantage, we want to be the team that shocks everyone.”
The Titans lost representative captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui back in Round 3 to a season-ending ACL injury, and while the injury was a crushing blow to their hopes for 2024, Jolliffe revealed how it has forced other players to step up.
“Losing Tino is obviously a big loss, but for me personally, its forced me to step up and increase the amount of work I’ve got to do,” Jolliffe said.
“I just want to do my job for the team and I’m quite happy with how I’m playing.
“I’ve always been able to play bigger minutes that’s always been my style, but I’ve never really had to because we’ve had blokes like Tino and Moe (Fotuaika) who can do such a good job.”
Having climbed off the bottom of the ladder, the Titans will look to build on their new winning form as they return to take on the Melbourne Storm next Saturday week.