Gold Coast playmaker Toby Sexton says he is ready to step up and replace the injured Kieran Foran as he prepares for his first NRL game of the season against St George Illawarra on Sunday.
The 22-year-old says he is in the best mental frame of his career after learning plenty of lessons last season, when he played 19 games and lost 16 in a side that failed to fire.
His former schoolboy coach Brad Davis, now a Titans assistant, has been mentoring Sexton, and helped him rediscover his form and love of the game while playing for Tweed Heads in the Queensland Cup.
Foran on Tuesday succumbed to a calf strain he sustained against North Queensland in round four.
Sexton will play in the No.6 jersey and partner Tanah Boyd in the halves in the clash at Cbus Super Stadium.
“I will be ready to step up for ‘Foz’. I am in the best head space and I know I will be confident enough to do the job and take the opportunity,” Sexton told AAP.
“I’m enjoying my footy at the moment and it has been a great environment at Tweed Heads, which has made it an easy transition. I am good to go.
“Foz has has been unreal for me as a senior player mentor in my position this year too. I didn’t have that guidance last year when I was struggling.”
Sexton has his own sports psychologist he works with, but it is former Titans playmaker Davis who he said had been a rock this season.
“Losing a lot of games took a big toll on me mentally last year,” Sexton said.
“I am very competitive and want to win and I felt I was just too focused on the team and forgot about me and my own game.
“I am doing that well this year. Our assistant coach Brad Davis has been enormous for me. He coached me back at Palm Beach Currumbin High, and I go to him for advice or with video on my game.
“Brad was a halfback himself and his footy IQ is through the roof. He is a thinker about the game and I am as well.”
He said he had a relationship with Davis where they could talk footy non-stop for hours, but his old coach is honest with him too.
“If he has got something on his mind he won’t hold back, which I really admire,” Sexton said.
“He keeps it nice and simple too. Brad talks about doing two things well in a game, whether it be just my defence and kicking game. That sets up a lot of the good things that come off the back of it.”
© AAP 2023
