
It’s a pretty simple equation… win, and we’re in.
Today’s 12-6 victory to the Dragons over the Roosters has provided certainty for the Gold Coast’s finals hopes ahead of Sunday's Round 5 matchup against the Newcastle Knights.
Match: Titans v Knights
Round 5 -
home Team
Titans
3rd Position
away Team
Knights
6th Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
A win will secure a maiden playoffs birth, with the result of the Broncos v Parramatta game to determine the opponent, but should the Titans lose, as long as the margin remains either eight or less, the club will remain in a top four spot.
A nine-point defeat will leave it up to a percentage differential and should it be a 10-point loss or more, the Titans will fall out of contention - at least temporarily until the final game of the season is completed.
Not only is coach Jamie Feeney hoping to build some ascendency heading into the NRLW finals with a win against Newcastle, but he is also hoping to build combinations with a number of forced changes made this week.
"We have a couple of quality players missing and some forced changes coming in, so what we do need is not only build some momentum going into the semis but also build some combinations and get some confidence going in this week," Feeney said.
"Last week was definitely a must win for us, but this week is a must win and also a must play well to make sure we're in a good mindset going into the semis."
NRLW Titans v Broncos: Through the eyes of Jamie Feeney
Proud of the win over Queensland rivals the Broncos in the hard-fought 28-26 win at home, Feeney is hoping to back up last Saturday's success with more energy guarding their goal-line.
"We've worked extremely hard on our defence because we let ourselves down a little bit on the weekend," Feeney admitted.
"Attack is the easiest part of the game because everyone wants to hold the footy and score tries, but defence is hard and we let ourselves down because we put a lot of our energy into our attack on the weekend.
"Especially in that first opening eight minutes when we were up 12-0 up and in well in control of the game - we didn't put that energy into our defence, so we've focused a lot on that this week.
"The Knights have still got a lot of point scorers there that if we don't aim up and control, then we'll allow them to control the game and that's not where we want to be.
"But also rebuilding a few of the combinations that we've had to move around, making sure they're confident going into the weekend of playing around each other.
"Hopefully we'll put on a good performance and do enough to build that confidence going into hopefully one of the semis if we win tomorrow."