2026 Titans General Discussion Thread

[MaroonTitan]

We're also doing a lot of good stuff off the field. Here's another example:

Titans proudly welcome 25 of Australia’s newest citizens

Twenty-five people representing 15 different countries of birth officially became Australian citizens during a special ceremony hosted by the Gold Coast Titans recently.

www.titans.com.au

I've been to lots of these events and they're very special for the people invovled - a day they often cite as one of the best and happiest in their lives. They remember who was there and it sticks. And on a smaller scale, the more local Titans fans, the better!

 

[The Birdman]

Absolute master-class put on by Sam Walker and Tedesco tonight against an awful Cowboys outfit.

Drinkwater has to be the most overrated player in the NRL. On his day he's good but does not inspire any defensive confidence at all from the back and has the odd all-time stinker in him.

 

[Whats Doing]

Cody Hopwood -20, Jermaine McEwan - 21, Francis Manueleua -22. All young, athletic, great body shapes and all have big motors. They stood up against the Broncos forwards including Haas, Carrigan, Riki, Williamson and more than matched their own.

They are all on minimal contracts and whilst they came up through the Knights pathways only one is a junior.

It is this prototype forwards we need at the club and they are out there if recruitment looks hard enough throughout Qld, NSW and NZ.

You can coach and train the required skills to NRL level, but if you have obvious physical flaws which Beau, Moe and Patson have, you will always be having problems with your defence which we have all observed over last few years with Beau and Moe and now with Patson imo.

 

[Ausphin]

I have spent way too much time thinking about this, but if I reflect how I was feeling at the end of last season, then I think we have made some progress. We have won as many games as last year and are building a foundation to build from.

In no set priority order-

1. Get a modern coach who can relate to the players. Less than 1 season in, but I love everything I have seen from Hannay so far

2. Re-engage with the community- still a work in progress, but some signs it is improving

3. Improve the game day experience and increase local crowds- game day experience is still poor and has not improved from my perspective. Reality with crowds is we need to be winning more to get more “on the fence” fans attending

4. Improve our defence - definite signs it is improving. Yesterday’s hammering and first round loss to Sharks shows when we get it wrong, it can go badly, but room for optimism

5. Invest in our local and emerging talent - definitely seems to be a focus for the club finally

6. Reshape our squad - in conjunction with finding the right coach definitely the most important and probably the hardest to do. Was never going to happen overnight and I was amazed that we were able to offload RCG, Fifita, Lofi and Kelly so quickly. All players with effort and error issues, so to see them gone in 1 offseason was impressive. I think if I polled every Titans fan on here to name 5 players we must retain to build this club around I imagine we would have very similar responses. For me Tino, JC, Zane, Jojo and probably Kini. I was very tempted to include Pascoe given what he brings to the team and must be a priority signing. The challenge is the players not on that list (AJ, Moe, Fermor) all being in probably our 5 most expensive players. Still plenty of work to do and no obvious answers unfortunately.

 

[Mexican titan]

I have spent way too much time thinking about this, but if I reflect how I was feeling at the end of last season, then I think we have made some progress. We have won as many games as last year and are building a foundation to build from.

In no set priority order-

1. Get a modern coach who can relate to the players. Less than 1 season in, but I love everything I have seen from Hannay so far

2. Re-engage with the community- still a work in progress, but some signs it is improving

3. Improve the game day experience and increase local crowds- game day experience is still poor and has not improved from my perspective. Reality with crowds is we need to be winning more to get more “on the fence” fans attending

4. Improve our defence - definite signs it is improving. Yesterday’s hammering and first round loss to Sharks shows when we get it wrong, it can go badly, but room for optimism

5. Invest in our local and emerging talent - definitely seems to be a focus for the club finally

6. Reshape our squad - in conjunction with finding the right coach definitely the most important and probably the hardest to do. Was never going to happen overnight and I was amazed that we were able to offload RCG, Fifita, Lofi and Kelly so quickly. All players with effort and error issues, so to see them gone in 1 offseason was impressive. I think if I polled every Titans fan on here to name 5 players we must retain to build this club around I imagine we would have very similar responses. For me Tino, JC, Zane, Jojo and probably Kini. I was very tempted to include Pascoe given what he brings to the team and must be a priority signing. The challenge is the players not on that list (AJ, Moe, Fermor) all being in probably our 5 most expensive players. Still plenty of work to do and no obvious answers unfortunately.

