Lads...we've got traction...
Todd Balym
News Limited
June 29, 2014
GOLD Coast rugby league clubs have always struggled.
The first incarnation was the hastily and belatedly assembled Giants, who started the same year as the Broncos, but without the fanfare or success.
After two years they became the Seagulls. When that club ran out of gas at the end of 1995, the Australian Rugby League stepped in to create the Chargers. At the end of 1998, they too were dead.
But when the Titans were created in 2007 to bring league back to the Coast, it was a new era.
Flashy, confident and dripping with big-name stars, for the first time the Gold Coast was a rugby league force — getting to within one win of the 2010 grand final.
Now four years on, their confidence shot and home crowds at record lows, the Titans are in the biggest rut in club history.
o-captains Greg Bird and Nate Myles will miss their next game due to Origin duty as the Gold Coast head to South Sydney next Monday looking to avoid a club record seventh straight defeat.
Bird admits the team is caught in that horrible place where they need to get their confidence and belief back to break the losing cycle, but that only comes through winning.
“It’s the chicken and the egg thing, you don’t know what comes first (confidence or winning),’’ Bird said.
“We have to break the cycle of losses and gain some confidence back then hopefully we can go on a bit a winning streak.
“It comes with confidence, when you are playing confident football and on top of your game and confident in everything you’re doing you don’t make those mistakes.’’
Fox Sports Stats reveal a multitude of reasons why the struggling Titans have lost six games straight.
The biggest difference between the Titans who were 6-2 after eight rounds and equal ladder leaders to the team that lost their next six games straight is mainly in the metres gained category.
The Titans have gone from top of the class, ranked first with 1490m, to last with 1250m, making two and a half football fields less territory a game.
Even when they were winning they did not rank highly in key stats, so perhaps the wins wallpapered major problems in the team’s foundations.
They are bad starters having conceded almost twice as many points (44-80) as they have scored in the opening 20 minutes of games this year.
The have also faded badly in the past six weeks, having been beaten 65-22 in the final 20 minutes.
In year-to-date stats the Titans rank last in the NRL for errors (13.4), tackle busts (19.2), linebreaks (2.9) and missed tackles (33.1).
They rank 15th for tries scored (2.8), completions (68.9 per cent) and penalties against (7.8).
“Silly errors with the ball and silly misses in defence have been our downfall at crucial points in the game,’’ Bird said.
Gold Coast are fifth for the most tackles inside an opponent’s 20m zone but 15th for tries scored from that region, highlighting their lack of structure, variety and damage when attacking the line.
Injuries have contributed enormously. They have had six different halves combinations in six games but there is hope halfback Albert Kelly could return next week.
Their home record is the worst in the NRL. They are 2-6, having scored only 123 points at home and conceded 205 and lost their last five at Cbus Super Stadium.
The last month of home games was supposed to set up the Titans for a top-four tilt, instead they are only just keeping their head above the bottom four waterline.
It is little wonder crowd figures are down 3 per cent on last year and there is not a single blockbuster left this year to rescue the season average from becoming anything but a record low.
Supporters are so disenchanted that the League of Titans fan forum is gathering numbers to launch a public appeal for change at the club and has begun directly emailing board members to air their grievances.
A board meeting next week will no doubt discuss the team’s form slide, but not much can be done at a financially struggling club that may be forced to lose more administrative staff before the year is finished.
Coach John Cartwright is contracted for another two seasons and even a fourth straight finals failure is unlikely to change his stranglehold on his position.
Bird still has faith the club can turn it all around and is ready to rip in once he returns from Origin duty.
“We definitely need to be winning probably six or seven more,’’ Bird said. “It is getting to that point where we need to start winning games otherwise it’s going to have to be winning the last four or five and I don’t want us to be in that position.
“We played some of our best football towards the end of the season against some of the better teams.’’
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