Gold Coast 20 years later having another crack

[Titan_Matchu]

Gold Coast 20 years later having another crack
Monday 23 of October 2006

The Gold Coast Tweed Giants were admitted to the New South Wales Rugby League for the 1988 season, along with the Brisbane Broncos and Newcastle Knights.

The Giants changed their name to Gold Coast Seagulls, but although the Tweed reference was dropped from the name, they continued to play out of Seagulls Stadium.

They signed Wally Lewis, one of Queensland's greatest rugby league players, but were unsuccessful. When the Super League war broke out, Seagulls Leagues pulled out their support and the club was closed.

The Club licence was bought out, and the club name changed to the Chargers. After 8 seasons the club moved to its namesake, the Gold Coast, and were based at Carrara Stadium.

It was during this phase that the club made its only finals appearance in the ARL half of 1997's split competition. They were one of a few clubs who actually made a financial profit during Super League, and made the National Rugby League in 1998.

The Hunter Mariners, who were owned by News Limited, were offered as merger partners, but the Gold Coast turned down the offer.

If they had merged to form the Gold Coast Mariners, they would have had a strong chance of getting players like Richard Swain, Brett Kimmorley and Willie Mason, along with now-successful coaches Graham Murray and Michael Hagan.

When they were closed at the end of 1998 by the NRL, probably to keep a Sydney team in the NRL, they had $3.1 million in the bank.

In 2003 Michael Searle and Paul Broughton began pushing for the re-instatment of a Gold Coast Team in the National Rugby League in 2006. In the second quarter of 2004 the Gold Coast Consortium, as they had become known, announced their team name and jersey at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre during an episode of Channel 9's The Footy Show.

The team was to be known as the Gold Coast Dolphins and their colours would be white, jade and orange. The Dolphins moniker was very popular, however the Redcliffe Dolphins, which is the Queensland Cup's most successful team, threatened legal action if the Dolphin's name was used in the Gold Coast team.

In mid-2004 the NRL announced that after viewing submissions from the Gold Coast Dolphins, the Central Coast Bears and Wellington, there would not be a 16th team in the 2006 NRL Competition.

The major hurdles for the Gold Coast team, which was by far the favourite to get the nod if the 16th license was granted, was the use of the Dolphins name, and that their homeground, Carrara Stadium, was an oval and only seated 16,000.

Since the rejection of the Gold Coast's bid in 2004, the consortium did not give up in their quest for a Gold Coast NRL team. They dropped the Dolphins nickname, and the Queensland Government announced that they would spend $100 million on a new, rectangular stadium for the Gold Coast Team, should they be accepted.

On May 27, 2005, the NRL CEO David Gallop announced that the Gold Coast had been accepted into the 2007 NRL competition. This coincided with the announcing of a new television deal with Channel 9, taking effect from 2007.

The Gold Coast RLFC, along with a Gold Coast radio station, set up a competition where listeners could submit possible names for the new team.

This was shortlisted into 10 names, and people could vote on which of the ten they most preferred on the team's then-website, www.goldcoastrugbyleague.com.au. These 10 names were narrowed down to 3, which were:

Gold Coast Titans
Gold Coast Stingers
Gold Coast Pirates

The most popular name was the Titans, and the team name Gold Coast Titans was announced on 21 September, 2005.

The new Gold Coast rugby league team, the Titans, will play their first season in the 2007 NRL competition. They have no ties to the former Gold Coast teams, except for the fact they play out of the same city and for a time will share the same ground as the Chargers.

2007 will be 20 years after the a Gold Coast team was admitted into the NSWRL/ARL/NRL, with the Gold Coast Chargers being the least succesful team to ever enter the NSWRL/ARL/NRL the Gold Coast Titans are eager to put history behind them and start a fresh new team.

With recruitments like Luke Bailey, Scott Prince, Preston Campbell and in 2008 Australian Wallaby Mat Rogers the Titans look like they have no problem putting the past behind them.

This is a nice article and shows how far the Gold Coast has come since 1988.

[lonegull]

great read the, the memories how so sweet

[Titan_Matchu]

great read the, the memories how so sweet

I moved to the coast in 1999 and they got out in 1998 so I've never experience a team on the Gold Coast.

[DIEHARD]

A great recap, I love those types of articles and look forward to reading more.

[Pale Ale Panther]

great read the, the memories how so sweet

they wern't that sweet, i attended alot of floggings back then, i still have a Giants Gernsey folded away, was allways and will forever be a Panther, but will get to alot of the Titans games, might even put the Giants colours back on. lets hope for a bit more sucess this thime around ! :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: ,

[lonegull]

they wern't that sweet, i attended alot of floggings back then, i still have a Giants Gernsey folded away, was allways and will forever be a Panther, but will get to alot of the Titans games, might even put the Giants colours back on. lets hope for a bit more sucess this thime around ! :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: ,

yeah your right but you take the good with the bad there were some good times in amongst those years and alot of bad ones but never give up hope look now we have the titans, and i think the titans will have a lot more success because of the structure in place and the micheal searle factor

[DIEHARD]

We have certainly earned our NRL berth and this time we have reached full evolution of a finely tuned rugby league juganaut of a club. Muahaha...

Our road to glory was paved by trials and tribulations....but in the end it will make it all sweeter.

I hope the Titans still move to merge new and old Gold Coast player records.

I'm 100% behind continuing the club.

[Eel 33]

There are always struggles. This Gold Coast team has a better chance of success as things havent been rushed. This team will be successful.