Former Titan and part-time model Daniel Conn got down and dirty to haunt his old side and continue the Sydney Roosters fairytale on Friday night.

Conn got through a mountain of work off the bench and scored the vital try which ultimately sunk the Gold Coast 32-6 in a dominant preliminary final triumph at Suncorp Stadium.

The Bondi Junction club is now one match away from being the first team in 76 years to go from wooden-spooners to premiers.

While boom halves pairing Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce continued their brilliant form to lead the Roosters into Sunday week's grand final, Conn stood tall against his former club, especially in defence where he was among the top three tacklers.

The 24-year-old left the Titans last year to bolster the Roosters back-row stocks and he made his old team pay by crossing under the posts in the 49th minute to give his side an 18-6 lead.

Conn astutely took the punt on allowing a floating Pearce cut-out pass to hit the turf before steaming on to a perfect bounce and barge over Titans fullback Preston Campbell to score.

Although the Coast still had 31 minutes to claw their way back, Conn's try took the stuffing out of the "home" side in front of a pro-Titans crowd of 44,787.

It was effectively a 12-point turnaround after Roosters skipper Braith Anasta barelled a try-bound William Zillman into the corner post only a minute earlier.

A Zillman try, and ensuing conversion goal, would have levelled the scores.

While Conn was the toast of Bondi, Zillman - a hero in the Titans play-off win over the NZ Warriors - had a night he'd rather forget.

He dropped three kicks, including a bomb which ultimately led to the first of Sam Perrett's two first-half tries.

The Titans loss brought down the curtain on dual international Mat Rogers' career in his 199th NRL game and third preliminary final loss following defeats with Cronulla in 1999 and 2001.

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