Tate's comeback fears: "I don't want to look silly"

He has represented both state and country and won a grand final with Brisbane in 2006 but Warriors centre Brent Tate says a fear of failure is driving his comeback from serious injury this weekend.<br><br>Tate hasn’t played a premiership match since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in Round 3 last year – the second time in his career that he has suffered a season-ending knee injury.<br><br>Despite playing around 50 minutes in a trial against Manly two weeks ago, the 28-year-old tells NRL.com he has mixed emotions ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Gold Coast.<br><br>“I’m looking forward to it… but I’m pretty nervous as well,” Tate today said. “It’s not really even about the knee – I think it’s just about succeeding.<br><br>“I don’t want to be made to look silly. It’s a fear of failing. I guess whenever you come back from something like this you’re worried about doing your job well, because there is so much expectation going into that game.<br><br>“In this case the test will be a full 80 minutes in the Queensland heat.<br><br>“But I’m glad I got to play the trial against Manly because I would have hated to have gone into Round 1 with no game time.”<br><br>It’s been a difficult pre-season for Tate. Still restricted by his knee, he only returned to full training a day before running out against the 2008 premiers.<br><br>“I joined the team on the Friday and played on the Saturday,” he explained. “It’s been a real stop-start pre-season for me.<br><br>“I’ve had limited time but I guess you just have to trust yourself and trust your body.”<br><br>Tate said he could at least take comfort from the fact that he has been through a similar injury before.<br><br>In 2007, his final season with the Broncos was ended prematurely when he hurt his left knee in the third State of Origin game and he spent his first pre-season in New Zealand going through similar rehabilitation.<br><br>“I think it helps – if there is a bit of soreness here and there you tend to know what it means and that it’s all normal,” he said.<br><br>Certainly the Warriors will be sweating on Tate’s return following their forgettable 2009 season.<br><br>Touted as one of the competition heavyweights, they won their first two games against Parramatta and Manly but the loss of their star centre against Brisbane the following week signaled a stunning slide that saw the club win just one of their next eight games before eventually finishing 14th.<br><br>Tate said it was too early to start talking finals football again but insisted the Warriors were determined to make amends for 2009.<br><br>“At the end of the day, a lot of guys are motivated to do well because we had such an ordinary year last year,” he said. <br><br>“That’s the biggest thing in our favour – there are a lot of guys wanting to do well. <br><br>“I don’t want to go putting any expectations on us because we had such high expectations last year – and look what happened. <br><br>“I know with this team that when we look too far ahead and start talking about semis, it doesn’t work for us. <br><br>“It’s a dynamic that just doesn’t work for this group. <br><br>“When we focus on the side we’re playing this week we’re a 100 per cent better team.<br><br>“But we’ve done plenty of work in the pre-season – we had to work really hard and we’ve done that. <br><br>“You can’t really read too much into the trials but we’ve gained some confidence out of them. <br><br>“I think we’re in good shape physically and a good space mentally so we’ll go out there and give it our best, that’s for sure. <br><br>“Personally I think it’s a great way to start the year too – Round 1 at Skilled Park. It will be a great atmosphere.”<br><br> <table width="70%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"> <tbody><tr> <td><strong><img src="http://www.nrl.com//Portals/0/galleries/Fixture_Cycler_Images/dt_logo_80.jpg" width="80" align="left" height="60">Brent Tate</strong> : <br> <strong>Dream Team Value:</strong> $148,900 | <strong>Position:</strong> Wing / Centre<br> Do you want Brent in your Dream Team? <a href="http://dreamteam.nrl.com" target="_blank"><strong>Add him today!</strong></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br>