The Titans may be out of the finals hunt, but that hasn't stopped Beau Fermor's intention to play a role in determining the outcome of September's playoffs.
Facing the Knights who currently sit two points outside the eight, it's a crucial must-win game for the home side; but they're expecting no favours from Gold Coast who have a burning desire to turn around a disappointing three-week period and finish strongly to build into 2025.
Especially after a controversial finish to the last time the two teams met in Magic Round when the match-winning try was controversially denied in the dying moments.
"In front of their home fans, they’re still in the hunt for a top eight spot so they’ve got plenty to play for, but hopefully we can spoil the party," Fermor said.
"We want to finish our season strong. We’ve been pretty disappointing over the last three weeks so we put on two good performances and hopefully come through with two good wins to build into the off-season."
Match: Knights v Titans
Round 26 -
home Team
Knights
9th Position
away Team
Titans
14th Position
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
Having gone toe-to-toe in the opening 20 minutes against one of the competition favourites, Des Hasler's men let slip their pressure on the Roosters to go down at home last Sunday, ruing their lack of ball control again - a common occurrence for the Titans in recent weeks.
"It was probably the old chestnut of shooting ourselves in the foot," Fermor explained.
"We just kept giving away possession... whether it was errors out of our end or once we’d get down their end, we just failed to build pressure.
"We let them out with penalties or errors, and with a side that’s as good attacking as them and giving them as much ball as we did, they’re bound to score.
"We just didn’t manage the game really well to keep them down their end and away from our try line."
Still the best team in the competition for completion rate with 82 percent, Fermor is hoping their increased focus on respect for the footy will go a long way to helping conquer the Knights, as he goes from strength-to-strength in his returning season from an ACL injury.
"It’s all been really good. I probably started the year pretty slow and it was probably a little bit sore at the start of the year, but it’s definitely back to 100 percent now and feeling really good," he said.
