Round 21: TITANS vs EELS

[Titan4Life]

David Taylor or David Hala to replace Gold Coast Titans captain Nate Myles against Parramatta Eels
AAP
AUGUST 02, 2015 2:39PM

GOLD Coast have suffered a blow on the eve of their NRL clash against Parramatta with captain Nate Myles ruled out.

Myles suffered a shoulder injury in last week’s 34-0 loss to Brisbane and was officially withdrawn at Sunday’s captain’s run.

The Queensland and Australia player’s place will be taken by either David Taylor or David Hala, with coach Neil Henry to make a decision before kick-off in the Monday night clash.

The Titans have managed just four wins from Myles’ 15 game appearances this season as they look to move on from their captain who is joining the Sea Eagles next season on a three-year deal.

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I laugh at 'have suffered a blow' Seriously, Myles is no loss and I honestly can't wait until he is permanently ruled out next year. At least our conceded penalty count will be less.

Bring in Hala I say and let him show us what he's got. What was the point of buying him if he's going to sit on the sidleines?

[TitanSam]

Give Hala a go for crying out loud

[TITAN PETE]

I

13 replies to a matchday thread one day out from the game could be some sort of record low number for this forum. It's very hard to get interested about this contest so it is hard to imagine that there'll be any sort of crowd out there.

We can go a long way to avoiding the spoon in this one. Does anybody remember the year we 'won' our wooden spoon. We were hosting an absolutely terrible Parramatta team in the very last round of the season in a match doubling as Preston Campbell's last ever game. There was a T-Shirt made for the game and a really, really good crowd and we got absolutely HAMMERED!! I still regard it as the worst loss in the short history of the club. Hopefully we can get one back on Parramatta here and put them in prime position for the timber cutlery.

I remember the match very well as I got Presto to sign my Wooden Spoon at Fulltime

[Titan4Life]

I also remember the game and I even got a decorated wooden spoon as a present from my mates!

[Kelly.to.Roberts]

Just want effort for 80 minutes. Oh and for Ryan James not to give 4000 penalties away while the opposition are still in there own half.

[JunctionBlock]

I hope they use Taylor up the middle. Purely to either get a result out of him one way or the other. Either he won't want to be used as a prop and look harder elsewhere or he will do what most of us hope he can do and break a line and hurt some defenders up the middle.

[DavidBouveng]

13 replies to a matchday thread one day out from the game could be some sort of record low number for this forum. It's very hard to get interested about this contest so it is hard to imagine that there'll be any sort of crowd out there.

We can go a long way to avoiding the spoon in this one. Does anybody remember the year we 'won' our wooden spoon. We were hosting an absolutely terrible Parramatta team in the very last round of the season in a match doubling as Preston Campbell's last ever game. There was a T-Shirt made for the game and a really, really good crowd and we got absolutely HAMMERED!! I still regard it as the worst loss in the short history of the club. Hopefully we can get one back on Parramatta here and put them in prime position for the timber cutlery.

I almost posted about this game earlier in the week.

it is the only game ive ever left at halftime...the players let down the fans and let down a legend of gold coast football in presto that night.

disgraceful performance and the players didnt deserve fans attendance that night.

[Nols of the Goldy]

Myself and my family were also at that game and were devastated not only with the result but that Presto was sent out that way. He is a legend of the game and did not deserve to end his career like that. My brother and son in law both gave me a wooden spoon that year to rub it in, as they are both huge Tigers fans and always give me heaps about the Titans and still do, although they have been a bit quiet lately as their beloved Tigers arn't doing that much better either. Thank god.

[karnage]

Great to hear all the love for Presto - maybe Runaway Bay can give him the send off he deserves when he finally retires from park footy in about 2034!!

[TITAN PETE]

Mon 03 Aug, 2015, 9:23am
By Tony Webeck, Chief Queensland Correspondent, NRL.com

Titans desperate to strike first
Josh Hoffman says the Titans need to score first against the Eels. Credit: Scott Davis. Copyright: NRL Photos.
Having banged away for 267 minutes for a return of a solitary try in the past month the Titans know that scoring first against the Eels on Monday night is vital to restoring some long-lost confidence in their attack.

Nene Macdonald's try against the Roosters early in the second half of their game in Round 16 and his last-minute effort against the Sea Eagles in Round 18 are the only two tries the Titans have scored since the 15th minute of that Roosters clash at Gosford.

It's a similarly lean tale for their opponents who have scored a lone try in each of their past two losses to the Bulldogs and Cowboys as they endeavour to find a way to score points without Corey Norman and Chris Sandow in the side.

The Titans scored first in Round 6 when they put 38 points on Parramatta in Sydney – their highest tally of the season to date – and fullback Josh Hoffman said posting first points was the way to break free of the shackles of the past month.

"It is important to get some points on the scoreboard early. It gives you a bit of a fresh mind and you can get into the game with a better mindset," Hoffman said. "It is very important to get off to a good start, completing our sets and hopefully get a win.

"It's just the change of momentum. Once you get that momentum then off the back of it you start to feed off that.

"The forwards start to feel a bit of energy as well when they feel that momentum change and the outside backs have a bit of room as well.

"Once we get off to a good start, complete our sets and get that momentum, everybody feeds off that."

The Titans and Eels have both scored a total of 13 tries in the first 20 minutes of their 18 games to date and more often than not are on the wrong side of the scoreboard after a quarter of the game has passed.

Halves Aidan Sezer and Kane Elgey will be hoping to get through 80 minutes together for the first time since Round 12 but Henry conceded that first four-pointer will be crucial to deciding the outcome of the game.

"I think we need it," Henry said of striking first. "There's no doubt we're down on confidence and we haven't scored points for three weeks really whereas in the first half of the season we were right up there in terms of tries scored and points scored.

"We've fallen into a bit of a hole there but I think Aidan Sezer will be better for that run and hopefully Kane Elgey bounces back after that knock and we're able to put some points on."

The Titans have a wonderful record of posting big totals against the Eels in their short history against each other and winger David Mead says past success can be a confidence boost in itself.

"Having 'Elg' and 'Seze' back there for a second week will have a huge contribution to us scoring some points," Mead said.

"They've been back working really hard the last two weeks so I'm sure we'll get some points on Monday night.

"Earlier this year we played pretty well and started the game off strong and scored a fair few points in the second half so I can't give one reason why we've played well against them.

"They're one of those sides the Eels who are either rocks or diamonds. If you get them on a good night they can really make you look silly so we've got to be on our game and make sure we shut down their threats."

[Boonarga]

Halftime in the 20's. They should have let people park next to the stadium. 100 cars spaces would be all that was needed.

[IpswichTitans]

Late Mail:

Eddy Pettybourne will start in Nate Myles' front row position and there are a couple of changes on the Aquis Titans bench for tonight's clash with the Eels at Cbus Super Stadium.

Kalifa Faifai Loa comes in for Kevin Gordon in another late change.

Agnatius Paasi will also move into the starting 13, swapping with Lachlan Burr.

David Taylor is back in the side on the bench with hooker Kierran Moseley also returning to the side, with Daniel Mortimer dropping out of the 17.

The team is: Hoffman, Mead, Roberts, Loa, Sezer, Elgey, Douglas, Falloon, Pettybourne, Paasi, James, Bird. Interchange: Whiute, Burr, Taylor, Moseley.

[TitanSam]

Of course Hala doesn't get a run...

[gotitans101_]

Moseley is back, yay!

[mdrew]

Come on guys you should be making these type of handling errors