Defence has been front of mind for the Titans over the pre-season and Brian Kelly admits it's something his team has thrived on.
Knowing they'll need to back-up last week's strong performance guarding their try-line against the Roosters who have the strike power to be one of the best attacking sides in the competition, the experienced centre believes there has been a mentality shift on the Gold Coast, which was clearly evident against the Knights.
"I think we’re getting more excited about our defence than scoring tries," Kelly said.
"I think that’s what showed on the weekend. I guess it just builds confidence from winger to winger with our whole 13 and our bench as well.
"It was good to see we held them out for a majority of the game. I think that then showed in attack afterwards. We got our defence sorted so hopefully we can do that again this week."
Match: Roosters v Titans
Round 4 -
home Team
Roosters
15th Position
away Team
Titans
4th Position
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Needing to start well again which was the catalyst for Saturday's dominant 26-6 victory, that has been the main focus during training this week to gain back-to-back wins and break a nine-year hoodoo against the Roosters - Gold Coast's longest drought against any team in the NRL.
"Against the Bulldogs wasn’t the best start and it showed on the scoreboard," Kelly said.
"If we can get a good start and hold that ball, complete and do what we’ve trained to do in the pre-season, which is to get teams into the grind, we’ll go down there and give it a red hot crack."
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'It'll mean nothing if we don't back it up': Kelly
Kelly has also backed his outside back partner Tony Francis to bounce back after a tough start for the flyer in only his third game of NRL, coming in to cover prolific try-scorer Alofiana Khan-Pereira who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury.
"I just said let it be and if it happens, it happens (making errors)," he said.
"He flushed it pretty well and got on with his job and I feel he did well for the rest of the game.
"Every player that comes in, there can always be a few little hiccups early but Tony is a pretty confident dude so he'll be all good [this week]."
