INJURED TITANS CAPTAIN TELLS: I’LL MENTOR NEW TALENT
Injured skipper keen to make impact with Titans’ Next Gen
HIS 2019 campaign may be over but Titans captain Ryan James believes he can still have an offfield impact as a mentor for the besieged NRL club’s emerging forwards.
Speaking publicly for the first time since suffering a seasonending knee injury last month, the 27-year-old the Bulletin he could yet play a key role as he makes inroads into his recovery.
“Hopefully I can get to work with some of the younger fronties (front-rowers) and talk to everyone about stuff outside of footy,” said the 144-game veteran, who has been excited by the rise of the likes of Max King, Moeaki Fotuaika and Jai Whitbread.
“A couple of guys have surprised me this year with how much they had grown.”
INJURED Gold Coast captain Ryan James is hoping to mentor the Titans’ emerging forwards talent as he makes fast progress in his recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
The 27-year-old will not return to the NRL field until the start of next year but has taken satisfaction from the process compared to when he did his knee midway through 2011.
“The recovery has gone pretty good,” James said.
“It’s way easier than my first one because you sort of know what’s coming.
“My last one was an ACL, medial, meniscus whereas this one is just straight ACL. It took me ages last time to start walking pretty good range.
“A week in (this time), I reckon I was where I was after a month last time, so I’m pretty lucky. I know there is a lot of hard work ahead of me but that’s footy and that’s life. There’s plenty of worse off people in the world than me.”
James is hoping to continue being a senior figure, including in areas such as corporate, around Parkwood during his rehabilitation.
“Hopefully I can get to work with some of the younger fronties (front-rowers) and talk to everyone about stuff outside of footy because if you think too much about footy it starts to consume you,” he said.
“So if I can just talk to them and get to know them a bit better, it’s going to be better for us in the long run. But if they ask for help and if I can see somewhere that I can give them help, I will put my hand up.”
The 144-game veteran has been excited by the rise of the likes of Max King, Moeaki Fotuaika and Jai Whitbread.
“A couple of guys have surprised me this year with how much they had grown over the off-season. Someone like Maxy King really found a voice over the off-season,” he said.
James is also keeping busy working with older brother Brad on his 1967 Mustang and renovating a house in Tugun.