Frustrated but focused: Kelly knows Titans can turn the tide

Still chasing their first win of the season, Titans centre Brian Kelly has admitted it was frustrating to see his side’s effort come up short with simple errors proving costly every week.

Kelly has been a shining light in recent weeks, but said as a collective, the team have continued to shoot themselves in the foot and it was the case once again as they let a 24-22 half-time lead against Manly slip to go down 34-30.

“It’s frustrating,” Kelly told NRL.com after the Gold Coast's six straight loss.

“(Our first win) is getting close... I just feel like we get better in one area, then we drop in another.

“We completed well in the first half and 30 points with the attack’s plenty of tries to win a game. It's just if you keep letting them down your end, any team in the NRL will get a try. It's just about completing and holding them out.

“So, we're building - and the team feels that - it's just it gets frustrating.”

Their Round 7 loss at home was an especially cruel blow as it came after putting in another huge effort in their golden-point loss the week before to the Raiders.

Kelly’s competitive nature, however, has come to the fore in recent matches with fans seeing him display a new skill – nailing a sideline conversion to take the game into extra time with the first conversion attempt of his NRL career.

“I kicked (goals) in Under 20s, but since I've been playing NRL, there's always been a half or another outside back that's taken a role with the kicks,” Kelly said.

“(Against the Raiders) Tanah [Boyd] was out and JC [Jayden Campbell], he hurt his knee there.

“I just did one or two before warm up and just in case and I happened to have the last two kicks. The first one was sort of a cobweb blowout one, I shanked it, but I felt the second one come off the boot sweet and it went through.”

Although Kelly – who this year has reached the twin milestones of 150 NRL games and 100 games as a Titan – doesn’t expect to be called on again anytime soon, it is still something he has continued to practise, just in case.

“At training (I do) two kicks, both sides left and right,” the Indigenous All Stars representative said. “But Tanah's boot's nice and clean, he got all the goals (against Manly), he's all good.”

This week, the side had a short turnaround and are in New Zealand preparing to take on the Warriors in what’s set to be another tough encounter for their ANZAC Day game.

“There was a few hiccups out there [against Manly] and I feel like they are just individual hiccups (but) we're having a bit too many of them.

“One's alright for one player to do, but to have five or six hiccups here and there, it builds up. We have just got to limit those. It's a short turnaround, so we've got to get our heads on quick and try and get a win against Warriors.”

While the start of the season has not been what they have wanted, Ballina junior said he was enjoying being coached by Des Hasler, after he missed out on playing under him at Manly, having moved back ‘home’ to the Gold Coast a year before Hasler’s official return to coaching at the Sea Eagles in 2019.

“I had a meeting with him just before I left and he was trying to get me to stay there,” Kelly said with a smile.

“But I was like, ‘oh, I might go back up home, Dessie’.

“He's back up here with me and I enjoy getting coached by him.

"He's deadly. I love Des … I've got little jarjums, little kids of my own and he always comes up and plays with them and he's a wonderful fellow like that.”