Taylor feels finals heat

TITANS teammates believe Ash Taylor is feeling the burden of his side’s finals fadeout as the under-fire halfback braces for a clash with Maroons rival Daly Cherry-Evans.

Cherry-Evans’ scrumbase duel with Taylor will be a key feature of a Manly-Titans showdown at Brookvale tomorrow night that will have a large bearing on which club avoids the wooden spoon.

In the pre-season, Titans coach Garth Brennan challenged Taylor, the club’s $3 million man, to be the senior playmaker who catapults the Gold Coast to the playoffs.

Instead, he has struggled to reprise the classy touches he showed in 2016, when he was named the NRL rookie of the year ahead of Nathan Cleary, the Penrith star who outpointed him last week.

While Cleary has ascended to the State of Origin arena and steered Penrith to another finals campaign, Taylor is at the nerve centre of a Titans team floundering in 13th place.

“If Ash has any aspirations of getting in that Queensland jersey he should watch CherryEvans in that last game (Origin III),” Titans back-rower Kevin Proctor said.