Greg Bird hasn't set the world on fire at five-eighth since his move to Gold Coast, but the two people who count most believe he is on track win over his doubters.

There are critics who believe Bird's skills are best utilised at lock, where he can take advantage of his physical aggression and intimidation.

But after his best game for his new NRL club against Canberra on Saturday night, coach John Cartwright and skipper Scott Prince both believe Bird is not far off producing his best and proving the No.6 fits him well.

Bird turned in a shocker in his Titans debut against the Warriors and was only slightly better when they snuck home 19-18 in golden point time against South Sydney.

And while he came up with a couple of errors against the Raiders, he made almost 150 metres with the ball as well as making 27 tackles.

"He's probably just starting the realise his value to the team," Cartwright said.

"He'd been worried about it but nobody at the club or the players out there had been.

"I don't think he sees his value to the side yet, he just turns up and plays tough and runs hard.

Prince, who showed the hallmarks of a champion to brush aside salary cap allegations directed at him to inspire the 24-4 win, felt his partnership with Bird was beginning to develop rather than blossom at this stage.

"Carty (Cartwright) touched on it, Greg's a runner and he takes the line on really well and he can offload too," said Prince.

"He's a big bugger, it takes a few to bring him down.

"It creates a lot of second phase play which gets Preston (Campbell) Friendy (Nathan Friend) and myself into the game.

"As the weeks go by it will keep improving and our combination will get better."

Canberra coach Dave Furner refused to be too critical of his side who did remarkably well to hold the Titans to 8-0 at halftime given they hardly had any possession in the opening 40 minutes.

"We were good in defence and bad in attack," said Furner summing up his player's 80 minutes in a handful of words.

"We had two or three try-savers so they were working very hard for each other, I won't take that away from them.

Furner was concerned for hooker Travis Waddell had suffered a suspected broken jaw in an incident that he was not happy about.

"He's not in a good way at all," said Furner.

"I think there was contact made (by a Titans player) but I only saw it briefly on the big screen.

"All I know is I've got a young player with a broken jaw and something hit him."

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