NRL 2016: Gold Coast Titans CEO Brian Canavan wants to put a Roosters touch on new club
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EVERY NRL club, every week.
We take you around the grounds to find out what’s happening in clubland.
TITANS
BRIAN Canavan helped transform the Sydney Roosters into one of the NRL’s most powerful clubs, and now he wants to help the Gold Coast do likewise.
And he believes he can do it in three seasons.
After nine years as Roosters CEO, Canavan has joined the Titans as the club’s Chief Operating Officer.
The veteran administrator used astute recruitment, junior development and a connection with the community to build the Tricolours commercially and believes he can mirror that success on the Gold Coast.
“What I achieved at the Roosters can be done here at the Titans and pretty quickly,” Canavan said.
“You are measured by the performance of your first-grade team, but within the community you are measured by all the other aspects of what you deliver in the community like membership, schools and junior clubs.
“All that is driving in the right direction at the Titans — I can see that and feel that within the place and in three years I can see us being a force.”
Canavan confirmed the Titans will move into their new high performance centre at Parkwood by the beginning of next season.
He also revealed his plans to follow in the footsteps of powerhouse Queensland club Brisbane and expand the Titans’ brand beyond the Gold Coast.
“The Broncos have had enormous success at expanding their brand and they put a lot of time and money into it,” he said.
“We want to do exactly the same thing. Then if we do face a bit of a dip, we can bounce back quickly because the brand is strong.”
TIGERS
The Wests Tigers will turn retro when they host Melbourne at Leichhardt Oval next Sunday as they unveil the Wayne Pearce Hill for the first time. The match against the Storm will coincide with the club’s 1980s-themed round. To celebrate, the club is encouraging fans to go retro with a best dressed competition. There will also be statues of Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Rocky Balboa around the ground that people will be able to pose alongside.
PANTHERS
The NRL is expected to decide this week if Penrith face sanctioning for the way they handled a possible head knock to Peter Wallace. Wallace rejected claims he played on with concussion despite appearing to use the goalpost pads to support him in the final stages of the Panthers 14-12 loss to St George Illawarra last month. Penrith face a fine if they are ruled to have left Wallace on the field when concussed after he attempted to make a tackle.
BULLDOGS
Brett Morris is finally off crutches and back in the gym as he makes slow progress in his return to the field. Morris still faces an extended stint on the sidelines with the representative player due back between round 14-16. He is swimming and doing physiotherapy but is still unable to run. Morris had surgery in February after complications from an earlier knee operation.
EELS
Rising star Bevan French is working overtime to return from a dislocated elbow to push his claims for an NRL debut. French is yet to play at any level since starring for the Eels in the Auckland Nines, where he was the tournament’s leading tryscorer. The emerging outside back, who is Nathan Blacklock’s cousin, is on track in his recovery and should return within three weeks.
RABBITOHS
Kyle Turner shrugged off his latest head-knock concerns. He again came from the field for a concussion test during the Rabbitohs’ seven-point loss to the Roosters on Friday night. The back-rower, who has a long history with head and neck injuries, left the field in the 58th minute before being cleared to return.
“It was a very minor thing,” Turner said. “I would have been fine to continue I think but it’s more precautionary than anything. “You have to take the hits as they come. It is a very physical sport. You can’t go out there not expecting to get hit pretty hard.”
ROOSTERS
Jackson Hastings has challenged emerging fullback Latrell Mitchell repeat his impressive display in Friday’s win over South Sydney.
“Latrell was outstanding, but now the challenge is backing it up every week,” Hastings said. “He has been building towards that type of performance throughout the entire pre-season. I think the younger kids can be easy targets when things go wrong and it’s easy to blame us. But we’ve kept our heads high and turned up to training and worked our butts off and Latrell has certainly done that.”
DRAGONS
Benji Marshall will ramp up recovery on his injured hamstring this week in a desperate bid to take on the Titans next Saturday. Marshall was a late withdrawal against Brisbane on Friday, but the veteran playmaker remains confident he’ll recover in time to play the Gold Coast. The Dragons need all the help they can get after being held scoreless in their past two clashes against North Queensland and Brisbane. Not since 1922 has the club scored fewer points throughout the opening six rounds.
BRONCOS
Corey Parker has anointed blockbusting winger Corey Oates ready to play Origin for Queensland this season. Parker’s belief comes on the back of Maroons legend Darren Lockyer also saying Oates has the ability to play on the game’s greatest arena.
“I agree with Locky that Corey could play Origin,” Parker said. “He is big, raw and strong, so he has got all the attributes and playing Origin is certainly not out of the question. I’ve seen him come through the under-20s system and he is also my room-mate, so I’ve had a fair bit to do with him.”
RAIDERS
Canberra coach Ricky Stuart refused to buy into any debate that the Raiders’ poor performance was due to their five day turnaround. Canberra looked a shadow of the team that took on Bulldogs at Belmore last Monday night when they travelled back down the Federal Highway with a comprehensive 22-8 win over the highly fancied Bulldogs. Stuart instead alluded to the error rate as a reason for their lacklustre effort against the Eels. “You can’t get too much momentum if you make an error.”
COWBOYS
Club officials will monitor the form of Javid Bowen in the coming weeks as they weigh up extending his contract beyond this season. Bowen, the nephew of club legend Matt Bowen, scored a try on debut against the Dragons last week. The outside back has always been seen as a long-term prospect for the Cowboys, but the club just wants to see his form at NRL level for a number of weeks before making a call on his future.
SHARKS
Cronulla have been told to respect early-season NRL surprise packets Gold Coast — or else have their pants pulled down again. With Neil Henry’s in-form men arriving in Sydney this weekend, coach Shane Flanagan was quick to warn his team about the dangers of not taking them seriously again. “Hopefully we’ve learnt from those errors (last year),” Flanagan said.
KNIGHTS
Veteran Jeremy Smith will wait until halfway through the season before making a decision on his future. That’s the word from Smith’s manager Sam Ayoub.
“Jeremy is one of those guys that you wait and see how he is feeling,” Ayoub said. “We haven’t had any talks yet, so we’ll just see how the season progresses and go from there. He also has low kilometres on his legs because he looks after himself, so I certainly wouldn’t say he’ll be retiring at the moment.”
STORM
Cooper Cronk is edging closer to finishing his stellar career in Melbourne. Cronk has been in exclusive negotiations with the Storm and it’s understood a two-year deal is on track, but far from concluded at this stage. The Origin and Test star was at his brilliant best against Newcastle last Saturday with two tries to steer the Storm to victory. Cronk will look to continue this form when Melbourne hosts the Bulldogs at AAMI Park Monday night.
WARRIORS
Several players have come off the Warriors’ injury list in the past two weeks and another one is on target to return next week. Halfback Mason Lino (ankle), prop Toafofoa Sipley (knee) and prop/back-rower Sione Lousi (wrist) all made successful returns after surgery when they turned out for the club’s NSW Cup side last week.
SEA EAGLES
Manly coach Trent Barrett admits off-contract skipper Jamie Lyon deserves to bow out on his terms and can take all the time he needs to decide whether to play on next NRL season. Thirty-four-year-old Lyon was earlier this week hopeful of extending his decorated career into an 18th season, even if it meant doing so elsewhere. “If Killer’s playing well, the desire’s still there to keep playing, and we can fit and work it all around, there’d certainly be no reason why he couldn’t keep going.
Originally published as NRL 2016: Gold Coast Titans CEO Brian Canavan wants to put a Roosters touch on new club
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