Spills and thrills for Titans
AFTER hosing the most calamitous morning in pre-season memory, Gold Coast Titans now rival Movie World for edge-of-the seat action and drama.
Between Mat Rogers injuring his ankle and Brian Carney's shock retirement, there were thrills and spills aplenty at Runaway Bay Sports Centre.
With a horde of cameras gathered to capture Rogers' first training run, the ex-Australia rugby utility added another reel to a saga-filled couple of months.
Less than 30 minutes into the session, Rogers rolled his right ankle and the image of him limping off gave credence to naysayers who maintain he is injury-prone.
"It was just a simple roll of the ankle ... everything will be OK, there's nothing to worry about," Rogers, 30, said.
"I had a crook ankle about a year ago but it's not that ankle anyway."
He later vowed to be back, but the same cannot be said of Carney.
Having flown 20,000km from England on the weekend, the Great Britain wing completed just a single training run on Monday.
But as Rogers sought treatment for his sprain, rumours were rife Carney would never return after failing to show for training.
By lunchtime, Titans CEO Michael Searle confirmed the Carney had already began his trip home after deciding to retire.
"It was a total shock," Searle said. "You could have picked me up off the floor on Monday night."
Innuendo arose as early as last August that Carney was set to renege on his two-year deal.
But after defying visa delays to land on the holiday strip, the 30-year-old enthused about "being part of something special" after training on Monday.
Sources close to Carney last night confirmed he battled homesickness since debuting in the National Rugby League with Newcastle last year.
A trip back to his homeland for family Christmas only made it harder to leave again.
Despite that, Carney thought he would be OK once he arrived on the Gold Coast and began training.
However, as one friend put it, "his Irish gypsy spirit" left him walking the Gold Coast streets lost and forlorn.
Carney's mind was made on Monday night to return to the UK. Once there he will finish a masters in commercial law and spend more time with father Brian, who lives in Hungary.
"I have made this decision with a heavy heart and it has been a difficult decision for me to make," Carney said via a statement yesterday.
"But I dearly want to get home to my family and I couldn't act like a fraud by taking the club's money when I knew in my heart I couldn't see the year out."
Carney's departure leaves Gold Coast desperately short out wide after Searle granted wing Steve Turner a release to Melbourne less than 24 hours earlier.
Rubbing ample salt into the wound, Turner yesterday afternoon stepped out for his return training run with Storm.