'Loungeroom chaos': Fogarty's nervous wait

Jamal Fogarty could've passed as a Roosters fan last Thursday night as he cheered them on from his Gold Coast home during the second half of their win over the Raiders.

He backed up 24 hours later as he watched the Sharks threaten to ruin the Titans' finals chances before Melbourne's class took over late to give Fogarty's men a winning target.

The number 11 was stuck in his mind for the next 36 hours with the side's finals chances hinging on achieving at least that winning margin against the Warriors last Sunday.

"I've got two little girls at home so I set up a movie for them in the spare room and tuned in from the couch," Fogarty told NRL.com.

"I knew it wasn't going to be fun, I was super nervous but with the games we had to focus on being Thursday and Friday at least we were able to find out early.

"When things were going good I was cheering and carrying on. I didn't think I'd ever be supporting another side, I felt like a passionate fan.

"When it wasn't going so well I started swearing at the TV. The way the Raiders played in the first half I was thinking 'oh no' but then that result fell our way.

"The way Melbourne and Cronulla were playing I thought the Sharks were going to get the win throughout that game.

"No team wants to play finals by waiting for other teams to get the results for us.

"It's a good learning curve for us this year to be more consistent next year so we make it a bit easier on ourselves instead of waiting for the last round."

Irrespective of how they qualified, Fogarty takes pride in co-captaining the Titans to their first finals appearance since 2016.

In that same year, the NRL late bloomer was part of feeder club Burleigh's Queensland Cup grand final win over Redcliffe.

The match against the Roosters this Saturday will arguably be the biggest of his NRL career but he expects the nerves experienced in previous lower grade finals to hold him in good shape.

"The way that I see nerves is a good thing, it means you really care about something," he said.

"When you think too much into it you might do things that aren't usually in your routine.

"Our squad is so young and for most of the boys, we're playing in our first finals series.

"It was a weird situation walking into the game last week knowing we had to win by an exact amount of points because the energy was something else and the margin made it nerve-racking as well.

"We did well under pressure and I really thought we used that to our advantage. I think that can help us again against the Roosters."

Fogarty concedes he's learning on the run in a halves combination alongside off-contract Tyrone Peachey but the free-flowing style of play from his partner enables him to relax into a game.

"Having Ash [Taylor] in the halves all year to having Peach the last couple of weeks, our combination is building on the run," he said.

"I think the style we both play suits a dry track so hopefully we can get that in Townsville on Saturday and put on a good show.

"I don't think there's going to be an advantage for either team this week."

Don't Blink or you'll miss a moment of the NRL finals - tickets are on sale now at NRL Tickets