League icon Darren Lockyer says a lack of game-management rather than attitude issues are what is behind the Gold Coast Titans’ alarming trend of second-half fade-outs.
Gold Coast was left stunned after coughing up a 26-point lead to the Dolphins last week, with skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui slamming what he called a “shit attitude” from his side in the aftermath.
“We didn’t stop tries we didn’t want to defend our line,” Fa’asuamaleaui told Triple M after the loss to the Dolphins.
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“Just frustrating. Two weeks in a row, teams don’t do that. You learn from one week and then come out and do that again.
“It’s embarrassing. It makes you emotional, makes you angry especially on a day like this.”
Lockyer conceded that attitude “was a small part of it”, but said the real problem was elsewhere for Justin Holbrook’s side, calling the coach’s second-half tactics “all wrong”.
“At half time, (leading 26-6) they came back out and the mentality was, ‘Let’s just keep playing footy’,” he told Wide World of Sports’ QLDER.
“In hindsight, that wasn’t the right call. I think they needed to start grinding the second half out, in other words, kick the opposition to death, put them in the corners, make them work out and create that scoreboard pressure.
”I think attitude was a small part of it, but I actually think the tactics or the game plans of the Titans in the second half was all wrong.”
Lockyer pointed to the inexperience of 22-year-old halfback Tanah Boyd as one of the reasons why the Titans struggle to see out games after building early leads.
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“He is still learning the craft of game-management,” he said.
“Kieran Foran, who has been there for a long time, he’s only just come back from an injury.
“I just think it’s a learning curve for someone like Tanah Boyd.
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“Once you get in front, what you need to do is build pressure to apply that scoreboard pressure and almost break down the other team to force them to make errors. They’ve got to start thinking more like that.
“Once they hit the front, they’ve actually got to adapt their game to the scoreboard.”
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