NRL: Titans welcome back stars

Game-hungry dual international Mat Rogers will return from injury in the centres for the Titans against the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday.

Rogers, sidelined for the past two games with a groin injury, makes a timely comeback for injured centre Brett Delaney with Preston Campbell retained at No.6 and William Zillman at fullback.

Representative back-rower Anthony Laffranchi gives them another lift, returning from suspension.

North Queensland ended the Titans' unbeaten nine-game home streak last weekend with an impressive 34-18 upset, but it didn't cost the Gold Coast third place on the ladder behind St George Illawarra and the Bulldogs.

Cartwright has named a five man bench which includes speedster Chris Walker.

"We've made a few minor changes with Mat in the centres and Chris (Walker) on the bench," said Cartwright.

"We were a little off the pace last week, we didn't reload in defence quickly enough, our line speed was slow.

"We're not necking ourselves, we've worked on some areas we need to fix up and we want to keep our place in the top four."

North Queensland coach Neil Henry meanwhile has stuck with a similar squad which ran over the Titans for their tough away assignment against Melbourne.

"We'll take an 18 man squad down but Travis Burns (shoulder) will come into contention being back from injury," said Henry.

Henry hasn't decided whether to use similar tactics of starting with a big pack against the Storm with Matt Scott pressing hard for a promotion from the bench.

Without a specialist hooker, Matt Bowen has been getting into dummy half and becoming involved early, which has helped his confidence.

"It's given Johnathan Thurston a chance to bounce from the left side of the field to the right side and command a bit more ball," said Henry.

One of the pleasing things for Henry is been the way Carl Webb has adapted to defending on the left edge, a key to the Cowboys handling the Titans' attack last week.

Henry killed off speculation of a surprise comeback by injured representative forward Luke O'Donnell.

"He and Ashley Graham should start some ball work this week so we're expecting them back for our next game (against the Bulldogs)."

While Bowen returned to his brilliant best against the Titans last week, Henty said he could improve further.

"He gets as much of the accolades as JT (Thurston) but we're not a one man band," said Henry.

"They both need to play off some momentum and I think Carl Webb's been tremendous on that left edge and others guys have been doing their jobs as well.

"We need to be better than we were last week, Melbourne are the best defensive side in the competition."

- AAP