Round 1: North Queensland Cowboys vs Gold Coast Titans

[Chaos]

Geez I'm looking forward to Gordon coming back.
The first try to Idris off a Prince grubber...everyone knew the kick was on except Michael's
In the mean time, where's Phil Graham?

[psmitty]

Great win and a lot of positives to take out of it. Still room for improvement but it's only early in the year.

If anyone missed the game or is wanting to watch it again here are the links:

First Half:
http://www.nrl.livesport.tv/vodplaye...day,_March_3rd

Second Half:
http://www.nrl.livesport.tv/vodplaye...day,_March_3rd

[GoldCoastTitans100]

We had great defense but still lacking a bit in attack.

Cowboys played terrible !

So Prince is still an issue, who would have guessed that ?

[Rage]

OMFG To all the people calling for changes and talking about who played badly..... REALLY! We won. We won. We won. Lets have some more talk about that and some more talk about how well our young guys like Lawton, Rankin, Srama and Ridge played, or about how well the new forwards in Myles and Douglas played, which helped us absolutely dominate the Cowboys pack, which someone on this forum proclaimed was the best in the NRL, or the rock that is Dom Peyroux, he made a crap load of tackle didn't miss many, if any, and hit hard with most of them. You could also talk about how good our ball handling, our discipline and missed tackle were compares to last year and it was done in tough slippery conditions. You could even make mention of a couple of back line movement late in the game from left to right that looked fast and smoother then anything we did last year.

To me there were a lot of positives to take out of that game and I think it was a great hit out to start the year.

This is basically what I was planning on writing. Thanks for doing it for me Tamwelg

[Smakked]

A very good thing to see this year is our Go forward, our pack dominated, loved it.

[Titanic]

This is a forum for open discussion and so suggestions are fair enough. Nobody is unhappy with points but looking at the other games we were a tad lucky to get a woeful NQ first up. We do have some polishing to do. The Raiders will aim directly at Prince and make sure that Michaels gets more bombs than Berlin.

[Supergoose]

Don't get me wrong, I always look forward to a good polishing and I'd thought that I'd written that. For all the good things we had last night we still had the problem of backline moves being stifled by having two left edge backrowers cutting in front of our left centre (the world biggest human) and no ball being delivered to the weapon that is Mead. It was also dejavu when Bird and Harrison started the game with poor handling and giving away penalties. I love that we won and that we kept a bumbling offence to nil, but I'm far from happy with our attack and I look forward to seeing the improvement in the next few weeks.

[Boonarga]

wasnt princes best game, im prepared to give him some more time,

A few people have suggested Prince need more time. Isn't 14 years enough time to get your game right?
The only thing we lacked last night was an organiser. That is what he is out there for. The players have the talent but need to be directed.

[matti]

how much more time can prince have though? i tried to watch the game , lawton played well and rankin too, we both need there speed to get the metres . i do think princey would be great as a coaching roll, rankin seems to take after him

[Princey's Titanz]

Don't get me wrong, I always look forward to a good polishing and I'd thought that I'd written that. For all the good things we had last night we still had the problem of backline moves being stifled by having two left edge backrowers cutting in front of our left centre (the world biggest human) and no ball being delivered to the weapon that is Mead. It was also dejavu when Bird and Harrison started the game with poor handling and giving away penalties. I love that we won and that we kept a bumbling offence to nil, but I'm far from happy with our attack and I look forward to seeing the improvement in the next few weeks.

I hope Carty addresses these issues

[DIEHARD]

So pleased to wake up and it wasnt a dream and we are TOP OF THE TABLE!!

What a dream debut for Idris!

[DIEHARD]

...........

[DIEHARD]

Dream debut for Idris

The Gold Coast Titans have begun their season of redemption with an 18-0 win over an error-riddled North Queensland Cowboys at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

Gold Coast's new recruit Jamal Idirs scored a double, opening their account in the fifth minute using his speed and guile to dive on a grubber and then icing the cake in the 74th minute using his brute force to charge over the try line from a hit-up.

