Gold Coast coach John Cartwright believes the Titans have kept their NRL finals destiny in their own hands after a thumping win over Wests Tigers.
Sunday's 36-6 victory over the toothless Tigers lifted the Titans out of a four-game losing run and right back into top eight contention.
Despite fielding a makeshift line-up with Ashley Harrison at five-eighth and David Mead at fullback, the Titans blew away the Tigers in a dominant six-tries-to-one display.
The victory lifts the Titans to ninth, one point outside the eight with five matches to play.
Unfortunately for Gold Coast those five matches are daunting.
Next week is a trip to last year's grand finalists Canterbury, while their final home match against the mercurial Warriors is sandwiched between road trips to North Queensland and the in-form Sydney Roosters.
The final game of the season, which may prove decisive in the top eight battle, is a daunting away match against the premiers Melbourne.
Nonetheless, Cartwright isn't daunted by the road ahead.
"One thing you can guarantee is if we win the majority of our games we'll be there," he said.
"Whilst we're out of the eight, I still feel it's in our hands.
"We've got a really hard run but the way I look at it is it'll galvanise us on the way through. If we can sneak a few and start to get a few guys back, confidence will return."
A report on Greg Bird midway through the second half for a late shot on Tigers' playmaker Braith Anasta was the only low point on Sunday for the Titans.
But Cartwright was pretty confident the NSW Origin star will have no case to answer, while a man-of-the-match display by Ryan James (17 hit-ups, 206 metres, 22 tackles) also had him purring.
"That was his best game for a long, long time," Cartwright said.
The Tigers bad day was compounded with skipper Robbie Farah failing to return for the second half after dislocating a knuckle in his left hand in the first term.
Tigers' coach Mick Potter said his team had simply not been able to match the enthusiasm of opponents with something still to play for.
"The other team simply executed their plays better and just rolled down the field far too easily," he said.
"We accommodated them with penalties and mistakes. It's been the sign of the times in the past four weeks."
Share
