Titans commit funds to junior development to keep rising stars on Coast
Titans commit funds to junior development to keep rising stars on Coast
https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/
THE Titans are determined the next Gold Coast rugby league superstar will be wearing their colours after revamping their development system to ensure they net the best talent.
Club owners the Kelly and Frizelle families have committed to greater funding to future-proof the NRL club as it looks to capitalise on one of the biggest catchment areas in the game.
A lack of resources previously led to delays in decision-making, giving the Coast’s southeast Queensland rivals Broncos the opportunity to swoop on some of the region’s best young talent as the Titans dithered.
Gold Coast officials hope those days are in the past though, with the club to make an unprecedented investment in the region’s talent, ensuring youngsters on the Gold Coast and the NSW Northern Rivers area dream of becoming the next Titans player.
Titans chief executive Graham Annesley said the move would help “future-proof” the club.
“We’ve been talking a lot about what we need to do to future-proof the club and at our most recent board meeting, the development plan for these players and this level of the local game was discussed and it was agreed by the board that it was important and required funding,” Annesley said.
It’s not an area the Titans have excelled in but in recognising the mistakes of the past, they are moving to ensure their future includes as many locals as possible.
“This is one of the biggest catchment areas in the NRL, right up there with the biggest areas in western Sydney — Parramatta and Penrith,” Annesley said.
“There’s a lot of former Gold Coast and Northern Rivers players playing in the NRL but not as many as we would like with the Titans even though we’ve got our highest component of local players in our squad this year that we’ve had for a long time.
“But the future is about developing talent locally and bringing it through and showing that there’s a pathway and showing that the club is serious about it.
“In the past it’s been difficult for us to do that because we’ve been financially constrained.
“Even though we still have financial constraints, the owners have demonstrated that where we can show there’s a return on investment, they’re prepared to invest. And this is an important part of finding the players that hopefully will go on the represent the Titans.”
The next generation of Titans talent talking with coach Rod Patison. Picture Mike Batterham
Elite Player Development Manager Jamie McCormack said while the club had always had academies and training opportunities, those included had not been regarded as full Titans players until now.
McCormack said that alone had led to the club missing out on the signatures of promising juniors who wanted to be linked to an NRL club.
“We’ve always had academies and we’ve had training opportunities but we’ve never been able — for a number of years anyway — to dress them up in full Titans kit and play games as the Titans,” McCormack said.
“We’re really reliant at the moment on our feeder clubs in Burleigh and Tweed Seagulls to predominantly provide most of their football when they’re young but we also need them to feel a bit more special and have that desire to wear the Titans jumper a lot more than they get the opportunity to now.
“We want kids to be an NRL Titans player at some stage during their career.
“If it’s only under-16s that they make, then they can tell their mates that they were a Titans under-16 player or under-18 player.
“But hopefully over time we get the best talented ones — or the most committed ones to come through — and we’ll push them up into first grade.”
“With a better budget, hopefully we’ll be able to create a better pool of local players and then over time, the best ones will rise to the top.”
