The Gold Coast’s new recruit Reagan Campbell-Gillard is hoping his experience can provide support to the Titans forward pack and help unlock the potential in the team.
Despite being named player of the year for the Eels this past season, 'RCG' was not part of the plans of new coach Jason Ryles, with the Titans then moving to add him to their squad.
“I'm not going to go into too much details, but I said to Ryles, ‘tell me how it is’ and he felt like he wanted to go in a different direction," Campbell-Gillard said.
“I understand that; it's a business and everyone needs to understand that as well.
“I still had one more year left, but at my age (31) to secure my future, that was sort of main thing and having that security as well. The Titans came there with the three years, so at my age, three years is a lifetime.
“I am just pretty excited to get back to work and get into the routine and the grind and see what happens.
“Sh*t happens, you know, that's just rugby league and how the business works.
“They don't want me, then that's alright. I'm fully okay with that and I've landed up here on a great spot on the Gold Coast.
“So like I said before, pretty excited to get to work and see what we can do for next year."
Speaking after his first pre-season training session with his new club having made the move to Queensland last week, Campbell-Gillard said he was excited to join a forward pack with representative stars including David Fifita, Moeaki Fotuaika and captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, who is returning from an ACL injury suffered in Round 3 of the 2024 season.
“I've come to take the pressure off Tino; Tino's coming back from an injury and a bad one as well,” Campbell-Gillard said.
“So with myself and Moey and the other boys on the bench with Jaimin [Jolliffe] as well; I think if we could take the pressure off Tino, then he's not doing a lot of work to get the team forward.
“I'm happy to do that role and I'll do it for him.”
Campbell-Gillard – who maintained representative aspirations of his own after playing for New South Wales and Fiji – also saw the premiership potential in the side who have undeniably underperformed in recent season due to a range of reasons.
“It's always the dream and the goal to obviously chase one,” Campbell-Gillard said.
“There's a lot of boys that have racked up some numbers now in terms of games and playing four or five seasons now.
“You need quality and experience as well.
“Pretty excited to see what we can do. I think we can push for a definitely a top eight, I think we're getting to the top eight and push for a top four and we'll see what happens.
“They're a quality side and a quality team and you just got to look at the 1-17 and it's pretty appealing.
“It's making sure that we can stay focused for the full season and not dropping off and it starts with the pre-season, building a nice combination and making sure that we're doing everything right to put ourselves in a great position for the season.”
