The Gold Coast Titans faced a strange must-win game in Round 4. Had they not beaten the Wests Tigers on Sunday night, they'd have just ticked past one year since their last NRL win.

Instead, the prospect of a winless calendar year is gone with the last-gasp 28-23 win Justin Holbrook's first as coach. It wasn't one they jagged either. Legitimate improvements were on display as the Titans finally ended their 14-game losing streak. They all of a sudden look engaged, hungry and full of promise.

Holbrook was excited during the post-match press conference:

"I have spent a lot of time giving the players self-belief ... and now that we've won I think they showed that if you keep hanging in there and working hard you can get the result you need. It is only the start."

He's right; it is only the start.

The Titans face a long road to the finish line, though.

It will pain Titans fans to relive the 14-game losing streak again, but it's necessary to look at the last 15 games, not just the last, when looking at where they go from here. 

Titans vs NRL

Despite sending out a forward pack that carried names like Jai Arrow, Jarrod Wallace and Moeaki Fotuaika, the Titans managed just 1,402 running metres per game - 231 metres short of the NRL average throughout the losing streak. A pack full of recognisable names you'd expect to offer resistance through the middle was cast aside every week. It made points exceptionally hard to come by with the Titans failing to score in double digits in seven of the 14 games.

The Titans scored just 11.1 points per game. An aimless attack made for easy defending. As described when the losing streak hit three games last year, "the Titans look more like a junior team wrapping their head around lead runners in a block shape than they do a well-oiled and professional football side."

Ashley Taylor was rarely on the field. When he was, the million-dollar man looked like a Q-Cup battler. AJ Brimson is a talent, but at 21-years old and barely 30 first-grade games to his name, can't be expected to put a team on his back just yet. And Tyrone Peachey, well, nobody was ever quite sure he wanted to be on the Gold Coast in the first place, and it showed. 

The Titans' attack - if you can call it that - throughout the losing streak was an eye-sore.

The rest of the NRL averaged 20.2 points per game throughout the 14 rounds. Unsurprisingly, the NRL-average 3.7 line breaks per game dwarfed the Gold Coast's 2.4 per game. They failed to break the line more than once in five of the 14 consecutive losses.

Games against the Titans became unopposed training sessions for the rest of the NRL. The extra 24.3 tackles (against the NRL average) the Titans defence needed to make was caused by leaking a disastrous 34.7 points per game. The Titans left edge defence made for a fruitful avenue for opposing sides to concede an NRL-high 50 tries down that side in 2019.

So, that's the bad. The Round for 4 win over the Tigers offers some hope, though.

Ending The Drought

The Titans impressed on Sunday afternoon. Most importantly, the contributors needed to lift the Titans off the bottom over the long term all featured.

You always know what to expect from Kevin Proctor and Jai Arrow. Neither leaves anything out on the field, and Round 4 was no different.

Fotuaika - the most underappreciated player in the game right now - chipped in with 217 running metres. He's averaging 156.5 metres per game already this season, and that number is sure to go up. It bears repeating, if not for Payne Haas up the M1, Fotuaika would be the young prop taking the league by storm.

Holbrook has found his answer in the centres. Young Tonumaipea was brilliant in his debut. Infinitely better than Peachey defensively, Tonumaipea also added 159 metres on 19 carries (only Fotuaika had more) along with three tackle-breaks.

Brian Kelly will eventually land back in the centres for the Titans but is playing well on the wing in the meantime. He provides the Titans with the unpredictability they've lacked when things become stale or disjointed. It's no surprise that he provided them with the match-winning play on Sunday. 

Bryce Cartwright appears to have received a shot in the arm with his 80 minutes in Round 4 serviceable enough to hand him the 12 jersey in Round 5. Meanwhile, Keegan Hipgrave has matured following a lengthy stint on the sideline to add significant pressure to Cartwright in the starting line up. 

But perhaps most importantly, Taylor played well after a poor start. His intercepted pass leading to Wests early 12-0 lead could have crippled Taylor and the Titans. Instead, he rallied back. The team rallied around him, and the Titans played out 60 minutes at a level that could compete with any team in the competition.

It's only a number, but having the number six on his back appears to have changed Taylor's mentality. He's still directing the side more than Jamal Fogarty in the seven jersey. That's probably not going to change given Taylor's standing in the team and the leadership it commands. However, and it's a lazy phrase, he played a lot more of what is in front of him on Sunday. 

You can see Taylor marshalling the troops and pushing his outside backs further behind him in preparation for the shift here. Kelly and Copley know what's coming, but more importantly, Taylor knows what's coming. He'd run a similar shift with the same dummy pass the set prior, only on that occasion, he took the tackle.

Starting further across the field and adding Fogarty into the mix (Taylor received the ball from Arrow in the first crack) allows Proctor to get through as a decoy and attract Benji Marshall. Joey Leilua and David Nofoluma shoot up at Kelly and Copley just as they had done on the previous play, and Taylor puts a perfect grubber in behind them.

Let's face it, Taylor won't be able to justify his salary before the end of the 2021 season when his current contract ends. That doesn't mean he can't be a valuable contributor in the meantime, though. If Taylor can replicate this form across the next few months and develop some much-needed consistency, the Titans can trouble the middling sides in the competition regularly enough to avoid the wooden spoon.

Because they're still very much wooden spoon contenders...

One win doesn't change that. As the numbers throughout the losing streak suggest, this isn't something that is likely to be fixed by two competition points. 

Round 5 & Beyond

The Titans face a Rabbitohs outfit that is playing with a similar level of desperation in Round 5. With the same number of wins as the Titans but much higher expectations hanging above them, the Rabbitohs are getting into must-win territory. 

The Stats Insider model isn't tipping the Titans to embark on a winning streak just yet.

But with the Dragons, a struggling Broncos team, the Sharks and Warriors to come in the following month, the Titans can begin to chip away at the win column. At the time of writing, they have a 4.4% chance of making the Top 8. While finals footy is little more than a dream, a middling draw according to the schedule difficulty model is enough to set rising to 12th or 13th by the end of Round 20 as an achievable goal. 

That's what Holbrook needs to do. Setting achievable goals not only keeps the players engaged, but it stops the front office from getting ahead of themselves and parting with yet another coach before he's had time to make the team his own. 

Sunday's win is an encouraging start. The prospect of Brimson, Ryan James and Jarrod Wallace returning from injury or into form raise the Gold Coast's ceiling a little more at full strength.

Until then, it's going to be the little things.

Taylor looking strong, Hipgrave and Fotuaika developing, Cartwright and Peachey earning their salary, and key contributors producing consistent performances.

It's only one win, and it's quite likely the Titans still take a few more steps backwards at times. But if you stand perfectly still, close your bad eye if you have one and focus straight ahead, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Albeit, a long, long way down the tunnel.

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