2024 Season General Discussion Thread

[mdrew]

With Hau and Josiah Pahulu, the Ipswich Jets QCup pack will be great to watch in 2024. Great find HS, thanks mate.

[Cowabunga]

Saw Q.tv went bankrupt so hopefully a lot of the games end up on Kayo or somewhere easy to access. Ipswich look like they've done some pretty decent recruiting for QRL level as well as our guys heading there they should be a lot better this year, I've got Tweed as a title threat with their recruitment and depth even where our players might get taken out, They've only really lost a couple of guys that were already being replaced with our juniors.

[NZTITAN]

Very intrigued about Arama Hau.

From the footage I’ve seen of him I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s actually our highest ceiling junior not named Keano Kini, has a wider skill set than a huge amount of back-rowers in the league, awesome player to watch. On the flip side however, there are just graveyards of uber-talented, hulking young Kiwi forwards that just couldn’t piece it together.

[T0ken]

Saw Q.tv went bankrupt so hopefully a lot of the games end up on Kayo or somewhere easy to access. Ipswich look like they've done some pretty decent recruiting for QRL level as well as our guys heading there they should be a lot better this year, I've got Tweed as a title threat with their recruitment and depth even where our players might get taken out, They've only really lost a couple of guys that were already being replaced with our juniors.

If qtv is gone it probably means games just won’t be recorded unless 9 / Fox physically send someone to do it

[Cowabunga]

The games will still be filmed, it just depends on who wants to host it. They need to put the coverage somewhere. Might've been a bit more to the Featherstone move as well hearing the interview. TDIL Francis is a Hopoate.

https://twitter.com/9NewsGoldCoast/s...17526715314641

The QRL stuff with the team splitting is is going to be as normal as ever. The Tweed juniors which is a lot of guys will go there, everyone else is going to Ipswich. You have to do 50/50 if you have 2 affiliates, 3 is a different in the numbers allocated and even then Blackhawks bailing is a massive red flag to go that way.

Tweed aren't there for us, We have to help them as much as they help us and same as Ipswich. They're their own club, The Blackhawks/Cowboys stuff looks like one of the bigger failures recently in league and didn't really help connections like they wanted.

If we lose the Jets, We are so ****ed imo especially without any actual sign of a reserve grade team coming to fruition going off the ARL/QRL fight that's starting over the Clydesdales + more.

[Hail Sezer]

The games will still be filmed, it just depends on who wants to host it. They need to put the coverage somewhere. Might've been a bit more to the Featherstone move as well hearing the interview. TDIL Francis is a Hopoate.

https://twitter.com/9NewsGoldCoast/s...17526715314641

The QRL stuff with the team splitting is is going to be as normal as ever. The Tweed juniors which is a lot of guys will go there, everyone else is going to Ipswich. You have to do 50/50 if you have 2 affiliates, 3 is a different in the numbers allocated and even then Blackhawks bailing is a massive red flag to go that way.

Tweed aren't there for us, We have to help them as much as they help us and same as Ipswich. They're their own club, The Blackhawks/Cowboys stuff looks like one of the bigger failures recently in league and didn't really help connections like they wanted.

If we lose the Jets, We are so ****ed imo especially without any actual sign of a reserve grade team coming to fruition going off the ARL/QRL fight that's starting over the Clydesdales + more.

I mentioned last pre-season that Arama needed to show he could be a full-time professional and that interview reveals a bit of what it was. Needed to pull his head in a bit, to be frank. Hopefully he is genuine about what he says.

I'd say they'll just go back to what they've always done - upload the footage for the club to use internally. It only ever got hosted beyond that through Cluch (via QTV) or 9/Fox (kayo) feature games. The latter will still happen. They need to improve the quality of the TV product if they want any chance of it being viable long term though. You watch a NSW Cup match and the quality (as in the literal quality of the stream, not the football) is almost NRL equivalent. You watch a Qcup game, and it's wildly inconsistent, has grounds that only have one camera on a swivel (from a terrible angle), and audio/visual issues that make it look like it was filmed on a potato. Some Qcup games this year were unwatchable because the audio and visual wasn't good enough. The average viewer is just going to turn it off.

