Round 4: North Queensland Cowboys vs Gold Coast Titans

[teke]

Joey Tomane

Opposition with footwork was my biggest doubt over him and it was correct, he was shown up badly most of the night. Terrible game to watch as a Titan fan.

Dust storm next week

[karnage]

Awful...

Unless we pick up in EVERY area quick smart our 3-0 start is odds on to be 3-3 in 2 weeks with games against the Storm and Dragons to come.

We were there to beaten in each of our first 2 games where we got away with them late and maybe last week flattered us considering we really were up against nothing.

After that, motivation should not be hard to come up with next Friday.

[squirrell]

presto looked nervous.we lacked direction..thats the crux of our performance,ive been denying were a 1 man team all day..now lost all my bets..grrrrrrrrrr very average and im nervous about the next 2 fridays....

[Steelers]

I must say thanks to the Titans for further adding to my football woes this week. I am now 0 from 4 from this weeks tips.

[Cowboy Titan]

Presto will improve with more time in the role but it'll be tough in the next 2 weeks against the toughest of opposition.

I was surprised by Tomane tonight. He's had a great start to the season but he needs alot of work on his defence.

The line up changes for the Cowboys worked a treat. Gallant's runs were something that the Cowboys have been sadly missing whenever Bowen has been out over the past couple of years.

[titansrawesome]

tomane probably read the papers about him in the origin mix and got nervous against tonga, another week another bad performance

[GCT_07]

I will say something...... even up to the last few seconds of the game they didnt give up

The only thing I can put it down to is a cloudy head. Mini was over trying with some really scrappy handling but also with 2 tries. He did step it up....... but to many of his plays didnt come off........ I just think that all this off field rubbish is fogging them up a bit.

Oh well...... the only good thing is that we get to put this behind us and look towards next week. Hopefully carty will use this week as the lessons for next week.

[zanerwilson@yahoo.com.au]

I have watched David Mead play for about 12 weeks now and am sick and tired of him letting our team down in defence and lack of confidence.

I thought cartwright would have learnt with lalea paea after he cost us winning our first few games in the competition.

For some reason Cartwright kept picking and he would only make the same mistakes. Now he is doing the same thing with mead and week in week out Mead keeps making the same defensive mistakes and in attack he hasn't got the confidence to come up with the winning play.

David Mead has incredible speed and has obviously got heaps of ability, but until he has confidence in his own play, he is not ready for first grade. The longer cartwright leaves him in first grade the less chance he has of ever playing A grade NRL.

Where is Lalea Paea these days!!! He cant even make it in the French Rugby League.

David Mead will one day be a great player, but only if he is given time to find his feet in the QRL. I DONT CARE WHAT HE DOES AT TRAINING HE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR A-GRADE FOOTBALL. NOT YET ANYWAY.

I checked the amount of mistakes that Mead had apparentlly made this year, and apparentlly it was 1. That can only mean that missing tackles and letting in tries don't count as mistakes.

The problem with Meads defence is that he puts massive amounts of pressure on the players around him because they know he won't make that tackle.

Com on Carty. He is letting the whole team down, because you can't make a tough decision.
And it shouldn't even be tough.

Over Mead you have had Zillman And Tagatesse on the bench!!!!!!!Q
It makes no sense.

He just isnt ready>

How many tries does he have to let in before someone in the coaching ranks can identify this. I AM NOT A GENIUS!!!!!!!!
IT IS OBVIOUS!!!!!!!!

Dont ruin his carrer by letting him ruin our season!!!!!

Your number One Fan
Who Does Know Something About This Great Game!

[zanerwilson@yahoo.com.au]

And I know that we were behind tonight, but the only time we looked a chance to change that Mead dropped it on the first Tackle for no reason and they scored and took away all our mementom.

And his missed tackle that let Tonga in was the worst I have seen in A-Grade Football.

It was PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND HE SHOULD BE DROPPPED FOR THAT ALONE!!

I HAVE SEEN 16 YEAR OLDS Defend Better Than That.

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DIEHARD]

He is still one of my favourite players. He will come good, it'll just make him a better player.

He has my full support.

BTW - Comments moved to Cowboys v Titans thread.

[DIEHARD]

Just got back from Crushers Leagues Club, saw the game with Goatus and Steve.

Hard to isolate any player at being particularly good or bad, which an over all lackluster display.

Preston did go missing, but I hope he isn't too hard on himself. We need him primed for Friday. Especially now they have an inform Cronk back.

