Old Dog Schoupp hoping to show off his new tricks

Gold Coast Titans centre Aaron Schoupp may have been a late inclusion into the line-up for this afternoon’s game against the Bulldogs, but the match against his former club was one he had pencilled in his calendar early on in the season.

“At the start of the year when the draw got released, definitely this was one of the games I looked at and I'm pretty excited for it, to come up against my old team and a few old mates I grew up with,” Schoupp said.

“I think everyone's got their own reasons to look forward to playing their old team, but definitely for me, probably just trying to prove a point.

“But it should be a good game and hopefully we can get one over them.”

Schoupp made his club debut with the Titans in Round 1 this year and has played six matches with the club so far, and in recent weeks has been starring in the Hostplus Cup for Tweed, taking out the competition’s player of the week award in his Seagulls debut.

Speaking about his initial move to the Titans during this pre-season, Schoupp said that while it was a “tough decision” to leave his familiar surroundings, the chance to make a fresh start at a new club held great appeal.  

“It’s been a pretty easy transition; when I signed, I got in the car three days later and drove up, I've loved it ever since,” Schoupp, who has been included in the side as part of a backline reshuffle that will see speedster Alofiana Khan-Pereira rested, told NRL.com.

“Obviously, the weather up here and just the lifestyle was really good; having that away from football.

“I think sometimes people can get caught up in football too much, so being able to pull away from that and have a good lifestyle as well, it's been really good for me mentally and it's been refreshing. 

“It was a tough decision (to leave the Bulldogs); I spoke to the club when I was at the Dogs and going into the future, they were looking in a different direction.

“I was actually away in America when I got the phone call from my manager that the Titans were keen, so spoke to Justin (Holbrook) and Ezra (Howe), the recruiting manager, and just loved the direction that they wanted the club to go in and it's something that I wanted to be a part of, so it was more just about being in a club that wants me there for me.

“I feel like have fitted in pretty well and hopefully up here we can build towards something.”

Another big drawcard to join the Titans was the opportunity to play alongside the experienced Kieran Foran and in-form David Fifita and Schoupp was grateful to be learning from them each week.

“Foz, he's massive for us, being that older head in the team and he just calms all us young boys down when it does get a bit erratic out there on the field,” Schoupp said. “He’s that cool, calm, collected guy at the back that we need.

“He also shows you what it takes to be an NRL player day-in, day-out. Even this year, he's had a couple of injuries he had to overcome and he always bounced back and comes back in good form.

“It just shows how hard he does work, and that's a standard for our young boys that we can look up to.

“If we can be half the player he is, we will have a good career ahead of us.

“David, he's been good too. I’m pretty close to him off the field.

“He's made it easy for me moving up, he's just a good bloke, a big cuddly friendly giant.

“He’s proved a lot of people wrong this year. He's worked really, really hard behind the scenes and not many people would see that, but they're quick to bag out people.

“It's just a credit to him how he's playing and the way he's going I think he should. Hopefully gets his Origin jersey back.”