He told them on game day he was going to deliver something special and now Titans fullback Tyrone Roberts knows he has an insufferable week ahead of him as cousin James Roberts revels in scoring Brisbane's match-winner on Friday night.
The south-east Queensland showdown was a special occasion for the Roberts family with James, Tyrone and Tyronne Roberts-Davis all sharing the NRL stage together for the first time.
The plan originally was for the trio to be playing together at the Titans but instead James's move to the Broncos in 2016 came back to bite Gold Coast in a bad way, his hat-trick completed just two minutes from full-time following a Matt Gillett charge-down.
To make matters worse, the Titans defenders left grasping at thin air in his wake were his two cousins with whom he is extremely close.
It heaped misery on a Titans team that has registered just one win in their opening seven weeks of the season but if Tyrone and Tyronne thought they would be shown some sympathy, they were sorely mistaken.
"He rubs it in every week. Every week. No matter who we play he just rubs it in," Tyrone said, revealing that James was in the Titans sheds revelling his match-winning performance.
"I know something's coming this week, he's just going to rub it in even more.
"That's just James, that's his humour. He loves it but that's family and you've just got to move on."
The third hat-trick of his career and second against the Titans marked a brilliant performance from James who sent the Titans defensive line into fits of anxiousness with every touch of the football.
He busted 11 tackles on his way to registering 181 run metres, making good on his pre-game promise to produce the goods against family and his former club.
"We were with him today. He just loves playing against us because he wants to prove himself," Tyrone explained.
"He played good, he deserved it.
"We were trying to get him all night, just couldn't get him."
