Canterbury Bulldogs beat Gold Coast Titans 36-14, as Aidan Sezer pays price for heavy tackle
AIDAN Sezer’s Titans career is likely over after he was the victim of another crunching tackle on a kicker as Canterbury outclassed the Gold Coast.
AIDAN Sezer’s Titans career is likely over after he was the victim of another crunching tackle on a kicker as Canterbury outclassed the Gold Coast.
Titans coach Neil Henry said the NRL needed to investigate the increasing number of kickers targeted, backing up Johnathan Thurston’s pleas for protection from game officials.
Sezer’s injury came in the 50th minute when 122kg prop Sam Kasiano thumped him moments after he had kicked the ball downfield.
Sezer’s shoulder was injured in the incident and he will likely miss the remaining three Titans games before he moves to the Canberra Raiders.
Sezer’s injury compounded another frustrating day for the Titans.
Gold Coast are likely to win the wooden spoon for the second time in the club’s history.
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The Bulldogs belted the Titans in the final 20 minutes to win 36-14 at Gosford to hand the Gold Coast their sixth loss in their past seven games.
Sezer was the Titans’ best player before he was injured. The Titans latest halves recruit Tyrone Roberts is yet to show the ability Sezer has.
Henry was measured but clearly frustrated about the treatment his playmaker received.
“It is an area we need to look at,” he said.
“There’s a difference if a kicker is going to the line to do a grubber. At the moment they are fair game. He was tackled kicking the ball. He wrapped his arms and they are letting players do that.
“He’s not going to the line to kick it, when you have a 120kg guy landing on a 90kg guy something is going to give. Losing Aidan today was a big blow.
“I was really happy with us hanging in and playing some enterprising footy though. We turned it over four or five times on tackle one or tackle two.
“This is a learning curve for some of our young guys.”
The answers to the Titans woes are through recruitment yet they won’t have a recruitment officer next month with Jamie Mathiou telling the club this week he was quitting at season’s end after just one year in the position.
The Titans are the best example of why the code’s new rich television rights deal should be used to increase the annual grant beyond the salary cap.
The Titans need more help than the NRL just underwriting their cheques. They need money to hire staff and develop talent in the region.
The Titans are bottom of the table, equal on 18 competition points with Newcastle and Wests. However, their for and against is still 37 points off the 15th ranked Knights.
This was actually one of the Titans’ better performances in recent weeks. The game was in the balance when centre James Roberts scorched the Morris twins, Brett and Josh, for the Gold Coast to trail just 16-10 with 20 minutes remaining.
However, that just seemed to spark the Bulldogs.
The Titans handling was again their biggest issue. They dropped the ball 15 times yesterday as they struggled to execute attacking movements.
It didn’t help that the Titans were forced into a late reshuffle with Kane Elgey ruled out. Josh Hoffman shifted to five-eighth, David Mead moved to fullback and winger Leva Li debuted on the wing.
Li was solid on debut and showed he had an NRL future.
Full-time: CANTERBURY 36 (G Eastwood 2 B Morris 2 C Rona 2 D Klemmer tries T Hodkinson 4 goals) bt GOLD COAST 14 (K Faifai Loa 2 J Roberts tries G Bird goal) at Central Coast Stadium. Referee: Alan Shortall, Adam Devcich.
Originally published as Canterbury Bulldogs beat Gold Coast Titans 36-14, as Aidan Sezer pays price for heavy tackle