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Good News with the Titans Old Boys

DIEHARD

DIEHARD

Administrator
I love following and seeing what former players are up to. But always disappointed when the negative stories mix in.

So let's have a thread dedicated to the good! Here it is. Let's wait and add to it.
 
Titans great Mat Rogers says his feud with club owner Rebecca Frizelle is over

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Titans legend Mat Rogers says his feud with club owner Rebecca Frizelle is over and a bright future is on the horizon for long-suffering Gold Coast NRL fans.

Titans great Mat Rogers has “buried the hatchet” with club owner Rebecca Frizelle and believes Gold Coast is ready to stop making excuses and deliver NRL success to the Glitter Strip.

Rogers says the time has arrived for the Titans to become an NRL premiership force as Des Hasler prepares to kick off his second season in charge of the club next week.

The Titans have recorded three consecutive bottom four finishes and been the NRL’s second-worst performing club over that period, ahead of only three-time wooden spooners Wests Tigers.

Queensland expansion club the Dolphins have finished ahead of Gold Coast in their first two NRL seasons.

“The time for excuses is over.”

The recruitment of two-time premiership winner Hasler last year to replace Justin Holbrook was seen as a major coup in the Titans’ pursuit of success.

But six straight losses to start the 2024 season, and another five at the end of the year, ultimately saw the Titans finish four wins outside the top eight and record fewer victories than 2023.

Heading into a new pre-season, optimism at Parkwood is once again high following the signing of Parramatta’s Reagan Campbell-Gillard to complement an already stacked forward pack.

A foundation Titan, Rogers said he had never been more excited about the club’s future and the time had arrived for success as Gold Coast embarks on a 19th NRL season.

“I’ve probably never been more buoyant about them. I am cautiously optimistic,” he said.

“I look at the forward pack – Tino (Fa’asuamaleaui), David Fifita, (Beau) Fermor, Campbell-Gillard, (Moeaki) Fotuaika … it’s a forward pack you’d dream to play behind.

“If they can get it right, which I’m sure they can, it’s promising.

“There is no room for excuses now. Des has been here for a year and he’s got a squad that should challenge for the top eight.

“You’d like to think they won’t be fighting for seventh or eighth and they could go deeper into the top eight with the forward pack and finishers they’ve got.

The former dual international was one of the Titans’ foundation signings when the Michael Searle-led consortium was handed the NRL’s 16th licence ahead of a 2007 launch.

Rogers joined the likes of Preston Campbell, Scott Prince, Luke Bailey, Nathan Friend and Anthony Laffranchi in becoming inaugural Titans players.

But along the way, amid a host of financial problems and scandals that threatened the club’s existence, relationships between the Titans and their Old Boys broke down.

A rift grew between the straight-shooting Rogers and Frizelle, the former chair who took ownership of the Titans from the NRL in 2017 alongside Darryl Kelly.

Ex-Titans players drifted apart from the club, but in recent times an effort has been made to bring them back.

Rogers, Bird and Laffranchi (football manager) this week featured in the club’s 2025 jersey launch, which was modelled on the 2010 strip they wore during the Titans’ most successful season when they reached the NRL’s preliminary finals.

Rogers, 48, said he felt part of the club again after years in the wilderness.

“There hasn’t been a relationship,” he said of the Titans and their ex-players.

“I had a game of golf with Kieran Foran a while back and showed him some correspondence I get from the Sharks regularly and he said ‘you don’t get that from the Titans?’

“He said he’d speak to Dessie and a week later we got invited to a captain’s run. A few months later we had an old boys’ day. I think a lot of bridges were mended.

“I know Rebecca and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. We have sort of buried the hatchet. We both want the same thing, we both want success for the Titans.

“I live here and I played here. They gave me an opportunity to come home. The Gold Coast was my home. I grew up here.

“They gave me an opportunity to finish my career here and settle my family here so I’ll be forever grateful for that.

“To have that disconnect hurt me, it really did. To be back engaged with the club is great.”

The Titans had about 50 ex-players at Cbus Super Stadium to watch them thrash the Broncos 46-18 in round 22.

Gold Coast legend Anthony Don said it was a step in the right direction as the club looks to reconnect with its history.

“They’re late to the party so the culture is a bit gone,” he said.

“Since Paul Stephenson has come in as pathways manager and Jen Cross (welfare) has tried to help as well with bringing the old boys back in.

“We’ve got so many good old players like Greg Bird, Nate Myles, Mat Rogers and Preston Campbell. We’re getting those guys in as much as we can.

“I’m still involved with the club so I’m a bit different, but a lot of the old boys feel more welcome now.

“We had the old boys’ day last season which was a big success and it’s going to go from strength to strength.

“You see all the successful clubs over the years – Melbourne is one big family, the Roosters always look after their older players. They’re so connected to the club.

“It’s an important space but it requires time, effort and a bit of money to help it go along. It doesn’t just happen.

“The Titans are investing in that now which is good. Hopefully the young boys like it as much as the old boys do.

“We love getting out there, connecting, shaking hands and going in the sheds after a win.”

Despite another failed season, there is hope the Titans can become a genuine title threat next year.

The forward pack is stacked and the club has strike in the form of Keano Kini, AJ Brimson, Jayden Campbell, Jojo Fifita and Phil Sami to go with Wallabies convert Carter Gordon.

Rogers hopes with the Old Boys back on board, and a blossoming squad, the Titans can get back to the glory years of 2007-10 before the club lost its way.

“Everyone was trying to find their feet after those years,” he said.

“Michael Searle had left and a new ownership came in and were trying to understand how to run a football club.

“There was always going to be some teething issues. Hopefully we are beyond all that now.

“From 2007-10 you couldn’t get a seat (at Robina stadium). It was pumping and the community was behind us. It’d be nice to see it get back to that again.

“I’m sick of hearing that sports clubs don’t work on the Gold Coast because it’s rubbish. We did work.

“We were all just a little bit old and had to move on. If we were four years younger we could have won a comp.

“It’s not about where you are geographically. It’s about the group of men you’ve got wanting to put in for the jersey.

“We had a core group of guys that could play footy but it was a pretty rag tag team. We weren’t full of stars but we demanded a lot from each other, everyone put in and we got results.”
 
This is music to my hears. Having the old boys back involved is imperative for a new club like us.

I know the fans have noticed their frustrating absence over the years.

Can we get Luke Bailey involved too? Certainly a tower of the Old School Titans.
 
I'd also suggest that the Old Boys get a digital presence so media, sponsors and fans can get involved. And we can see what they are getting up to.
 
DIEHARD said:
This is music to my hears. Having the old boys back involved is imperative for a new club like us.

I know the fans have noticed their frustrating absence over the years.

Can we get Luke Bailey involved too? Certainly a tower of the Old School Titans.
Click to expand...
Luke Bailey epitomised everything on both sides of the ball for the Titans and was high on effort.

It would be fantastic to get Bailey back into the club.,
 
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