Titans hard man Jaimin Jolliffe is motivated to help stop the second half rot upon his return to the NRL on Thursday night, ready to make a huge impact off the bench in his first game back from injury.
Having spent a long 13 weeks on the sidelines after rupturing his pec on the eve of Round 2, the ever reliable prop feels he has honed in on what he needs to do when he is handed the interchange card to come on and maintain the rage to ensure his Gold Coast side maintain the strong leads they have made a knack in securing.
"Souths are a great attacking team and I just thought we probably let the ruck get a bit quick and it kind of got a bit out of control," he said after watching last Saturday's game against the Rabbitohs.
"We just need to get back to what we do well in the first half, really controlling and slowing down the ruck and the tempo of the game.
"That's where I think I can maybe try and help playing this weekend and I think as a team, probably a lot of our growth is in around pushing the boundaries there."
Arguably one of the Gold Coast's best through the pre-season - even winning a starting jersey after dominating in the trial period - the 26-year-old was close to returning last weekend at home, but Titans medicos erred on the side of caution to instead unleash him in this week's clash, allowing him the extra few days to be fit and firing for the clash.
"My body feels really good but last week, I was probably just not quite there... it was probably my first full week of contact and wrestle and a little bit of testing wasn't where it needed to be," Jolliffe revealed.
"I spent the weekend getting some good weight sessions in and hitting some targets so that'll give me all the confidence to get out there.
"I'm a pretty fit guy and I can get through some work, so [I'm happy to play] whatever [minutes] they need me to, but it kind of depends on the flow of the game as well."
Shunning away any criticism the Coast's finals hopes are out of reach, Jolliffe knows how important a win against the Tigers is at the halfway mark of the competition, setting the side up nicely for their run to September.
"It'd be great to get a win before the bye because there's still a lot of footy in the back end, but if it will definitely be good to be able to fix up our second halves and start putting a few wins on the board to get back in the mix," Jolliffe said.
"We know what we've got to do and we just have to deliver that. The only way to do that is to keep working hard at training and hopefully that springboards us into the game.
"We won't take the Tigers lightly... they're terrific team and they've really been pushing a lot of teams really fast.
"It'll be a big challenge but I think we're up for it and we just need a fix those second halves definitely."