Good post Phins.
Re the game day experience, get that woman on the PA to STFU. Painfull yesterday and as for that little jig they put on after a Titans try (not often) it stops us seeing a replay on the screen. The kids like it so I'm tolerant to a degree but when we score I like to see a replay. As they use the Fox coverage the replays are all but done when they return to the live coverage.

 

[willhelm]

Help me bros

I’m on a perfect round but am so uncertain with this Tigs v Eels game. Eels are favs and Tigs have looked dead for a while but they’re back to full strength and I’m sensing a bounce back game with Douehi back at 7.

If I get this right I’m back to 1st and stand to win something like $2k if I can hold on, so this is very important and I’m counting on you!!!

 

[Mexican titan]

Help me bros

I’m on a perfect round but am so uncertain with this Tigs v Eels game. Eels are favs and Tigs have looked dead for a while but they’re back to full strength and I’m sensing a bounce back game with Douehi back at 7.

If I get this right I’m back to 1st and stand to win something like $2k if I can hold on, so this is very important and I’m counting on you!!!

There is still too long in the season to start over thinking games. I'm in the same position in a tipping comp and also had a problem with this game. I stuck with Parra as they have been going ok, but my golden rule (which I have broken this year and had it blow up in my face) is don't change a tip.
Good luck.

 

[Cowabunga]

Cody Hopwood -20, Jermaine McEwan - 21, Francis Manueleua -22. All young, athletic, great body shapes and all have big motors. They stood up against the Broncos forwards including Haas, Carrigan, Riki, Williamson and more than matched their own.

They are all on minimal contracts and whilst they came up through the Knights pathways only one is a junior.

It is this prototype forwards we need at the club and they are out there if recruitment looks hard enough throughout Qld, NSW and NZ.

You can coach and train the required skills to NRL level, but if you have obvious physical flaws which Beau, Moe and Patson have, you will always be having problems with your defence which we have all observed over last few years with Beau and Moe and now with Patson imo.

Cody is seen as the best prop prospect since The Chief down there and McEwan was the SG ball player of the year at 18, Would be surprised if they weren't on close to top $$ for rookies at their position similar to Cooper or others with their rep and we have Bodhi, Cooper and Vili coming through who despite all middles are those type of athletes, just younger. Our 2nd rower coming up just got Aus schoolboys in Kalani at 17 in the 2nd QLD team while playing MM and looking great.

There really isn't all these players out there and if they are they got locked down due to Bears/PNG a bit ago. We're pretty onto juniors/Cup as a fanbase thanks to HS and Mdrew and there really isn't all this 2nd row talent out there, QLDs schoolboys was horrible besides Kalani. Fatialofa would be the smallest 2nd rower in the league and he was being chased by a ton of clubs which shows me there isn't really that much talent in the position. If you are a legit forward prospect your signed at 15 for 4 years like we do then clubs re-sign before that ends.

I don't fully get it because we kind of went and did that with our fringies who have played this year and nearly all of them have been trashed despite being some of the best players in cup. You either have it or you don't and if coaches got through to every player who had NRL talent the league would be 30 deep on each roster.

Thankfully we are looking over the whole place but it's not that easy to find those type of prospects, QLD/NR Rivers don't really have the builds comparable to Western Sydney, The issue as always is getting players up and taking a risk which seems to be happening with the 3 Penrith kids.