Lots of errors all around, everyone had a go at making an error. Completion rate was woeful. We will get murdered if we continue to play like that.

Our team needs to rally and the fans need to get out to Skilled Park to support our team. Make sure you are there!

[Steve]

Can't really blame one player for the loss, no one turned up tonight.

We'll see a lot more hat tricks down that one side if they don't tighten up the defence out there though. That's not why we lost though, it was all the dropped ball, with the amount of ball we handed over we were never gonna be in it.

[DIEHARD]

Lack of field position as well.

[DIEHARD]

Gold Coast Titans suffer first loss

GOLD Coast Titans suffered their first loss of the 2010 NRL season tonight, going down 32-18 to the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.

Melbourne Storm are now the only undefeated team left but the Titans will be more concerned with their handling and defence than with the ladder placings.

The Titans coughed up more ball in one game than they had in the previous three games of the 2010 season.

Chief offender was forward Mark Minichiello who dropped the ball five times, but ironically enough was the Titans' only try-scorer, crossing the line twice.

The Cowboys were led, as ever, by inspirational halfback Johnathan Thurston who thrived in the absence of his Gold Coast counterpart and arch rival Scott Prince, who missed the game with a thumb injury.

Also missing for the Titans was Anthony Laffranchi whose lower back strain, suffered during warm-up last week, kept off the park again.

Willie Tonga made the most of some weak left side defence from the Titans, scoring a hat-trick of tries, all in the corner, in a powerhouse performance.

After the game Titans forward Ashley Harrison summed up the team's disappointment.

"We came here with a few goals and one was to hold on to the footy," he said.

"We didn't do that and we made it a lot easier for the Cowboys."

Titans now face the undefeated Melbourne Storm at Skilled Park at Robina on Friday night.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[DIEHARD]

North Queensland Cowboys defeat Gold Coast Titans in NRL clash

North Queensland Cowboys hammer Gold Coast Titans 32-18 at Dairy Farmers Stadium thanks to a masterful display by Johnathan Thurston and a Willie Tonga hat-trick.

Neil Henry's youth policy paid off for the Cowboys after he made four changes to the side after an indifferent start to the 2010 season.

Experienced campaigners Steve Southern, Grant Rovelli and Carl Webb were omitted along with Michael Bani while Ty Williams was a late scratching with ankle and biceps complaints.

Centre Will Tupou, prop Leeson Ah Mau and fullback Shannon Gallant all made their debuts for the Cowboys while Ray Thompson played just his second NRL fixture.

Gold Coast had their own concerns, with representative playmaker Scott Prince (thumb) not making the trip and former international Anthony Laffranchi ruled out late with a lower back injury.

After failing to score a try in the first half in any of their games this season, the Cowboys broke the shackles early and scored three tries in the opening exchanges to set up a commanding lead.

Tonga scored two on the way to his hat-trick, while 20-year-old five-eighth Thompson lived up to his hype with a sweet flick pass to Luke O'Donnell who dragged three defenders over the line.

The Titans struck first through Mark Minichiello, who waltzed through some soft defence, and a tearaway Joseph Tomane would have scored if not for a desperate ankle tap from Thurston.

Ash Graham was denied by video referee Chris Ward in the 54th minute when his elbow hit the sideline a fraction before he grounded the ball but Tonga put the game beyond doubt in the next set, scoring his third of the night following a Minichiello knock-on.

Ward was called into action again in the 69th minute when Minichiello crossed for his second, the crowd screaming for a knock-on from Preston Campbell in the lead-up with his fumble ruled to have gone backwards.

Thurston rubber-stamped his good form in the 73rd-minute when he scooted past Tomane to score under the sticks while some desperate last-ditch defence from John Williams and Tonga prevented a David Mead four-pointer with five minutes left on the clock.

Titans skipper Luke Bailey refused to blame the loss on the absence of Prince, instead pointing to the error count as the reason.

"To be honest I think you could have put God in the No.7 out there tonight and we still would have lost," he said.

"We crucified ourselves with so much dropped ball, we didn't give ourselves a chance."

Cowboys coach Neil Henry was relieved his side broke the cycle of slow starts which has been critical in securing just one win and two losses before this clash.

"It was a long time coming, three weeks is a long time in footy," he said.

"It was good to get out to a bit of a lead and score some points.

"(And) I was very happy with all the boys on debut."

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