SAMI’S SECRET:

HOW TITANS’ BOOM BACK FOUND HIS ON-FIELD MOJO

PHILLIP Sami should be picking up the phone sometime this week and thanking his cousin for the torturous summer regimen that helped him become an NRL regular.

Sami scored three tries in the Titans’ shock win against Brisbane on Sunday night to continue his journey from NRL newcomer to regular.

At the rate he’s progressing, Sami will be hard to dislodge from Garth Brennan’s team. It’s no surprise after the work he put in over the off-season.

A talented teen, Sami represented Queensland at under-20 level last year and broke through to make his NRL debut as the Titans suffered a shocking injury toll.

But he knew if he was to cement a place under the new coach, he needed to do more.

“During the off-season I made it a goal of mine to come back fitter than I was last year and I did that,” Sami revealed recently.

“It was all conditioning, just running and stuff, just to fill the lungs up and come back better than I did last year.

“I did that with my cousin pretty much the whole off-season, we did gym together and everything.”

Sami’s cousin, Bradley Sami – a former Tigers under-20 squad member – encouraged, poked and cajoled his young

mate into slogging it out through a sweltering southeast Queensland summer to ensure he made the most of his chance of a career in elite footy.

“He was a big factor to me coming back fitter than I was last year and I’m very grateful for that,” Sami said.

“We’d go running down to the local park and then we would go the gym at (Ipswich) Jets and he would tell me to get up and go training.

“I’d wake up (in the heat) and go, ‘I don’t want to do it today’. But he’d tell me to get up or he’d come to my house to pick me up so I wouldn’t have an option.”

Sami’s dedication was rewarded in the off-season when the Titans extended his contract until 2020, tying up the young back, whose speed and footwork make him equally at home on the wing, in the centres or at fullback.