IT’S said that coaches have to save their sprays or they quickly lose their effectiveness but after 12 minutes as an NRL coach Titans rookie Garth Brennan must have been tempted to burn one in his first game in charge.

Four minutes in Raiders hooker Siliva Havili scored after pushing through a defensive line like he was bursting through a saloon door in the wild west; three minutes after that Jack Wighton went through a yawning gap to score Canberra’s second.

When journeyman No.7 Sam Williams waltzed his way through the middle of Gold Coast’s ruck defence to set up Elliot Whitehead’s try Brennan’s NRL coaching record read 18 points conceded in just 12 minutes at the helm.

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Round 20

By the time he got to address his players for the first time mid-game the scoreboard was 24-12 in favour of the visitors but rather than ranting or raving the former police prosecutor took a more conciliatory approach.

Rather than castigate he encouraged.

He appealed to his players’ own individual sense of pride and reminded of them of the hours of physical punishment in pre-season that they subjected themselves to in order to make them as strong at the end of games as they were at the start.

Or, in the case of Sunday night’s record-equalling 30-28 win, finish a lot, lot better than how they started.

“I just wanted to see the effort in the boys and I wasn’t seeing that in that first half which really disappointed me,” Brennan said of his halftime plea to his players.

“I challenged them at half-time.

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“Forget about the scoreboard, forget about the clock, just show me effort and show me how much you want it and how much you want to put in a good performance and never give up.

“The result and the scoreboard will look after itself — I’m a big believer in that — but I just wanted to see the effort and I didn’t see that in the first 12-15 minutes.”

Those who have played under Brennan during his apprenticeship in the lower grades speak to his firm yet calm demeanour, of how he urges his players to be their best rather than screaming instructions and issuing threats.

After 12 minutes he must have wondered, if even for a moment, whether anything he’d said for the previous four months had registered with his players but after 80 he’d secured his first win as an NRL coach and given his players tangible proof of what he espouses.

The Titans celebrate their last ditch victory over the Raiders. Source: Getty Images

“What we get out of tonight is a bit of belief,” said Brennan.

“A bit of belief in ourselves that no matter what the scoreboard is, if we keep working hard and we keep doing what we’ve been working on in the pre-season then things can turn and you can get some results out of it.

“I just reminded them about where they were and about never giving up.

“It probably wasn’t the best 40 minutes and probably not the best start of the game or the year but I knew what was inside that jumper because I’ve seen how hard they’ve worked in the pre-season.

“We spoke about never giving up and we showed that tonight, that if you never give up you get rewarded at the end of the day.

“We’re going to enjoy tonight but we’ve got to realise that we’ve got to be better than that because that first half wasn’t acceptable.”