Titans Team Building

[PROMETHEUS]

An excellent story..check it out!
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/ti...e#contentSwap1
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/ti...e#contentSwap1

LUKE Bailey is the rock on which the Gold Coast Titans will be built. When John Cartwright arrived on the Queensland holiday strip to coach a side that didn't have a single player, Bailey was placed at the top of his list of potential recruits. Cartwright and Titans managing director Michael Searle flew to Sydney and drove to Bailey's home near Wollongong in an ambitious but crucial attempt to lure the St George Illawarra, NSW and Australian Test prop out of the famous red V jumper.

"We went after him hard," Cartwright said. "I spoke to Phil Gould about him and Gus said, 'He's a warrior. He's unbreakable'. That's exactly what he is. That's what we needed. When there's no one to take the ball up, he'll be there. If you need to chase someone down, he'll be there."

"St George were struggling to keep him and we had permission to talk. We really did need him but he was a guy I thought would take a fair while to get. I thought, 'Why would Luke Bailey come to a club with no players? Why would he leave a club like St George?' All I could think of were the negatives from his point of view."

Bailey, Cartwright and Searle sat in Bailey's living room and talked for two hours. "Michael gave his vision for the club," Cartwright said. "We talked finances. We said, 'What do you think?' and he said, 'Where do I sign?' He asked his wife and she said, 'It's up to you'.

"We asked him if he wanted a bit of time to think about it and he said, 'Nah, not really'. We shook hands and the deal was done right there and then. Searley and I walked out and couldn't believe it. We'd got ourselves one of the best players and guys going around. It was more than a relief. It was a sign to me that we could build a side up here. If someone like Luke Bailey was prepared to make the jump, I knew other blokes would, too."

If Bailey is the club's foundation stone, Mat Rogers is the tortured genius whom Cartwright has embraced. When Rogers was unfit, unhappy and desperate to get out of rugby union, Cartwright offered salvation. The former Shark's five-year stint in rugby had been dogged by injuries - he had missed 37 out of 118 matches and had not lasted a full season since 2002. His emotions and off-field behaviour could be erratic. He was damaged goods and a gamble - but Cartwright and Searle were prepared to roll the dice.

"When he got here, he wasn't fit and struggled for a while," Cartwright says. "He's done the hardest training he's done in a long, long time. Every week he gets better. He made a couple of mistakes in our first trial and I took him off at half-time, but he was desperate to get back out there to make up for it. That was a good sign. We've got to be patient with him. Five years is a long time to be out of the game."


Rogers's baggage when he moved from Sydney amounted to more than just a few suitcases.
"I didn't know him before and I was probably a little bit apprehensive," Cartwright says. "It's easy to think you should treat all your players the same, but the fact is you can't. They're all different. They've all got different family situations and different personalities and you have to learn which are the right buttons to push. But he's probably the easiest guy I've ever worked with because he's so honest."

"Everything with Matty is in your face and out in the open. He's got that look where there's nothing sneaky about him. The ones you worry about are the ones who tell you one thing, but you're not quite sure if they mean something else. With Matty, if he does the wrong thing, he tells you. If he wants something, he asks you. He's a good, approachable bloke."

Chris Walker, meanwhile, is drinking in the last chance saloon, and Cartwright is trusting him. When Walker's career appeared dead and buried, with his reputation for causing havoc while out on the town making other NRL clubs run a mile, the Titans offered him a couple of trials. He's trained the house down and will have the unqualified backing of his coach - so long as he keeps drinking at the aforementioned saloon and not some Gold Coast nightclub at 4am.

"Chris and Matty are different characters," Cartwright says. "As I said, you have to treat everyone differently, but they still all have to abide by the same rules. He'd got himself into the situation where he was on his last legs. He'd been cut by his last three clubs. But his parents live on the Gold Coast. One of his brothers lives on the Gold Coast and the other lives in Brisbane. He's probably never had that family support before."

"People forget what a good player he is. He should be remembered for what he can do on a football field because some of the things he can do are freakish. He hasn't had enough game time the past few years. He realises it's been his own fault."

Walker, for his part, has promised to behave himself. "You've got to pull his head in every now and again," Cartwright says. "He likes to be the life of the party but he's getting older and he's at the stage where he's a senior player and has to start thinking like one. He's looking after himself off the field. He's probably the fittest bloke here. All he's ever known is football. To have the threat of that being taken away from you, you can't understand how frightening that can be."

Cartwright admits the first day at his new job was difficult - he couldn't coach anybody because he didn't have a player. Now he has 30 of them. There's no talk of five-year plans because he wants the Titans to be successful "in the short term".

The club has enormous support. Everything is in place. He says he has no idea if the team will win, lose or draw, and that all he can do is prepare it as well as possible. His gut feeling, though, is a good one after two straight trial victories, including a 28-6 win over Penrith on Friday night. No bold predictions from Cartwright before the Titans' historic opening NRL match against the Dragons on March 18, but there's an unopened bottle of champagne behind his desk.

[DIEHARD]

Great article, enjoyed reading one with a different angle.

I'm really enjoying have Rogers in our side and I think he thinks the same.

[squirrell]

Loved the article.I think the titans have recruited well because it seems to me to have been a very upfront honest recruitment of our team,no pretence of "we"ll have the best team in the league straight away and all the best players in the nrl signing for us"spiel to the players.All our team are professionals and would realise the immense workload ahead of them as the expectations of the gold coast weigh on their shoulders.Diehard fans(like myself!!)realise the enormous challenges in playing established sides week in week out and knowing the public expects you to win every game home or away even with depleted sides.This team is definately a community team,a family team and after travelling to lismore and then witnessing the awesome display at the panthers game,i have to say the team are exceeding my initial expectations as i had all my excuses ready for the detractors in the event of witnessing 2 losses(we're experimenting with players,we're new to this,the players aren't used to each other,etc.etc).The players are showing that the've bonded as a unit and i cant stop smiling.Hats off for signing chris walker,unbelievably talented and he will be our player of the season,the same with mat rogers,people with natural talent are a rarity,i could go on but i wont.I really want to thank everyone involved in bringing this miracle to the gold coast,and if the buzz at my workplace is replicated in other workplaces around the coast then the titans are on to a winner.Forget afl,they're in it for the money,the titans are in it for the gold coast.

[DeeGan]

Yeah, another great read about our team - amazing to be able to write that after the journey we have undertaken

[C-Whiz]

Yep, that's a great little article, and it leaves me with the same feeling I've had after watching the TITANS play so far, and I can sum it up in one word.... INSPIRED!

Now, with the season upon us (funny, a couple of months ago we were all looking forward to the trial games!) I'm also really excited, for a whole lot of reasons, but for me I really feel like we have a team that is our own, even though Michael and Carty had to put it together with a whole lot of bits and pieces (and a huge amount of effort!) and a fair amount of luck.

In the modern professional sporting age where players are bought, sold and traded to the highest bidder, I can't help but get the feeling that there are a lot of talented players who are here just because they want to be, because it feels right for them for whatever reason.

And it's not just the players, it's the management and the coaching staff. It's everyone having the same vision, not just about winning games and being competitive, but being a part of something bigger than the result, something new and exciting, something that really is making a difference. And the fans are feeling it and responding to it.

I'm dead-set loving it! How good is it!?!?