We won’t throw in towel: Proctor
Titans refuse to give up on finals
KEVIN Proctor says the Titans will not stop fighting to make the finals despite the Gold Coast facing an almost insurmountable task after their loss to Penrith.
The loss on Saturday and the Titans’ poor points differential leaves them needing to win all six of their remaining games to make the top eight.
But Proctor, who again played 80 minutes, says the players’ resolve remains strong and they will not give up the fight for a finals spot.
“Our hopes are still high,” Proctor said, despite the Titans needing to win games against the Broncos (third) and Roosters (second) on the run home.
“We’ll take it week by week but we won’t give up and throw in the towel, we’ll keep fighting until the end.
“Where there’s hope, we’ll still keep going.”
Proctor said his belief was shared by his teammates despite their latest loss.
“Everyone’s still confident, especially if we get on a bit of a run and we come into the back end of the year with all those wins under our belt, we’ll be a pretty hard team to stop,” he said.
“All the boys have got that in the back of our mind but we’ve got to get back to the drawing board this week and work on the Tigers and just take it week by week.”
“Week by week” is one of the biggest cliches in football. However, the Titans have no choice but to follow that mantra with their hopes all but dashed if they lose again.
“Especially trying to keep the boys’ spirits high, we just try and think about one week at a time and try to think about all the positives instead of the negatives,” Proctor said.
While 28 premiership points has traditionally delivered clubs a spot in the top eight, the congestion of the ladder suggests 30 points will be needed this season.
If the cut-off is 28, it will come with the need for a strong for-and-against record.
But with the Titans’ points differential at -50 and the Canberra Raiders – the highestranked of the four teams, including the Titans, currently locked on 18 points – at +21, they have almost no hope of making up the difference.
It’s part of the reason the Titans are so disappointed in their own performance against the Panthers.
“We kind of beat ourselves in the second half,” Proctor said. “We were playing so good and even though we had a couple of injuries, that’s no excuse, we still should have done better in that second half and
stuck to the game plan but we went away from that and they scored two tries off our mistakes.”
The injury curse that has dogged the Titans all season has continued, with form centre Konrad Hurrell tearing a hamstring and likely to miss the next four weeks.
“It doesn’t look too good for Koni, he’s a big loss for us,” Proctor said. “He’s been playing some really good footy and he’s been looking really good and he’s been doing a really good just for us, so it’s going to be a massive loss if he goes down for us.”
Proctor was forced into the centres for a stint with Hurrell off but finished the game in the forwards, again turning in an 80-minute effort as he works to rebuild his trust within the team. “I’ve just come back with the attitude where I try to win everyone’s respect back,” the former co-captain said.
WE KIND OF BEAT OURSELVES IN THE SECOND HALF KEVIN PROCTOR