After spending a month on the sidelines watching his team's finals aspirations go into freefall Kevin Proctor's challenge to win back the respect and trust of his teammates starts on Friday night, and with that his quest to reclaim his position as a captain of the club.
There was an element of surprise when in February Proctor was unveiled alongside Ryan James as co-captains of the Titans for 2017 but given his playing record, renowned work ethic and status within the game he was viewed as the type of leader a young squad would respond well to.
Those thoughts were thrown into chaos when Proctor and fellow Kiwi international Jesse Bromwich were allegedly caught with an illicit substance in the hours after New Zealand's loss to the Kangaroos in Canberra in May.
Despite the fact that the Storm issued Bromwich with a two-game suspension as part of the punishment they handed down the Titans took a strong stance and imposed a four-game ban.
Gold Coast have won just one of the four games that Proctor has missed and fallen from 10th on the Telstra Premiership table to 13th and in danger of dropping further should they lose to South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
As part of Proctor's punishment that included a four-game ban, $20,000 fine and 50 hours of community service he was stripped of the co-captaincy honour, an honour James believes he will be able to win back in time.
"It's definitely a desire of his," James said of Proctor's eagerness to be co-captain again.
"He's a leader at the club and in due time he'll get the respect back and he's going to work towards that and I think it will come.
"He's been doing a lot of stuff in the community, I think he's been doing some stuff with the Salvos and some of the junior leagues as well.
"It's always great to go out there and give back to the community because it always makes you feel good yourself.
"It's just great to have him back. Little bit more leadership around the playing group and it's just great to have him back in the team."
Given the injury toll the club is currently experiencing and the trio of players unavailable due to Origin commitments Proctor's return is timely, coach Neil Henry explaining just how much ground he has to make up in the second half of the season.
"He knows he's let the boys down by not being able to participate in the last four games and we've only won one out of those last four," said Henry.
"He's keen to get out there, punch out some good minutes and be very solid on the field.
"He's been around training, talking to the younger players and getting on with doing what he has to do in terms of his requirements and his community service.
"He's been going out and helping in schools, we had an Academy here and he was here on the weekend doing that as well.
"He's been fully committed to what his requirements are around what happened but to his credit he's been a voice at training and shown some leadership there as well."
