Round 24: Gold Coast Titans vs Parramatta Eels

[Titanic]

Apart from the litany of selection issues, the thing that has really got under my skin this season has been the leaking of points when we had games well won.

[Smakked]

Apart from the litany of selection issues, the thing that has really got under my skin this season has been the leaking of points when we had games well won.

Spot on Titanic, it pisses me off aswell. Seems like they think we are in front by enough thats all we need to do.

[TITAN PETE]

Titans fight to keep finals hopes alive
Travis Meyn | 07:17am August 20, 2012



One down , two to go.

It was far from pretty but the Titans' 24-16 victory over Parramatta at Skilled Park yesterday achieved their one and only goal -- winning.

Handling errors, a scrambled attack and staggered defensive line at times highlighted there is work to do if the Titans are to scrape into the NRL finals.

The Titans looked nothing like the side that challenged possible premiers Melbourne and South Sydney in previous weeks.

Integral forwards Ashley Harrison and Greg Bird have played little football lately and their combinations will improve by the week. Man-of-the-match Nate Myles was critical of his performance.

Halves Scott Prince and Aidan Sezer didn't take control of attacking possession like they normally do, while cracks appeared in a usually watertight defensive line.

It may have just been an off day but time is of the essence and coach John Cartwright is under no illusions to the task at hand.

The Titans can't afford to stumble in their position.

"It's nice (to still be in contention). That was the whole purpose of the day," Cartwright said.

"It's been a really hard month for our boys. A lot of effort went into the Souths and Melbourne games and I really believe we were a little bit hard done by in those two games, we could have come away with the victory in both. Coming off the back of that, to turn up and grit away a win is nice.

"We are still in there with two rounds to go.

"Mentally we were a little bit down and with the way the game was officiated, it didn't allow for an open brand of footy."

Cartwright's team must firstly win its remaining two matches to have any chance of making the finals but they must also fix some flaws to make sure they aren't making up the numbers if they do get there.

Eleven errors and a completion rate of 72 per cent isn't woeful but there was little potency at the end of those sets. The Titans' sloppy defence gifted the Eels 22 tackles inside their attacking 20m zone.

The Titans meet the lowly Panthers in Penrith on Saturday in the next piece of their puzzle.

Losses by Brisbane, Wests Tigers and Newcastle at the weekend have helped their cause, but their goal won't change against Penrith -- winning is the only option.

[C-Whiz]

Sorry to burst any rose coloured bubbles with a dose of reality, but we struggled to beat the side that are the new wooden spooners.

Sure, we can take the win, and talk about mathematical probabilites, and it would be great if we make the finals, but I am not impressed with where we are at, where we have been at all season, and the fact that we still look like a fragmented team.

We wrote of 2012 after about round 6 as a "rebuilding" season, like we did for our wooden spoon season of 2011, but I don't see that we've come all that far over the past 2 seasons that suggests we are ready to be serious contenders for the title next year.

Lets not delude ourselves in a comp with half the field hovering around 20 points that we are achieving great things. We should have beaten the Eels by 30 or 40.

That is all.

[Coaster]

To me the reality should be our expectations.
We finished last in 2011.

We now have the best first half defence in the whole comp.
We have blooded 2 fantastic new players in key positions in Srama and Sezer.
Our back row is one of the strongest in the comp.
We have a wrecking ball in DTaylor coming to the club.

Not to mention the strides the club has made this year to keep us alive.

I'm ok with this season, I think after first third, I was ready to quit the club with all the BS surrounding us, and the dismal performances, but I like the fight we have shown to get into this position.

[Smakked]

Yeah i am happy with our effort considering a few months ago i didnt think we were going to have a club at all.

[DavidBouveng]

To me the reality should be our expectations.
We finished last in 2011.

We now have the best first half defence in the whole comp.
We have blooded 2 fantastic new players in key positions in Srama and Sezer.
Our back row is one of the strongest in the comp.
We have a wrecking ball in DTaylor coming to the club.

