He had a win that would have propelled the Broncos to the top of the table snatched from his grasp but restoring the shattered confidence of fullback Ben Barba is the responsibility of the entire squad.
That's the pledge of Brisbane back-rower Alex Glenn who was one of only three players to be credited with a line break in a gritty south-east Queensland derby on Friday night that ended in bizarre fashion.
Having only breached the Broncos defence courtesy of a 99-metre David Mead solo effort in the 60th minute, the Titans literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when five-eighth Aidan Sezer wrestled the ball from Barba's grasp when he had let a bomb bounce next to the posts in the 73rd minute.
Having come up with a try-saving play just minutes earlier, it was an unhappy finish to another indifferent night for Barba who has mixed flashes of brilliance with tentative play at the back in his six games for his new club.
Barba was tormented all night by Albert Kelly's spiralling torpedo bombs to the point where he showed a preference in the second half to shy away rather than attempting to catch them on the full but Glenn insists that his teammates will help to lift him back to the exciting brand of football for which he was recruited.
"I'd hate to be catching those, man, they're nightmares. They are hard to catch and I feel for Benny," Glenn said of his fullback's difficult night under the high ball.
"I guess his confidence will be down but that's where all us teammates step in and pat him on the back and let him know that we're here for him.
"We do a job for him and when one falls we all fall so we've got to make sure that we're right behind him and we work hard next week."
With a makeshift five-eighth in Josh Hoffman, Barba has been asked to play a slightly different role than that which he performed at the Bulldogs. Although he is yet to make a line break or score a try, he has delivered two try assists in the first six weeks, just one off his total from 17 games with Canterbury in 2013.
He is less than 100 metres from reaching his total kick metres from 2013 but heading into Round 6 was ranked 16th for kick return metres, a category in which he will excel in once his trademark zip returns.
Barba's struggles are somewhat indicative of a Broncos attack that was ranked ninth for line-breaks after five rounds yet was ranked fifth in try assists. Half Ben Hunt scored his fifth try of the year on Friday night but continues to be plagued by poor last-tackle options, an area that Glenn believes let the side down against the Titans.
"To be honest, I think finishing our sets," said Glenn when asked what more the Broncos could have done to come away with the win. "We were giving away too much possession against a team such as the Titans who were completing all their sets and being very dominant in that and making sure they got to their kick and had a strong kick-chase.
"Possession and field position on the field ends up being crucial towards the end and I think that's where we let ourselves down, just not finishing our sets the way we wanted to and getting a good hard kick-chase."
Despite being on the wrong side of the ledger for both time in possession and time in the opposition half in the opening 40 minutes, the Broncos were able to take a 6-0 advantage into the main break, a sure sign that their attitude in defence is where it needs to be ahead of the Good Friday clash with the Knights in Newcastle.
"We were confident in defence, that's what was winning us the game in the first half," Glenn said.
"They had a few sets on our try-line and we kept holding them out and we made a line break and scored off it.
"We were priding ourselves in that 'd' in that first half but to the Titans credit they just keep coming and didn't give up.
"We've definitely got to keep working at it but in saying that I reckon the 'd' on our edges was a lot more positive. We made a lot of improvements, especially on our left edge where we wanted to fix up our defence – we were missing too many tackles – and I think we can take some confidence out of that game."
