Beau Fermor’s path to 100 NRL games hasn’t been straightforward and that’s exactly what makes this weekend’s milestone so significant.
The Gold Coast back-rower will bring up his century for the club when the Titans host the Canberra Raiders at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday, a moment that once felt a long way off after two knee reconstructions threatened to derail his career before it truly began.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Fermor said.
“I think if you told me when I was six that I would have played 100 NRL games, I’d be pretty stoked with that, he said."
"So to do it all for the Titans as well is something that I’m really proud of.”
Fermor arrived on the Coast in 2020 still rehabbing an ACL injury and, after suffering another serious setback with a second injury, admits the milestone may have come sooner under different circumstances.
“I came here, I was still out with my ACL… and then been through another one since then,” he said.
“Probably should have got there a while ago, but I’ll get there this weekend. I’m excited.”
While the milestone is one worth celebrating, Fermor was candid about his own form through the opening rounds of the season and the work required to get back to his best.
“Probably not my best season to date… I’m not happy with the way I’ve played over the first seven games,” he said.
“I’m really working hard at training and in the gym just to get myself back to my best.”
Part of that improvement, he believes, lies in rediscovering his physicality and continuing to build combinations on the left edge.
“There’s probably a few things… around my mindset and my physicality out there,” Fermor said.
“And building my combination with Lachie (Ilias) there at six, as that’s only a few weeks old now.”
That growing cohesion has been evident however in one of the Titans’ key areas of improvement so far this season in edge defence.
After identifying it as a weakness last year, Fermor says the side has taken clear steps forward in tightening up on the fringes.
“I think on a consistent basis it’s improved,” he said.
“Especially on our edges, I think we’ve been a lot better. That was an area that after last year we really needed to improve on.
“We’ve had a few slip-ups, but as a whole we’ve been pretty good, and we need to keep building because the best teams don’t have those moments.”
The Titans’ overall trajectory has followed a similar pattern, with a slow start followed by more consistent performances, but Fermor knows consistency alone won’t define their season.
“We started terribly, but we’ve been pretty consistent over the last six games,” he said.
“We’re at the point now where we can’t be happy with being competitive week in, week out. We need to be winning more games than we’re losing.
“We’re not in the business of coming close, we’re in the business of winning.”
That focus will be put to the test against a physical Raiders outfit also chasing a turnaround in form.
“They’re really strong ball carriers across the park, really physical,” Fermor said.
“We’re going to have to be really good with our tackling this weekend.
"They’re desperate for a win too, so it’ll be a good game with two desperate teams going at it.”
As for representative ambitions, Fermor isn’t looking beyond the job at hand, even after a taste of Origin football last year.
“I don’t think I deserve to be there at the moment,” he said.
“I haven’t played my best footy… I’m just focusing on getting back to my best here and that will look after itself.”
For now, the focus is simple, celebrate a hard-earned milestone and help deliver the result that would make it even more meaningful, a win at home in front of the Titans faithful.