 

[Whats Doing]

Cody is seen as the best prop prospect since The Chief down there and McEwan was the SG ball player of the year at 18, Would be surprised if they weren't on close to top $$ for rookies at their position similar to Cooper or others with their rep and we have Bodhi, Cooper and Vili coming through who despite all middles are those type of athletes, just younger.Our 2nd rower coming up just got Aus schoolboys in Kalani at 17 in the 2nd QLD team while playing MM and looking great.

There really isn't all these players out there and if they are they got locked down due to Bears/PNG a bit ago. We're pretty onto juniors/Cup as a fanbase thanks to HS and Mdrew and there really isn't all this 2nd row talent out there, QLDs schoolboys was horrible besides Kalani. Fatialofa would be the smallest 2nd rower in the league and he was being chased by a ton of clubs which shows me there isn't really that much talent in the position.

I don't fully get it because we kind of went and did that with our fringies who have played this year and nearly all of them have been trashed despite being some of the best players in cup. You either have it or you don't and if coaches got through to every player who had NRL talent the league would be 30 deep on each roster.

Thankfully we are looking over the whole place but it's not that easy to find those type of prospects, QLD/NR Rivers don't really have the builds comparable to Western Sydney, The issue as always is getting players up and taking a risk which seems to be happening with the 3 Penrith kids.

The 3 penrith kids are all backs and I was specifically talking about forwards in which we continually get dominated. . . My point is you recruit having the physical attributes as a mandatory requirement and you coach to build upon. Having physical deficiencies will always cause you problems for which coaching cannot fix. Good players at QCup does not always transfer to NRL and will get found out at the NRL level if a player has a physical deficiency.

 

[Cowabunga]

That's why I said any forward with athletic talent gets locked up for 3/4 years from 15 and usually get re-upped quickly like we do once they show they have something. There's 4/5 kids on deals for us who have NRL backended who they realistically have no clue what happens but it's the calculated risk every club is taking in those positions and how wanted they are around the league

I feel your conflating two different points, There's not one player I can think of on a top 36 deal that doesn't have NRL attributes to whatever levels and if that's depth that's fine.... The Aj/Fermor/Moe deals are just really poor cap management.

Good players at QCup does not always transfer to NRL and will get found out at the NRL level if a player has a physical deficiency.

Every team has Patston type players who hold a spot till a rookie does hopefully come in (Look at Panthers top 30) and there's a 1000 athletic players that don't make it either because they don't have the feel or IQ that is needed. When I see Jensen get trashed despite how he performed in cup for years and his athletic profile, Maybe some just don't ever get it with coaching either as we've probably seen over the last 2 years. It was a lot worse here under Holbrook when they just went locals only even if they weren't near NRL.

The market in juniors is a lot tougher in forwards then the backs but the club is doing it wellm Reality is every club is doing the same thing and those type of physiques are a lot rarer up here demanded are a lot rarer up here then Western Sydney.

 

[Whats Doing]

When I talk about athleticism, it is not only the only the external attributes such as build, size, pace etc but just as importantly the aerobic capacity of the player particularly in the forwards who are required to tackle,- sometimes multiple, move backwards and forwards and kick chase all in a set of 6 whilst keeping keeping the defensive line in tack and the need to redo this for extended periods of time. The 6 again has highlighted the importance of this physical attribute.

Looking at Torino, he has that problem and when he came on yesterday appeared very good for 5 minutes and then he was gassed. Patson, Beau and Moe all have this problem as well as other deficiencies and when they are on the field together it is no wonder we lose yardage big time when they are gassed so quickly. The 6 again rule only highlights their deficiencies even more and causes untold problems with our defence which is why we need to recruit forwards who have the full range of physical attributes as the starting point.
Anyway that is enough from me on this subject

 

[Whats Doing]

