Hurt, but Wallace positive on future
JARROD Wallace can see a successful culture building at the Titans despite the club missing the finals this season.
The former Brisbane Bronco returned to the Gold Coast from a club where success was an expectation and making the finals was routine.
To miss the eight after yesterday’s 26-4 loss to the Wests Tigers hurts but Wallace can see things building on the Gold Coast.
“Obviously it’s not really the way I would have liked it to pan out but the whole year wasn’t really the way your whole team, and whole club, would have liked it to pan out with injuries,” he said.
“(Success) is demanded now but for us to be a top-eight team, we need to be playing consistent footy.
“It’s always a team effort and we’ve just got to make sure we’re better every week.”
Wallace said credit had to be given to the Titans for their effort to fight through an unprecedented injury crisis.
“I’ve still got a lot of praise for the boys for putting in a lot of effort when we had four or five (under) 20s playing at one time,” he said.
“Guys that never even thought they were going to debut this year did, and they really held their own.”
But he said the difference between the Titans and a club like the Broncos was consistency.
“We seem to turn up for the big sides and win games – I think the only one we lost was the Broncs game – we beat Melbourne, beat Cronulla (twice) and then as soon as we play a team that isn’t doing as well as them or isn’t in the top eight, we don’t play as good,” Wallace said. “It’s really disappointing and we’ll never be a top-eight football side if that’s our thoughts.”
Wallace has made huge strides in 2017, becoming a regular NRL starter before winning a spot in Queensland’s Origin team and could become a Maroons fixture for the next decade.
But he does not want individual glory to come without team success and was bitterly disappointed last night.
“I play for the team every week and my performance I do for the team to try and better myself, and to make sure I’m doing the right thing for the team to win games,” he said.
“It is disappointing and I look back now and think, ‘Could I have done a few things better to get a few more wins?’
“But there’s plenty of time to do that in the off-season; we’ve just got to focus on the last few games now.”
– EMMA GREENWOOD