Jaimin Jolliffe is backing his fellow Titans forward pack to get the job done against the Dragons, despite missing inspirational captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui through suspension.
Banned for the clash after accepting a Grade 2 Careless High Tackle, the fearless leader has been instrumental in Gold Coast's opening month - averaging 154 running metres over 60 minutes a game - but will be forced to watch on from home when the rest of his side takes on the Red V in Wollongong.
Despite missing Fa'asuamelaui, the Titans will relish the return of Sam Verrills who resumes No. 9 duties after missing last week; whilst the ever experienced enforcer Moe Fotuaika will skipper the side this week alongside Origin and International prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
"He’s a massive loss," Jolliffe said.
"The sheer amount of work he can get through and how effective he is for the team is massive, but we have plenty of capable players who can step in and they’re going to have to.
"We’ve got Moey there, Reg, Chris Randall and we’ve got Vez back this week.
"If we can all pick up our work rate a bit, we can sort of cover that loss, but he’s one of the best props in the NRL and there’s not many like him in the NRL.
"It’s hard to replicate him physically with the way he plays the game and even with little things like his second phase and the momentum he brings to the team.
"We’ve got some terrific footballers there [in Tino’s absence] and we’re all going to have to step up and fill that gap."
Match: Dragons v Titans
Round 6 -
home Team
Dragons
10th Position
away Team
Titans
11th Position
Venue: WIN Stadium, Wollongong
Disappointed in their loss to the Dolphins after back-to-back victories against the Knights and Roosters, the 28-year-old feels they can build from the performance and fine-tune a number of key errors ahead of their trip interstate.
"There’s a lot we can take away from it," Jolliffe said.
"We made plenty of errors and gave away plenty of leg out penalties and gave them field position.
"The late offloads also really killed us so that will be the focus to fix up this week.
"There’s always different parts of the game you focus on with different teams but each week, you’ve got to find different ways to improve and obviously we stepped off in those areas.
"We need to work on the that on the training paddock and into our next game."
Only four points separate teams two to 13 with the race to the premiership as tight as ever over in the first five games and Jolliffe taking St George-Illawarra lightly despite them only having one win on the board, especially with their only scalp being against minor premiers Melbourne.
"They also lost to Parramatta so they’ll be a big challenge, but we’re a desperate team too," he said.
"We’ve got a lot to prove and a lot to work on so we’ll want to go out there and fix up what we didn’t get right last week.
"They’re a very capable side and have got strike all over the paddock. You can’t take any team lightly in the NRL, it is a very tight competition.
"The fact St George go out there and beat Melbourne a few weeks ago shows they’re a quality team.
"They’ll be very dangerous and we’ll have to be at the top of our game if we’re to give it a good shake."
