Nathan Peats says the Titans aren't buying into the hype around Billy Slater's last appearance in Queensland or whether "the best player I've seen" Cameron Smith plays for Melbourne on Saturday.
The Gold Coast hooker, who played 80 minutes against Manly last Friday night after dislocating his elbow in a training mishap leading up to the match, says the home side's major focus was to arrest their dreadful home record of the past two seasons.
They have just seven wins and 13 losses at Cbus Super Stadium, hardly living up to their plan of making their Robina home a fortress.
Peats shrugged off the injury as "nothing major", a wear and tear issue he has had for a while. He will strap the arm or the rest of the season.
It's his team's inconsistent form - both week-to-week and half-to-half - that is more of a concern. He is determined to avoid finishing the season with a pair of losses that would give the Titans a 2-6 record from their last eight matches at home while winning three of their last five away.
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The Titans begin their two-week "anti-celebration" phase on Saturday when thousands of fans are likely to trek to the Gold Coast to see Slater in the flesh for the last time before more than 20,000 are expected to witness Johnathan Thurston's farewell appearance for the Cowboys the following Saturday.
Peats said Slater's appearance is irrelevant outside of the danger he poses against the Titans. He heads into the match having scored 11 tries in 12 contests against the club.
The former Blues hooker expects Smith to run out on Saturday afternoon.
If he doesn't, the Titans' next biggest danger is to think the Storm would not be top-shelf quality without their star hooker, suspended centre Will Chambers and injured duo Suliasi Vunivalu and Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
"The Storm are coming first on the ladder for a reason and it's not just [because of] their top 17; they have so much depth and a great coaching staff ... whoever comes into the roles this weekend will fill in pretty well," Peats said.
"The focus is just to get a win this week. It's old boys' day [former Titans, Giants, Seagulls and Chargers will form a guard of honour] at Cbus and we haven't had too many wins at home; we've been too inconsistent there.
"We expect Cameron Smith to play, he's a pretty resilient fella. Cameron Smith is the greatest player I have played against or seen.
"If he plays it's a bonus for them and if he doesn't it's a bonus for us, but we have a job to do against whoever they put out because they've always had the ability to put someone in there who will do a good job."
Winger Phillip Sami, who has scored six tries in his last five games to take his tally to 14 (one behind Anthony Don) has only taken on the Storm once, in the 24-10 round 10 loss, but he has two distinct memories – the constant voice of Slater and the best kick-chase in the NRL.
"All you could hear out there was Billy Slater's voice out the back for the whole 80 minutes," Sami chuckled.
"Melbourne's defence comes off Billy Slater's talk. As a winger, it's one of the toughest carries against them because their line is so disciplined and it's hard to break through."