North Queensland were their own worst enemies with a horror completion rate which at one stage stood at a diabolical 12-31, condemning them to their first score of zero since 2006 and the first time they were held scoreless at home since Round 5, 2003.

The two sides were full of cobwebs in their season opener and struggled in the 30-degree Townsville heat but the visitors seemed more conditioned than the home side which could only complete 9-19 first-half sets and committed 26 errors.

Titans coach John Cartwright said defence won them the match in horrific conditions.

'I think people will look at it is as a error-riddled game, it was horrific conditions out there, you talk about completions and you expect that but it was the upper end of the scale,' he said.

'It was very difficult and as funny as it may sound it is hard to attack when you are right on the opposition try line, it is easier when you have a little bit of space.'

'It wasn't that which won us the game it was our defence.'

'I think it is the first time in our club history (holding the opposition scoreless) and I rate that side probably the hardest to defend to and in these conditions, Bowen, Thurston and Payne have a good understanding of each other and score a lot of points.'

Cowboys coach Neil Henry said his side shot themselves in the foot.

'It was pretty awful, 13 errors at half-time, I would have thought we would not repeat that but we went one better,' he said.

'We are very disappointed in our effort, it was our first game at home for a few years but we didn't really give ourselves a chance with a lack of control of the ball.'

'A couple of ill-disciplined things too, tackling the kicker or playing the ball the wrong way - whichever way you look at it.'

'We wouldn't have dropped that much ball at training in the last six weeks.'

The Cowboys knocked on from the kick-off while the Titans committed a cardinal sin when they allowed a bomb to bounce which almost resulted in an early try.

Matt Bowen regathered the spiralling ball and sent Ashley Graham heading for the corner post to open the scoring but he could not avoid the touch line.

Gold Coast put the early scare behind them to be the first to score when Idris out-sprinted his opposing backs to pounce on a grubber in the fifth minute but they could not add the bonus points.

North Queensland were almost caught out when they allowed Kayne Lawton to burst through their defence and run almost 30 metres downfield but their speed men ensured the score remained unchanged.

Scott Prince was illegally shoulder-charged by Gavin Cooper gifting him an easy two points from the ensuing penalty to go to halftime in front 6-0.

The Cowboys were slightly better after the break despite kicking out on the full and came close to levelling with the Titans in the 53rd minute but their try was denied.

Joel Riethmuller was crunched in a tackle 10 metres out and spilled the ball to Rubert Lui who put Mosese Pangai over the line but the ball from Reithmuller to Lui was ruled forward.

Gold Coast finally converted their dominance into points in the 56th minute when Graham failed to collect a highball allowing Steve Michael to regather, charge over the line and wrestle the ball to the ground despite a horde of defenders around him.

And the game was finished a contest when Idris stormed over the line again after receiving a short ball from the ruck to mark a spectacular debut for his new club.

North Queensland: 0

Gold Coast: 18 Tries: Idris 2, Michael Goals: Prince 2/4 Penalties: Prince 1/1

Crowd: 16,311 at Dairy Farmers Stadium

http://www.skynews.com.au/sport/arti...id=725218&vId=

[DavidBouveng]

A few people have suggested Prince need more time. Isn't 14 years enough time to get your game right?
The only thing we lacked last night was an organiser. That is what he is out there for. The players have the talent but need to be directed.

how much more time can prince have though? i tried to watch the game , lawton played well and rankin too, we both need there speed to get the metres . i do think princey would be great as a coaching roll, rankin seems to take after him

im happy to see him given another 2-3 weeks to see if this was just a rusty first up performance, simliar to JT, or whether its an extension of last years mess and he truly is past it. a few games will indicate this better than one.

[Titanic]

I hope he was watching Carney ... gee, how did we miss him? (just kidding on the last bit)