Bird to bring Origin aggression to Titans

[TITAN PETE]

Travis Meyn | 06:17am February 22, 2012

HE IS one of the most damaging forwards in NSW history and now Blues hitman Greg Bird wants to replicate his State of Origin performances for the Titans.

Blues coach Ricky Stuart rated Bird "one of our best players" during the failed 2011 Origin campaign, as the Titans enforcer bashed and bruised the Maroons alongside Paul Gallen.

And the 28-year-old wants to transfer that aggression and commitment that has made him a successful Origin player into the NRL arena consistently.

Bird said it would be difficult to smash his body on a weekly basis but admitted he wanted to be a more effective player at club level as he strives for a Test call-up.

"When you think about rep games, you want to be the one that doesn't stuff up," he said.

"If you go out there and do your job then you've had a good game.

"You can get away from that a little bit week-to-week when you're training with the Titans. You can get away from just going out there and doing your job.

"You can try and do much at times and slip out of it a bit.

"That's my major goal. To every week go out and do my job and help the young blokes play better."

While the intensity of an NRL round match is lower than an Origin, Bird said he could perform at the same level.

"I definitely think so. It's a different speed. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make the transition," he said.

"It's more the bashing of the body that's the hard thing to keep up with. You've got to monitor that and keep it in tune. That's the hardest thing."

Bird burst on to the NRL scene in 2002 as the Sharks made it to the finals.

But he is yet to win a premiership and says that determination is driving him this year.

"It was disappointing to go through all the rounds last year and finish at the bottom. There's nothing worse than that," he said.

"In 2002, we went all the way to a preliminary final. I thought it'd be like that every year. I was thinking if I could do it every year I'd have a great career.

"I soon found out that wasn't to be. It's quite hard to get to the top and get all the way through to the first week of October.

"You train every day with a group of blokes that are your best mates so to share a premiership win with these guys would be a massive achievement. That's definitely my major goal."

He is contracted at the Titans until the end of 2013 and says he has no plans of finishing elsewhere.

"I'm very happy up here. I'm not even thinking about anything else to be honest."

The Titans head to Ballina today for a three-day camp ahead of their season-opener against the Cowboys next Saturday.

[Titans Expert]

He needs to step up this year for us.

[Titanic]

Controlled, mistake-free aggression please.