'Play with a smile': Lenihan green lights department of youth to excite home fans
Jim Lenihan has given his side his tick of approval to play with pizzazz against the Panthers, with absolutely no pressure on the youthful Titans in their herculean battle to slay the competition giants.
In a clash the home side is under no pressure to win up against the competition favourites given their finals window has now closed, the Gold Coast coach has encouraged his team to have fun in the 80 minutes against Penrith, opening the door for his exciting young stars - including debutant Tom Weaver - to play with freedom.
"I just want them to play footy and enjoy themselves.There's not going to be any repercussions to the way we play," Lenihan said.
"We want to go out and enjoy ourselves and play with a smile. We're not under any sort of pressure, so let's go out there and be loose... what might be usually option two or three can be option one this week.
"I want us to just go out there to play footy and enjoy ourselves."
Match: Titans v Panthers
Round 25 -
home Team
Titans
13th Position
away Team
Panthers
1st Position
Venue: Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
It's an important message for the 20-year-old rookie who will play his first game of NRL against the defending premiers, running out with arguably the best halfback in the game Nathan Cleary as his opposite number.
Not only having to face off against one of the premier playmakers in the competition, the Future Titans alumni will also have to endure a ferocious forward pack the Panthers posses in what has been touted a David v Goliath battle.
However, the Titans mentor is full of confidence and believes Weaver will shine in his first NRL game, especially with a season of practice having to continually try and stop David Fifita in his tracks every opposed session.
"If it's not against Nathan Cleary, it's certainly going to be against the Penrith forward pack," Lenihan said.
"They're not going to be missing our forward pack, or our edges... all over the park; but we're really confident in Tommy and he's excited to be getting his opportunity.
"He's had a lot of practice because he's always against Dave every week in our opposed sessions, so he certainly gets plenty of traffic running at him, especially big guys and Dave hasn't missed him at training during the week and the whole year to be fair.
"He's certainly had a fair bit of practice and he'll need it for the weekend."
‘It’s going to be a special one’: Homegrown halfback proud of Titans debut
Further helping the Titans' chances is the expected return of AJ Brimson from injury, with Lenihan confirming the Gold Coast dynamo has trained well this week and will likely to be a late inclusion at fullback to add an extra element of experience to the spine.
"We're expecting Brimmo to start at fullback for us this week," he said.
"He got through training the other day unscathed which was really good and he's now just got to tick some boxes, but he should be good to go.
"[It's definitely a boost because] I think this week against Penrith and playing against Cleary, there's a lot of tactical stuff with our numbers certainly at our try-line and defensively getting ourselves set.
"The experience of AJ and [having him] for the game against Penrith is certainly good for us just to tactically get our defensive structure organised and our numbers and our splits good.
"It'll be valuable for us in our good ball defence this week."
