Jayden Campbell and most of his Titans teammates had never beaten the Roosters until last week, with the young halfback’s long-range intercept try turning the game on its head to help Gold Coast pick up its second win in a row.
The Titans were down after an hour but scored the final four tries of the contest, with Campbell picking off a Sandon Smith pass to spark the comeback.
They’re now only outside the top four on points differential, with Campbell promising to not take the foot off the throat ahead of Saturday’s showdown with the Dolphins.
“In the past you can get a bit complacent after winning two in a row, but I feel this year and moving forward that we’re saying that we’ve got to start back at zero,” he said.
“The NRL is hard week in, week out, so you’ve got to come to training the next week, start from zero and keep building at training.”
Campbell is still finding his feet in the No.7 jersey where he gets to play behind one of the most formidable forward packs in the NRL.
His running game has never been an issue, with Campbell spending plenty of time working on his kicking game and game management with Titans staff as well as Nick Malceski who is part of the Gold Coast Suns coaching crew.
“Probably controlling the game, that game management thing (has been the toughest thing to learn),” he said.
“I’m really lucky I’ve got a great coaching staff and a great team to help me out with that.
“I’m finding my feet every week. I’m not happy with where I’m at, but I’m happy with where I’ve come from.
“There are still some kick finishes that I could be better at to finish sets, and also what options to take and being a bit smarter around that.
“I’ve improved a lot with it (my defence) but there’s still a lot of room to grow.”
He faces another good challenge against the Dolphins who haven’t won a game and will be without inspirational skipper Tom Gilbert this weekend.
The Dolphins are only ahead of the Eels after the opening month of the season, with Gilbert to miss the all Queensland clash on Saturday night after he accepted a one-game ban for a high shot on Brisbane’s Kotoni Staggs.
Gilbert has been a workhorse to start the year after he missed all of 2024 with a knee injury, with the former Maroons forward switching from lock to the back row last week where he made 37 tackles and ran for 78 metres.
But he’ll be out this weekend, with reigning Dolphins player of the year Max Plath an option to move to the back row, while Connelly Lemuelu could also return from injury.
“Tom is a big loss. He does a lot of work and brings a lot of aggression and intensity, but ‘Plathy’ has a similar work ethic and will do a good job if he goes there,” Kenny Bromwich said.
The Dolphins were always going to have a few teething issues with Wayne Bennett no longer at the helm, but the loss of the master coach doesn’t explain schoolboy errors like not playing the ball properly.
Their attack has looked sluggish in the opening rounds, with the Dolphins averaging just 14 points per game despite boasting one of the most exciting backlines which was reduced to just throwing Herbie Farnworth the ball and hoping for him to create something out of nothing.
“If we get better with our completions and errors, we won’t have to make so many tackles. Then we will have more juice in attack and it will flow off the back of there,” Bromwich said.
“We have the boys with the strike power. We just need to get them more of the ball.”
https://thewest.com.au/news/campbells-scoop-the-key-people-helping-jayden-campbell-go-from-a-freakish-talent-to-an-elite-halfback-c-18217411
