If he’s not careful, Anthony Don will talk himself out of a job.
“I’ve been a bit lucky to get across the line,” the Aquis Titans winger said of his try-scoring spree over the past month.
“Maybe it’s the players inside me. Konrad Hurrell, Chris McQueen, Ash Taylor, they’re all really good players.
“McQueen’s a bit of an unsung hero. He does heaps and gets through a lot of unnoticed work.”
Don’s right, of course. The Titans’ right edge, apart from Hurrell, is unspectacular in the way it conducts business.
It is defensively sound and does not accrue piles of flashy statistics.
But the humble winger dismisses his contribution far too quickly.
Don’s humility belies a reliable performer who has run in six tries in his past five outings on the right flank.
His 12 tries for the season has placed him on the NRL’s leaderboard and, with the club’s halves firing, it is unlikely that tally will stop at a dozen.
The tall winger has also embraced his responsibility to run those dirty yards away from the Titans goal line.
His challenge will be keeping pace with the “Energizer Bunny” that is Hurrell who has returned from a calf injury to become one of the Titans’ most frequent deliverers of line breaks.
“A couple of times this year I’ve assumed nothing would happen and then, all of a sudden, he’s made a break,” Don said of Hurrell.
“I learned he’s every chance of running over some one so I need to back him up.”
Don will mark recently re-signed Knight Nathan Ross at Hunter Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The energetic winger is his club’s leading tryscorer and will return to the backline after recovering from a hamstring problem.
Newcastle coach Nathan Brown said he thought his side gave up in the second half of their loss against Penrith but the Knights were more competitive than the 42-6 scoreline suggested.
They held the Panthers to account early in the match but were unable to keep up as hooker Peter Wallace took charge after halftime.
Halves Trent Hodkinson and Jarrod Mullen will also ensure Don, fullback David Mead and left winger Nene Macdonald are tested be contestable kicks.
“They’ve got a left (Mullen) and right-footed (Hodkinson) combination there which means both sides of the field get a workout,” Don said.
