Titans: Rogers joins forces with the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans (2007)!

[DeeGan]

Titans Media Release

Rogers joins forces with the

Jetstar Gold Coast Titans!



Brilliant Dual International Mat Rogers has agreed to terms with the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans and will join his new team mates at training on the Gold Coast tomorrow morning, (Tuesday 16th January 2007)



While pleased to secure the services of Rogers a year earlier than expected, Jetstar Titans Managing Director Michael Searle said he was more than happy to give the dual International as much time off with his family as he needed before meeting to discuss Mats playing future at the Club.



?The most important people in this whole process have always been Mat and his young family and we certainly weren?t about to start hounding him for a decision on where he played next year when there were certainly much more important things for him to be thinking about.?



?After a meeting today, I am delighted to announce that Mat Rogers will be playing for the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans in 2007 and I am confident that as a Club we will reap the rewards of having a refreshed and super enthusiastic Mat Rogers in our Team.? Said Searle.



Thirty one year old Rogers is wrapped to be returning to Rugby League and eager to make a solid impression as the squad prepares for a series of tough pre-season trial matches. ?I?m just wrapped to have everything sorted out and very much looking forward to getting in and doing the hard yards with the boys. I?m pretty confident that Billy Johnstone will have something special in store for me and I just want to roll the sleeves up and make sure I am right up there in the mix when the first team is announced in a few weeks.?



?To be back in Rugby League a year earlier than I expected is just huge and I?m really excited with the team that Coach John Cartwright and Michael have put together.?



Rogers signature is a major coupe for Head Coach John Cartwright who now boasts a squad containing six players with International experience. ?If I had said a year ago that the plan was to have six Internationals available for game one of the 2007 season you would have thought I was mad, but not only have we done that, we?ve also secured a dual International as our final signing of the year, I?m pretty sure we would be the envy of the Premiership right now.?



?Mat brings a whole new dimension to the squad, he?s an exciting game breaker who creates scoring opportunities and he?s also a player who is more than capable of coming up with something brilliant from anywhere on the field which is a great asset to have during tight matches.?



Mat will join his Jetstar Titans Team mates at training at the Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre tomorrow morning from 8.30am. and be available to speak to the media at the completion of the session at Ten am.

[Capital_Shark]

Not surprising but definately good news for the Titans and Rogers too. Can't wait to see him playing footy again, its been too long.

Now all league needs is to get Lote back and the universe will be in balance once again.

[MonaroMan]

Great!!

Here is my backline:

1. Rogers
2. Carney
3. Mathers
4. Webster
5. Walker/Turner

[Poida]

Rogers is a fullback?

I thought he was a 5/8

[Titanium_BD1103]

Nah Paddy, I think that Number 1 is his preferred position...

Nice work by the GC to get Rogers for 2007, he will be a good asset to the team and wishing him all the best in the season to come, I can't wait to see him show his class again...

[Robbie_Dee]

Things just keep looking better and better for the Titans, he will be a very big asset for us in 2007!

[Poida]

Nah Paddy, I think that Number 1 is his preferred position...

Nice work by the GC to get Rogers for 2007, he will be a good asset to the team and wishing him all the best in the season to come, I can't wait to see him show his class again...

Fair enough. The first Sunday arvo in NRL we will see Rogers in action

[Steelers]

Rogers just adds to the massive backline resources that the Titans have! Look out!

[Future Star]

where will Rogers play?
People want to see Mathers at Full-back, and we have Presto as a 5/8, either of these players could be turned down for Rogers, but you would want all three of them in first grade.

[Robbie_Dee]

I havn't seen any of Mathers, so don't know what he plays like, but I imagine in 07, there will be A LOT of rearranging players, until we find good combo's, and who works well where. I aint too worried about position's at these stages, until we actually run out onto the field, and size up against the opposition. But I'd like to see Rogers in the no.1 jersey for the first few matches.

[f.d]

that is very good news. lets hope our team settles quickly into the season. i'm sure his presence in the team will be reassuring to players and spectators alike.

