New Titans Senior Assistant Coach Jim Dymock has delivered the words every Titans Member and fan has been longing to hear – vowing the Gold Coast’s new coaching staff will put the defensive steel back into the Titans in 2020.
In his first interview since joining the Titans as Justin Holbrook’s assistant last month, revealed exclusively last night to Titans Members, Dymock has outlined his 2020 vision for his new Club – and the first lesson for the playing group this pre-season will be in defence.
Dymock is a Canterbury legend. He won the Clive Churchill Medal when the Bulldogs won the premiership from sixth spot on the ladder in 1995.
A skilful yet physical and aggressive lock or five-eighth, Dymock has vowed to bring some of Canterbury’s fabled “Dogs of War” mentality to Cbus Super Stadium next season.
He will join a coaching triumvirate at the Titans in 2020 – alongside Super League Coach of the Year Holbrook, and Burleigh’s two-time Intrust Super Cup premiership coach Jim Lenihan.
When asked what Titans Members and fans could expect from a Gold Coast team led by Holbrook and his two assistants, Dymock was direct.
“My message to Titans Members is simple: We will always compete, we will be in every game we play, we will never give up, and we will try to be consistent,” Dymock said.
“There is a lot of hard work to be done this pre-season, no question. But I think we are all excited about the potential that is already in that squad that is there to be brought out.
“From my point of view, it is all about defence. Attack takes care of itself. Every player can attack. Attacking is easy.
“But defending your line for long periods of time and having the belief in your defence that, if you do make an error or give a penalty away, you can turn sides away – that is the hard stuff that has to be learned.
“There are a lot of skilful players at the Titans, but the main focus for a lot of them has been attack. They need to get their head around the defending side.
“They need to learn to love hitting in defence. They need to learn to love the contact, love the collisions. Once they do that, the attack will just come naturally.
“If you get 50 per cent of possession and you are completing at 80 per cent, and you have your defensive line speed in order, you will always be in the game. It doesn’t matter who you play. Always. No matter what.
“If we keep turning up for each other, and get that defence right, everything else will come off that.”
Certainly, the pedigree of the three incoming coaches indicates an end to the Gold Coast’s defensive woes of 2019 is in sight.
This season, the Titans had the worst defence in the NRL – conceding just over 27 points per game.
By comparison, Holbrook’s St Helens team conceded 13.6 point per game across their 29 regular season matches in Super League. Lenihan’s Bears conceded an average of 13.2 points in 23 ISC premiership rounds.
By way of comparison, the NRL’s best defensive team – Melbourne – let in a miserly 12.5 points per game.
At Cronulla, where Dymock was assistant coach to John Morris in 2019, the Sharks conceded 19.3 points per game, finishing seventh after 24 games.
Dymock said it is not hard to work out where the Titans’ biggest area for improvement lies.
“I have been under some good coaches, and they all focus on the same thing – having that intensity and integrity in your defence,” he said. “It’s no secret. Every commentator will tell you that defence wins games, we saw it in in the finals.
“For us at the Titans next year, we will be working hard to implement systems to make sure that everyone is on the same page. We will all be working on the same thing.
“If you are training hard, that is the way you play. That is what Justin is all about, and I am the same.”
Dymock said he hoped Titans fans would support the team by becoming Members in 2020, to be onboard for an exciting year for success-starved fans.
“I am really excited about joining the Titans,” Dymock said.
“Everyone knows the Gold Coast is a great city and a great place to live. But I am not going up there for the weather.
“I am going up there to work with Justin to give the people of the Gold Coast a team that they can be proud of.
“We know what the Titans Members want, because it is the same thing that fans from any club want.
“They want to see their team play well, they want to see them give 100 percent. They want them always competing, doing the little one-percenters. That is all anyone can ask.
“If they do those things, and still lose, well they can walk off the field with their heads held high. That is what the fans want.
“I know as a player, and even as a coach, if you try your guts out and you still fall short, the fans are happy for you.
“If you don’t put in, or look like you don’t want to be there, that is when the fans get upset because they think you are disrespecting your team and the jersey.
“They are paying their hard-earned money to come and watch and support you, so when you toss up rubbish … they don’t deserve that.
“They want to see effort, they want to see courage. In 2020, the Titans will give them that.”
