One piece of paper. One lump of a player. One very good side.

In the lead-up to last night's game, Matthew Elliott bucked the coaching norm and showed his side the competition ladder.

It was a red rag to second-rower Frank Pritchard, the one-man wrecking bull at Penrith.

"He came out earlier in the week with a piece of paper, where we stood on the ladder, and it was a shock to most of us," Pritchard said.

"We're a lot better than that. For us to be eighth … we're taking aim for the top four so it's full steam ahead."

Said Elliott: "It was vital. That was really the crux of my motivational, whatever you call it, my team talk - I showed them the competition ladder. I think we had five teams on 18 behind us. We're very assured about what we're capable of doing - we just need to make sure that we keep focused on the job."

And so Pritchard set about destroying the Titans, and in the process earning comparisons with Bulldogs back-rower Sonny Bill Williams.

"There's a lot of talk about how damaging Sonny Bill is but I know when Frank gets the ball in his hands, I know there's a lot of opposite second-rowers and centres who have nightmares after they play him," Penrith captain Petero Civoniceva said afterwards.

Pritchard scored two tries after injuring his right shoulder so badly last week that there were fears he would miss the rest of the season.

And just to add to the drama, in sending the offload to set up another try last night, he damaged his left joint. Talk about shouldering a heavy load. He will have scans tomorrow.

"I was a bit sore there," he said. "But I didn't want to come off. I just kept pushing."

Titans coach John Cartwright could not hide his dismay after the team's third straight loss at home.

"I'm very disappointed," he said. "Defensively, we were just way off pace … we were very soft in defence."

And it may be even more costly for the Titans, after five-eighth Mat Rogers was placed on report for a 26th-minute high tackle on Penrith winger Lachlan Coote.