James to help sway Latrell to the Titans
didn’t want to let go of when I came back to training.
“I wanted to do everything I could and wanted to be around the club and do everything I could to stay here.
“When I came back from what I had been through the switch flicked.”
Farmer was a development player going into 2019 but was given a two-year deal and a spot inside Gold Coast’s top 30 in August.
The 193cm tall back-rower – who used to get tired easily and lack drive in his legs, which was later found to be caused by the cancer – is determined to make his NRL debut in 2020 after beating illness. “There are some great players here and I’m just here to work as hard as I can until the coach says there is a debut,” Farmer said.
“Until he says that, keep working hard.”
Farmer said he was impressed by coach Justin Holbrook’s early influence on the Titans squad, which has enjoyed a more balanced preseason
I’ll campaign that wasn’t just grinding physical work.
“The pre-season has been awesome. It’s been different to what we did last year (under Garth Brennan).
“It’s been a one of the most fun pre-seasons I have done. It’s gruelling but we are enjoying it.
“The first day we got the football in our hands. Last year we didn’t see a football for like six weeks.”
THE bond between Indigenous All-Stars teammates Ryan James and Latrell Mitchell could prove the key to delivering the NSW ace to the Gold Coast in 2020.
Titans skipper James has spent a week close to the Roosters star at a cultural camp ahead of the All-Stars clash with the New Zealand Maori All-Stars at CBUS Super Stadium in February.
James said players spent the retreat giving back to country and connecting with ancestral ways of life, but he couldn’t resist the chance to sell Mitchell on the Titans.
“I think everyone was trying to get in his ear,” James said.
“It would be great to have him, he’s one of those once-ina-lifetime players.
“He is his own player but he does remind you of Greg Inglis. He’s a goalkicker too and they’re invaluable because he guarantees you two points after a try.
“Those players that can score the tries and (convert) them, especially coming off last year when he had 200 or something points … it’s amazing what he can do.
“If he was to come up here it would be pretty great.”
Time will tell if James’ salesmanship will deliver the signature of the hottest backline prospect on the market.
The front-rower said Mitchell, 22, had dropped no hints on his decision, only that he would join the club that best provides for him and his family.
If that means the club with the deepest coffers, the Titans are behind the eight-ball with the cashed-up Wests Tigers armed with the largest war chest for 2020.