I don't like the Ipswich association that much at all but obviously we were backed into a corner after the Burleigh blow up. FWIW - Tweed are significantly more valuable to the Titans than Ipswich are - we house our 17s and 19s there for CC & MM, have coaching integration with the Junior titans program (and PBC). With Ipswich, I'm glad we have somewhere to send players each week but beyond that i'm not sure what value we're getting - they're a struggling club that have been a disaster at Qcup level for some time and as I see it are relying on us to prop them up. We're only aligned with them for a single season for a reason.

Like you mention, it all comes down to whether the reserve grade team is a realistic goal or not. I've got no doubt we'll re-apply for it in 2025. The 3 affiliates thing is not the way to go unless you've got three strong clubs in close geographic vicinity (e.g. Broncos), and certainly not the way the Cows/Blackhawks did it with one year remaining on a feeder agreement...that was just stupid.

[mdrew]

The 2024 season is huge for Arama Hau and all of the players on Development deals as in 2025 the Titans will add Zane Harrison, Sam Stephenson, Cooper Bai and Alex Leapai to Developemnt contracts, thus the six on current deals have a lot to play for.

Of the six current I think that Arama Hau and Jaylan De Groot are two that will take big steps towards the NRL in 2024.

[hungryjacks]

Some preseason results from the club.

GOLD COAST TITANS (no order)

Fittest:

Chris Randall

Beau Fermor

Keano Kini

Strongest:

Beau Fermor

Ben Liyou

Aaron Schoupp

Best body composition:

Ken Maumalo

Ben Liyou

Jojo Fifita

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...0852aaecdae3f3

[Hail Sezer]

Why on earth did we feel the need to provide “best body composition” lmao

I know skin folds are an important part of assessing how players are preparing but surely we could’ve left that out haha

[Cowabunga]

Not far enough imo, I want to know who's got the biggest hog.

[Titanic]

That Arama Hau interview, even edited, was unflattering to say the least … for a kid who has gone abroad he demonstrated a large amount of immaturity. I hope that Mal can work on that.

[Hail Sezer]

Caelys Putoko named in the nextgenxv 2023 World U18 XV at centre (selected as the best U18/schoolboy centre in world rugby this year).

https://nextgenxv.com/2023/12/29/202...d-under-18-xv/

FYI - Nextgenxv cover and stream High School/College 1st XV rugby from NZ, Aus, South Africa and the UK.

Hopefully he gets some time in an NRL trial.

[willhelm]

Not far enough imo, I want to know who's got the biggest hog.

Randy for sure

[mdrew]

Caelys Putoko named in the nextgenxv 2023 World U18 XV at centre (selected as the best U18/schoolboy centre in world rugby this year).

https://nextgenxv.com/2023/12/29/202...d-under-18-xv/

FYI - Nextgenxv cover and stream High School/College 1st XV rugby from NZ, Aus, South Africa and the UK.

Hopefully he gets some time in an NRL trial.

Damn that is impressive, thanks for posting mate.

[T0ken]

Why on earth did we feel the need to provide “best body composition” lmao

I know skin folds are an important part of assessing how players are preparing but surely we could’ve left that out haha

Des mind games are in full effect. We omitted any real indicators of strength or speed lmao

- - - Updated - - -

That Arama Hau interview, even edited, was unflattering to say the least … for a kid who has gone abroad he demonstrated a large amount of immaturity. I hope that Mal can work on that.

He’s gonna go dolphins if he wants a starting spot imo. Thoroughly unimpressed with his interview. Maybe it’s nerves or maybe he’s not media trained but yeah swearing on camera and joking with mates doesn’t show a disciplined mindset