Group 11 product Tyrone Peachey has painted an optimistic view of his future with the Gold Coast Titans, welcoming the excitement of a stacked pre-season schedule and putting the woes of last year behind him.
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The Wellington Cowboys junior admitted that the 2019 season was 'definitely a down year', in which he was mired in news reports about contract disagreements and a desire to return to the Penrith Panthers.
"It's probably the toughest season I've had, being in first grade," Peachey told NRL.COM.
Despite the hardship, with the Titans ending 2019 in possession of the wooden spoon, Peachey says the experience has pushed him to be a better player.
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"I definitely learnt from that and grew a lot and the Titans supported me the whole way through, so I kind of owe it to them to have a big year and I'm looking forward to it."
"It's been a good time with the new coach, I've just had a little girl and she was born on the gold coast, so it's been really special for me and I'm hoping to go out there and do something special again."
While Peachey doesn't want the club to repeat it's wooden spoon run in 2020, the goals set for the Titans in the upcoming season will be simple and clear.
"Top eight's always the goal, but we're going to take it week by week and try to improve every game and hopefully do better than what we did last year."
Now content under new coach Justin Holbrook, the star utility is expected to line up in the centres in Perth for the Gold Coast Titans NRL Nines squad, after making a previous appearance for the Panthers in 2014.
"I'm looking forward to the Nines, I've never been to Perth before, so it should be a good experience," Peachey told NRL.COM.
"I think I'm in shape for it, I went to the first one and I struggled, it's definitely a lot faster, I think I just love the process of Nines, it's attacking footy and I think that's my go, a bit less tackling and a bit more running."
"Hopefully we do take it out, we've got a good team and everyone's pulled up pretty healthy after the pre-season, but we've still got a week to go."
While the Nines is next up on Peachey's schedule, the Wellington-born man is also relishing a return to the Indigenous All Stars side, after being one of the first to call for the match-up with the Maori All-Stars to become an annual fixture following last year's game.
"The All Stars is just a special week, all your family come up no matter where it is, the crowd's crazy at the game, hopefully it gets sold out, the field's looking pretty smick at the moment."
This year, the two sides will meet on the Titan's home-ground of Cbus Super Stadium, which Peachey hopes will provide the club with a further lift as a lead-in to the Telstra premiership.
"It's going to be awesome, hopefully we do get a lot of people coming to the game, because it can only help out the Titans, we struggled a bit last year and didn't get many fans, so hopefully we get that stadium packed out and keep that going throughout the year."
The Gold Coast Titans Nines campaign begins on Friday, February 14 when they take on the Raiders in game six.