Titans Ranked 15th in a CM article on each NRL club under 23's depth

15. TITANS​

TOP 30 UNDER 23:
Arama Hau (Age: 21; Contract: 2028), Cooper Bai (Age: 19; Contract: 2028), Jett Liu (Age: 22; Contract: 2027), Keano Kini (Age: 22; Contract: 2030), Luke Hanson (Age: 22; Contract: 2028), Tyler Pereira (Age: 19; Contract: 2029), Zane Harrison (Age: 20; Contract: 2027)
Total: 7
NEXT BEST:
Sialetili Faeamani (Age: 22; Contract: 2027), Bodhi Sharpley (Age: 19), Austin Desmond (Age: 17), Jai Bilish (Age: 19; Contract: 2030), Kalani Patu (Age: 18; Contract: Dev.), Isaac Harrison (Age: 20; Contract: Dev.), Viliami Fifita (Age: 18; Contract: 2029), Dallas Ingram (Age: 18)
Like the Raiders, the cream of the Titans' young talent is already on Josh Hannay’s top 30 roster. Halfback Zane Harrison has been a shining light this year with his footy IQ and composed demeanour and will become a free agent if not extended before November. Given the lack of young halves talent, the Titans will be in for a bidding war if they do not secure his signature before then. Luke Hanson’s addition adds depth in the halves while Aarama Hau and Cooper Bai are destined for NRL stardom. The best teen prospect at the club is hooker Jai Bilish. Rookie Oliver Pascoe, 26, is impressing at hooker but Bilish has been a stand out in the Mal Meninga Cup (under-19’s) this year and will be in the mix for an NRL start in 2027.

 

[GoldCoastBrimmos]

Titans Ranked 15th in a CM article on each NRL club under 23's depth

15. TITANS​

TOP 30 UNDER 23:
Arama Hau (Age: 21; Contract: 2028), Cooper Bai (Age: 19; Contract: 2028), Jett Liu (Age: 22; Contract: 2027), Keano Kini (Age: 22; Contract: 2030), Luke Hanson (Age: 22; Contract: 2028), Tyler Pereira (Age: 19; Contract: 2029), Zane Harrison (Age: 20; Contract: 2027)
Total: 7
NEXT BEST:
Sialetili Faeamani (Age: 22; Contract: 2027), Bodhi Sharpley (Age: 19), Austin Desmond (Age: 17), Jai Bilish (Age: 19; Contract: 2030), Kalani Patu (Age: 18; Contract: Dev.), Isaac Harrison (Age: 20; Contract: Dev.), Viliami Fifita (Age: 18; Contract: 2029), Dallas Ingram (Age: 18)
Like the Raiders, the cream of the Titans' young talent is already on Josh Hannay’s top 30 roster. Halfback Zane Harrison has been a shining light this year with his footy IQ and composed demeanour and will become a free agent if not extended before November. Given the lack of young halves talent, the Titans will be in for a bidding war if they do not secure his signature before then. Luke Hanson’s addition adds depth in the halves while Aarama Hau and Cooper Bai are destined for NRL stardom. The best teen prospect at the club is hooker Jai Bilish. Rookie Oliver Pascoe, 26, is impressing at hooker but Bilish has been a stand out in the Mal Meninga Cup (under-19’s) this year and will be in the mix for an NRL start in 2027.

What’s the ranking of the clubs?

 

[Cowabunga]

Nah....... I'm sorry but if we're rating Fatima Kdoughs list when they name I.Harrison who's never ever in the teams history been considered NRL level and on a 21s contract with a pie and coke for the last few years on a list that has Manly at 2nd......................................... cmon WD... That's the most stupid list of all time besides Rorters.

I'd put Bodhi, Jai and Vili against any top 3 prospects at any club, Add Kalani at 17 making Aus schoolboys and dominating in MM as a 17 year old...

 

[Whats Doing]

What do you mean come on WD. It is for information sharing purposes only. Get a grip Cowa.

 

[Cowabunga]

That's the most stupid list of all time besides Rorters.

Repeat again....

