Time for talking finished

Peats declares his side ready to prove themselves on the field

IT’S time to walk the walk.

Titans forward Nathan Peats says the team written off by many in the league community have high hopes for season 2018 but it’s now time to back up their belief with onfield actions.

The Titans are rated wooden-spoon contenders by many experts and are $51 premiership chances with bookmakers Ladbrokes – equal-biggest outsiders with the Wests Tigers.

“Everyone seems to think we’ll be wooden spooners,” Peats said.

“We’ve talked really positive through the pre-season and the coach has backed us up with that and everyone’s been really positive.

“But talk finishes now, it comes down to proving it on the field and hopefully we can do that.”

The Titans have such belief in the work that they’ve done over the pre-season they have hopes of making the eight – although Peats said finals had not been widely spoken about.

“We haven’t spoken about it internally but it’s obviously a huge goal,” he said.

“You don’t train hard for four months and then play 26 weeks of footy not to make the finals.

“Everyone seems to be writing us off and that’s fine, everyone’s entitled to their opinions but we know within our own group how hard we’ve trained and how well we’ve gelled and hopefully we can show it to fans and members on the weekend.”

Peats will be named by coach Garth Brennan today to play against Canberra in the season opener at Cbus Super Stadium on Sunday after a long recovery.

The amount of work he has put in over the past six months to ensure he is fit for Sunday is reflected by the team’s off-season preparation under new coach Garth Brennan.

And he said the players had to take confidence from that.

“You have to be (confident) going into the season,” he said.

“If you come into the season thinking: ‘we’re no chance’ or ‘we’re going to be hopeless’, then you’re going to relate to that.

“I’m sure there’s 15 other teams out there that have trained their a **** off this preseason and thinking they’re going to start the season off well and aim for the finals.

“But we know how hard we’ve worked and hopefully we can relate that to our form on the field.”