[dee13]

You little beauty!!!!

[DIEHARD]

Rogers boosts Titans as Turner saga ends

YOU win some, you lose some. The age old rugby league pun rang true for the Gold Coast Titans yesterday with the NRL new boys securing Mat Rogers for the start of the 2007 season while finally putting an end to the Steve Turner saga and allowing him to stay in Melbourne.

In a morale boosting win for the Coast, dual international Rogers will begin training today a year earlier than originally expected.

Renegade winger Turner has been traded back to Melbourne in return for two emerging junior outside backs -- originally from Queensland -- and financial compensation believed to be about $100,000.

Gold Coast managing director Michael Searle said the club was relieved the off-field drama surrounding 22-year-old Turner was behind them and that all the loose ends in the lead up to their league debut had now been resolved.

The, at times, abrasive relationship between the Titans and the Storm over the Turner ordeal is now set to transfer to the paddock when the two clubs clash in a trial match at Coffs Harbour on February 17 -- the Titans first game.

The precise contractual agreements between the Titans and the two young Queenslanders, one a fullback and the other a centre, are expected to be finalised in coming weeks.

Searle was keeping tight-lipped on exactly who the young players were, waiting until he finalises negotiations.

Palm Beach-Currumbin High schoolboy Kevin Proctor and Brisbane Norths forward Smith Samau were flagged as possible replacements for Turner in a previous player swap proposal.

It is understood backrower Proctor, 17, is not one of the two new players but Searle would not confirm if fullback-winger Smith Samau, 20, was still one of the players being considered.

"In good faith we have released Turner on the basis that Melbourne will provide us with two emerging junior players to our satisfaction," said Searle. "I think everyone is happy that is resolved finally and we have been able to maintain the principles that we set out in the first place."

Rogers dropped into Titans headquarters yesterday to pick up his training gear and said he was excited the formalities surrounding his contract were now out of the way and he could concentrate on getting back to training and help the Titans make an impact in their inaugural season.

"It is a bit nerve wracking," said 30-year-old Rogers.

"It feels like my first day at school to be honest.

"I know a few of the guys, but not many of them."

Rogers first signed with the Gold Coast in September last year to return to rugby league in 2008 on a $1 million three-year deal following the rugby union world cup.

But in December, after his older brother Don was taken to hospital following a drug overdose, Rogers sought and was granted a release from his lucrative contract with the Australian Rugby Union and NSW Rugby Union on compassionate grounds.

Titans managing director Michael Searle said Rogers took a substantial pay cut in order to run out in Gold Coast colours this season.

But the return to league has never been about the money for Rogers.

Rogers' move to the Coast, where he attended high school, was as much about setting up a new life for his young family as anything else.

"From our point of view to have a dual international as our final signing is pretty special," said Searle.

The former Cronulla Sharks flyer said reports linking him to his old club for the 2007 season following his release from rugby union were way off the mark.

"I was away on holidays and the only way I found out about it was somebody in the pool told me," he said. "I have relocated my whole family up to the Gold Coast so I was never going to go anywhere else.

"We aren't too far away now from the start of the season and the trial matches in particular. So I have got to get back out there and get fit.

"I am sure (trainer) Billy (Johnstone) has a few things up his sleeve for me."

Searle said the value Rogers would add to the club both on and off the field could not be overstated.

"We have now got three senior playmakers in Scott Prince, Preston Campbell and Mat Rogers in our squad," he said.

Turner originally agreed to a three-year contract with the Titans in June last year before getting cold feet and re-signing with the Storm a month later.

The NRL made it clear they will not register Turner's new contract with the Storm, believing he should honour his commitment to the Gold Coast.

The two clubs have been at loggerheads in a battle for the 22-year-old's services since. The catalyst for the resolution seems to be the threat of the Titans lining up a deal to ship Turner off to Cronulla to replace retired winger Darren Albert.

Source: Gold Coast Bulletin