Ricky Stuart had a blunt message for Canberra before their season-opening clash with Gold Coast on Friday night - we weren’t good enough last year.
Despite making huge strides from premiership outsiders in 2018 to title contenders and defensive juggernauts, Stuart said because they fell short of their ultimate goal, they have the urgency to push themselves even more.
"The only motivation we need is we weren’t good enough last year," Stuart said.
"We have to work harder to improve in areas of our game to achieve what every other football team wants to and that’s to win a grand final.
"We weren’t good enough and believe that with the attitude and the work ethic we have, we’re on the right foot going forward."
The Raiders packed as much into their only trial as possible considering their shortened preparation after their grand final appearance.
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It was the debut outing for the new right edge of Corey Horsburgh, George Williams, Curtis Scott and Nick Cotric with Stuart hoping increased game time will only improve the budding combinations.
There is still a strong element of continuity for the 2019 runners-up, with 13 players from the grand final named for round one.
After finishing at the bottom of the ladder last season, the Titans travel to GIO Stadium with a point to prove.
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They had just two wins on the road last season and the Green Machine have won four of their past five games against the so new Titans coach Justin Holbrook has been handed a tough assignment in his NRL debut.
"Anybody who feels they know the result moving into a game from a spectator’s point of view doesn’t understand how difficult it is playing in the NRL," Stuart said.
"Every team has the ability to beat each other and you’ve only a little bit of an off day or two or three players not turn up and contribute and all of a sudden you’re in danger.
"Gold Coast have a brand-new coaching team a number of new players and they’ve been criticised heavily so they will want to show their supporters and coaches it’s a brand new year and they’re ready to play."
Despite using defence as the cornerstone of many of their victories in 2019, Stuart said the introduction of the new scrum rules would bring an exciting and new tactical element to the game.
"I believe you’ll see a lot of teams nominating the middle of the field, I think you’ll find a lot more width with teams taking a scrum on the 10-metre line," he said.
"It’ll create a lot of wide-open spaces to attack and we often talk about too much defensive dominance, this is a rule that’s going to help teams attack and create a little bit more wide-open football and anything like that is good for the game."
