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Stepping it up: Jolliffe reveals intensity of Titans pre-season

Fitness and defence.

They've been the two main objectives at Parkwood this pre-season to get back on track to achieving premiership success after disappointing results saw the Gold Coast bow out of finals contention in 2022.

A line in the sand was drawn by the playing group at the back-end of last year, which saw the Titans turnaround to win three of their final four matches, including a gritty and courageous golden-point thriller in New Zealand to end the season.

Starting November 1, for anyone who has been a regular at the club's training facility over the summer months, what has been witnessed is a 'heads down, bums up' attitude; sweating it out and working hard to be ready for the new campaign.

Whilst the latter may be one of the most heard cliches in rugby league, Titans prop Jaimin Jolliffe has given an insight into how intense this year's pre-season has been on the Coast, and the commitment being made by his peers to be back playing finals footy in 2023.

"There's been times there where I've been questioning whether this is the career for me," Jolliffe joked on SENQ's Breakfast with Pat and Heals.

"But nah, that's pre-season for you. It's enjoyable being around the boys, but you go to some pretty dark places at times; this year, especially.

"We weren't even close to the mark last year, so we've had to step it up in quite a few areas.

"Our running loads have gone up, our fitness as well and there's been a big focus on our defence, so it's been a good pre-season."

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Given a number of last season's results were determined in the final 20 minutes of games, a particular emphasis has been given to playing under fatigue, especially being able to deny opposition sides of scoring opportunities to ice games.

"Fitness and defence [has been our main focus] and I think those two things go hand-in-hand," Jolliffe said.

"Especially when you're under fatigue, defence seems to be the first thing to drop off, so you have to practice being uncomfortable a lot more and that's certainly what we've been doing.

"You don't enjoy it at the time, but you enjoy it afterwards.

"When you go through the tough times with your teammates, you always come out of it closer and that's certainly been a key thing.

"We did a bit of an army camp near just before Christmas for three days and that really tested us as a group, but I think it has really brought us together as well."

The Titans will continue their pre-season preparations ahead of their first trial against the Broncos on Sunday, February 12 at Sunshine Coast Stadium.

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Acknowledgement of Country

Gold Coast Titans proudly acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are situated, the Kombumerri families of the Yugambeh Language Region. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and recognise their continuing connections to the lands, waters and their extended communities throughout South East Queensland.