Saw Blair play in the halves against the Dogs last year. He looked so and predictable, but we'll see.
Saw Blair play in the halves against the Dogs last year. He looked so and predictable, but we'll see.
NRL Round 4 Preview: Gold Coast Titans v North Queensland Cowboys
http://www.sportal.com.au/
The Gold Coast Titans host the North Queensland Cowboys on Monday, March 31 in Round 4 of the NRL. The match kicks off at 7.30pm (AEDT).
What: NRL round four
Who: Titans v Cowboys
When: Monday, March 31 – 6.30pm (Qld time)
Where: Cbus Stadium
I can watch it on: Fox Sports
Form guide:
Titans: WLW
Cows: WLL
Things you need to know:
The man with the rhyming name, William Zillman, is out with a hamstring tear, replaced by Anthony Don. Don is good. Aidan Sezer returns from a calf strain. Watch out if the Cowboys take the lead. They've hit the front in all three games, only to fall into a deep hole from there.
Reason to watch:
Gold Coast are the self-proclaimed Betty Ford Clinic of the NRL, rehabilitating players who have lost their way. Their latest 'lab experiment' – Albert Kelly – is a prime example of a player who seems to have turned his life around on the Glitter Strip and is playing some super footy as a result. Look no further than Alby's superb try against Canberra last week as proof. His combo with Aidan 'Hail' Sezer is developing into something special.
Reason to turn away:
They may have had a change of coach but it appears the Cowboys are the same hot and cold side we've come to expect over the years. Trying to predict what they will do each week is like trying to work out why some people still watch The Footy Show
Say what:
"The best sides in the comp are consistent and they don't drop too far from their best displays to their worst displays so that's something we need to be known for." – Titans co-captain Nate Myles spells out what he expects from his team this season.
Final word:
This is one of the hardest games to pick this round, mainly because you don't what to expect from the Cowboys. Paul Green insists they are not that far away from where they need to be but you could have fooled us. The Titans go in as underdogs despite a great win away from home in Canberra. Perhaps it's the Thurston factor swaying bookies – and us, for that matter. North Queensland by 6.
Sportingbet Odds:
Titans $2.35
Cowboys $1.60
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We're supposed to get pretty heavy thunderstorms over this weekend and there could be flooding. Hopefully it clears by Monday because games have been called off at Robina in the past due to heavy rain.
I do hear the SEQLD is getting smashed, how is everyone holding up?
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NRL.com Late Mail: Titans v Cowboys
Titans: Five-eighth Aidan Sezer is still in doubt due to the quad injury that saw him sit out last round. His omission would trigger a similar team shuffle to last weekend, with Ash Harrison pushed to five-eighth, Nate Myles into the back-row and prop Ryan James into the 17 after he was named in jersey No.18. Fullback William Zillman is out with a hamstring injury, sending David Med to No.1 and Anthony Don to a wing spot in No.20. Ben Ridge is set to drop from the bench.
Cowboys: Should be 1-17, having named an unchanged squad.
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Myles: Kelly just getting started
He concedes that Albert Kelly is the reason Gold Coast have won two of their opening three games in 2014 but Titans co-captain Nate Myles insists that we are still a long way from seeing what the enigmatic playmaker is truly capable of.
Statistically it has been an extraordinary start to Kelly's second year on the Gold Coast with his total running metres of 642.7 from just three games more than 120 metres more than the next best, South Sydney's Sam Burgess.
With five-eighth Aidan Sezer missing last weekend and in doubt for Monday night's clash with the Cowboys, Kelly has also shouldered more of the kicking in general play, with 599.2 metres off his right boot so far in 2014.
He trails only Anthony Milford and James Tedesco for total tackle-breaks, he has four line breaks and four tries and proved to be the difference in wins against the Sharks in Round 1 and Raiders in Round 3.
But in a frightening warning for opposition teams, Myles said that his combination with Sezer in the halves remains very much in its infancy.
"I've got the utmost respect for Albert as a person and as a player and I really do think that him and Aidan are not even close to finding the ways that they can complement each other as players," Myles said.
The two Titans victories have been built upon a simple game-plan and unrelenting defensive resolve. Amazingly, the Raiders last Sunday completed 40 of 44 sets against Gold Coast but could only conjure two tries.
Up until Kelly's two slices of brilliance in the dying stages the two Titans tries had come from burrowing efforts from dummy-half by hookers Beau Falloon and Paul Carter and Myles says that the side is still trying to balance the instinctive play of Kelly with the gritty nature of the forward pack.
"That's probably something that we haven't really worked out yet, to be honest with you," Myles said.
"We need to keep working on our combinations and definitely having someone like Albert in there... He's the reason why we win games and you've got to find a balance between him and Sezer, which I think we're slowly getting.
"I'm a bit impatient, I'd like to have it there a bit earlier but it's also enjoyable to watch those blokes develop as players."
The Titans' only blemish on their start to 2014 came in the form of an ugly stain inflicted by the Wests Tigers in Round 2, a 42-12 hammering that embarrassed the players and coaching staff. After their strong finish to 2013 there is a strong sense within the Titans that they have the playing group to challenge for a top four position but Myles admits that they need to deliver high-quality performances on a more regular basis.
"Consistency is something that I don't think we have, which is something we need to be known for," said the 28-year-old, 23-game Origin veteran.
"The best sides in the comp are consistent and they don't drop too far from their best displays to their worst displays so that's something we need to be known for."
Source: http://www.nrl.com
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If the game was scheduled for tonight it would be called off for sure but the weather is easing & will be sweet for Monday night
#itaintweaktospeak
Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt says has never practised the art of the touchdown
KYLE Feldt has taken only six NRL games to create a highlights reel of incredible touchdowns, yet the Cowboys winger has never practised the art he has perfected.
Feldt is a freak of athleticism without pretension. He rarely watches rugby league.
Post-try celebrations are not his thing.
Yet screen grabs of Feldt’s touchdown heroics defy logic.
One try he scored in North Queensland’s NRL Nines success was mind-boggling. Feldt, 22, soared for the corner against Manly. His whole body was suspended in midair, well over the sideline, but his right hand somehow put the ball down just inside the touchline.
He repeated the effort, although a little less spectacularly, in the Cowboys’ Round 1 NRL win this year.
“I don’t practise it at all. It is just a spur of the moment thing on the field,” he said.
Feldt can dropkick 70m on the fly and last week ran for a team-high 163m in the Cowboys’ loss to the Warriors.
Asked if he had an athletics pedigree that fed his acrobatics, he said: “Yeah, nothing serious though. I was a bit of a high jumper and long jumper.”
North Queensland will need all of Feldt’s skill on Monday night against a scrappy Gold Coast team.
Titans assistant Neil Henry knows well Feldt has the ability to get on the outside of his defender and finish in traffic.
Feldt has already had brutal wake-up calls about how cutthroat is the NRL.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to (against the Warriors) and they got two early tries on us. We need to fix that up on Monday.’’
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/
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Moejoe: "REMEMBER!!!! SLIP - SLOP - SLAP in the sun. Skin Cancer is a growing problem. It could happen to anyone!!"TITANS, DIEHARDS, WARRINGTON WOLVES, MAROONS, KANGAROOS, HONG KONG THUNDER
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Probably one of the benefits in getting in early. We still like to think of the home of the Knights as Marathon Stadium, Dairy Farmers in Townsville.
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Took a long time to come around to ANZ stadium, over Telstra...
NEW! SOUTH! WALES!