Not to mention the strides the club has made this year to keep us alive.

I'm ok with this season, I think after first third, I was ready to quit the club with all the BS surrounding us, and the dismal performances, but I like the fight we have shown to get into this position.

all of this.

well said and we have alot to look forward too in my opinion.

as well as Srama and Sezer, i think White and Ridgehave come on in leaps and bounds, and Douglas has been pretty immense after a slow start.

as long as we play with heart and have a dig in these last two games (unlike the woeful parra game in last round last year, where the team couldnt even muster any effort in prestos last game) then ill look forward to 2013.

[Titanic]

I sort of agree, however, we all know where our shortages are and as much as I agree with the assessments of this year's progress, I would find it hard to face next season with the same squad doing the same old things.

[teke]

Sorry to burst any rose coloured bubbles with a dose of reality, but we struggled to beat the side that are the new wooden spooners.

Sure, we can take the win, and talk about mathematical probabilites, and it would be great if we make the finals, but I am not impressed with where we are at, where we have been at all season, and the fact that we still look like a fragmented team.

We wrote of 2012 after about round 6 as a "rebuilding" season, like we did for our wooden spoon season of 2011, but I don't see that we've come all that far over the past 2 seasons that suggests we are ready to be serious contenders for the title next year.

Lets not delude ourselves in a comp with half the field hovering around 20 points that we are achieving great things. We should have beaten the Eels by 30 or 40.

That is all.

I think it has been a fairly decent rebuilding season. Srama has solidified himself, Ridge is starting to raise eyebrows and Sezer has put the 5/8 position to bed. This team will be solid top 8 all year next season - guarantee.

As for the Eels game, there were a fair few blokes playing sick, some were quite crook and i think it showed in the teams timing.

[DIEHARD]

Yea at the start of the season seeing Sezer in a Titans #6 was just a fantasy.

[Jamal's Hamstring]

I sort of agree, however, we all know where our shortages are and as much as I agree with the assessments of this year's progress, I would find it hard to face next season with the same squad doing the same old things.

I agree more with this. I am concerned that we will look at this season as at least moderately successful and rest on our laurels. As was said last week, sure we are a game or two out of the eight, but we were also three games from the bottom. The fact we are midpack speaks more about how close the league is this year- not how well we have performed.

teke- as for top eight all next year, didn't we say the same thing last year? Weren't we supposed to be top four? The squad we have is better than going 1-5 through the first six rounds, so why did that happen? Why were we so poor early on? Origin doesn't mean bugger all in the context of our season- I know it's a bit out a cop out for some (not directed at you teke) but we were cooked long before that. ****- even going 3-3 would have seen us relatively comfortable in the eight.

There is a problem somewhere. We have a team that on paper should be performing to a very high standard, however it seems to be the same ol' story- ill discipline giving up metres via penalties when we need to tighten up, basic skill errors such as gaping holes in our defensive line and too much dropped ball and a lack of creative play (which to be fair seems to have improved in the second half of the season).

It's a real mixed bag. To call it a success isn't right, but there were a few positives to save it from the label of a complete failure. I'd like to think of it as a bit of a springboard that has hopefully highlighted a number of issues which can be rectified over the summer. I just hope our mentality isn't to spend up big on Taylor and let him solve all of our problems... I think we tried that last year and it got us no where.

Positives for me:

Seeing the development of Ridge, Srama, Sezer. These are the guys you can build a club around.
Being more competitive that last year.

[teke]

Look outside this squad and the exact same things are being said by most other clubs...under achieving, too much this, not enough of that etc etc.

[Titanic]

Give credit where credit's due; know your limitations, and; never accept mediocrity.

[Princey's Titanz]

The strong point of our game is our defence and i think Carty has a lot to do with that. So we have to give credit to where its due.

[Titanic]

and Gilmeister.