It's not info when it's BS..... Isaac is not on a dev contract or never was near it......Dallas isn't either, A lot of that info is based on jerking off NSW and just complete BS, I watch a lot more QLD juniors and a bit of NSW, It's nowhere near close. There's way more talent on actual deals not really let out for a while.

We had the only 2 schoolboys from QLD and in Kalanis case like I said in the 2nd team yet placed 15th makes no sense alone, Jai Bil jumped like 30 spots on their dumb list when he had an average tournament but was still better then everyone, He was rated in the 40s off memory before it.

Putting your judgements based on that list is just where I have to zone out because it takes ZERO nuance into anything...... There's also been like 3/4 2nd rowers including Arama from QLD debut in the last 2 years, There's not this abundance like I said.

 

[Hail Sezer]

lol I read that article and laughed. Appreciate the attempt at junior spotlighting in the media but thought it was pretty bad.

There’s some journalists out there who have a genuine grip on pathways and report on it through junior carnivals, pathways comps and reserve grade. No disrespect intended to Fatima but she’s not one of those journalists.

Isaac Harrison isn’t on a Dev deal. She’s completely missed Sunny Kama and Luke Cesari. She’s completely missed Jhett Sydir, most likely because he isn’t showing up on the lazy google search she used to make the list. If you’re going to include Austin Desmond you have to include Fynn Laffranchi who’s contracted longer as well as Kobi Hauraki. We’re the only Qld club who had Aus Schoolboys this year yet the Broncos, with also considerably lesser u23 talent in their 30, are somehow ranked 6 higher than us. I could go on but I’m already putting too much energy into this by writing this post

 

[Cowabunga]

I didn't even realize that... I thought it was a purely junior thing who hadn't debuted....

We're 15th with Harrison and Kini still... That makes the article 100x funnier, So this bunch off 23 year olds and under playing NRL like Arama, Cooper, JDG, Kini and co are 15th despite playing nrl..... let alone what is actually coming through.... and the rest like Hanson, Liu and co still in that group and a few more...

It doesn't show or prove anything WD, All clubs have that as seen on their list, CM/DT just picked and chose of hottakes, Manly being 2nd is the funniest thing I've ever seen considering their results through grades, That Salafai kid who wasn't near Cooper in rep seasons they rate way higher then Cooper or Joey Walsh over Zane or Large over Jai?? None of it adds up there.

I 100% get what you are saying WD and agree it's been a problem for a long time now for athletic bodies, I just think people are underestimating how hard it is in a big way tp find good talent or young ones that aren't locked up with the right size or athleticism and then it's a gamble... Sattler would probably do some wild things to get that talent in.

There's really not much talent coming through the next few years unless they make a big leap. The club scouts a ton.... It's why it's a confusing comment imo or doesn't understand how things work... Bodhi is from North Toowoomba, Sam Fahlstrom is from Atherton.. Torino from NZ. They are going out and looking, It's not easy for cup/juniors which are way closer in talent till the Junior makes the leap... That's why you have our cup players.

 

[Whats Doing]

FFS Cowa. I just posted an article from the CM for information purposes only as people one don’t have access behind an paywall and I made no judgement on the article. I shall refrain from doing so in the future.

 

[Cowabunga]

Just for context on that article.... I want the real info out there rather then just go get this protype athletic kid who is ready or we can go just get and be ready when it's not realistic at all due to what I mentioned in juniors.

In that article.

We had Kini at 2nd, Zane 16th, Cooper 18th, Arama 30th.

Manly have

Simione Laiafi at 48th and Joey Walsh at 20 They got rated 2nd....​

We were still 15th including the only 2 Aus schoolboys and VIli or the rugby kids.

It's not info when you use the ratings which on half the players isn't real. That's all I'm pointing out and sorry but a lot of what you say we should do or mention isn't really possible or realistic that the club isn't doing..

That's why it's rank trying to push an agenda using it imo.