NRL 2021: Sacrifice keeps Gold Coast Titans’ premiership dream alive

If not for a quartet of Gold Coast saviours, the Titans may have crumbled like the region’s previous teams. Now they’re eyeing an elusive title.

Kevin Proctor jumps on a pack of Titans teammates as AJ Brimson celebrates scoring a try. Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Titans saviour Darryl Kelly believes the club has purged “selfish and negative” influences after pledging $35 million to deliver the Gold Coast an NRL premiership.

The Titans will kick-off their 2021 campaign full of optimism when they face the New Zealand Warriors at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday.

There is a genuine buzz on the Glitter Strip about what could transpire for the Titans this season after the NRL’s traditional battlers ended 2020 on a five-game winning streak to finish ninth.

The Titans have only played one finals game (2016) in the past decade, collecting two wooden spoons (2011 and 2019) in that time as they fought for survival and relevance.

If not for Kelly and wife Joanne, along with prominent Gold Coast figures Rebecca and Brett Frizelle, the Titans may have crumbled like the region’s previous teams the Seagulls, Giants and Chargers.

It has taken a tremendous personal sacrifice from the Kelly’s to keep the Titans alive.

They lost $5 million after initially saving the Titans in 2012, only for the club to be taken over by the NRL in 2015 as crippling debts proved impossible to sustain.

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Titans saviour Darryl Kelly.

The Kelly’s and Frizelle’s bought the club back from the NRL in 2017, for an undisclosed fee, but the failed appointment of coach Garth Brennan lead to a second wooden spoon in 2019.

With Immortal Mal Meninga on board, the promise shown by coach Justin Holbrook and star signings in David Fifita and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, the Titans are now considered to be a genuine finals contender.

Hailing from Wagga Wagga in country NSW, Kelly built up his personal wealth from driving gravel trucks to property investment.

At 70 and with a heart condition, Kelly admits time is running out for the Titans to become a success in his lifetime but he is confident the building blocks are in place.

He has been known to make comments at Titans board meetings about how much time he has left and Kelly says he is determined to see the Gold Coast succeed.

“They’re not jokes – I keep pushing it,” he said.

The time for the Titans to succeed is now. Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

“My number plate on my car is ‘NOW248’ and everyone asks me why. It’s because time is running out and I’m in a hurry. Two, four, eight is geometric (progression) and I want it now, not tomorrow.

“I keep pushing very hard. I’m very focused on winning a premiership, I can assure you.

“There is genuine belief out there. Every time there is a glimmer of hope for the Titans, the population of the Gold Coast gets behind you and wants you to win. There’s a huge will to be successful.

“We are a very diverse area of people. It’s a long spread between Logan and Ballina. Having something like that to unite so many people…they’re looking for that.

“We do a lot of good things off the paddock and have done for a long time, but it’s time to perform on the paddock and become the club we can be.”

A $35 MILLION PASSION

It is hard to tell whether Kelly is stubborn or driven. Or both.

Over summer he entered a challenge with Titans ambassador Gorden Tallis to see who could walk the most kilometres in a month.

With two knee replacements, Kelly notched up 20km a day, sweating it out under the searing Gold Coast sun. Worried about his health, Joanne made him take his mobile phone in case he collapsed.

Tallis, 47, was a distant loser at the end of the challenge.

Kelly could have easily walked away from the Titans in 2015 and licked his wounds after watching $5 million disappear in a cloud of controversy and scandal.

Instead, he dug his heels in and dipped deeper into his pockets.

“I definitely could have got out, but in my heart of hearts I have always believed rugby league plays an important part in the community,” Kelly said.

Tino Fa'asuamaleaui’s arrival has boosted Gold Coast’s title hopes. Picture: Jason O'Brien

“That’s not only here. In my days at Wagga I spent 10 years rebuilding grounds so rugby league could survive.

“Sport is an important cultural piece and rugby league is my sport. I love seeing the reaction of people when we win. It’s a great feeling.”

In 2019, Kelly pledged a $25 million loan to finance a Titans Leagues Club in Oxenford which would not be repaid in his lifetime.

It was supposed to open this month, but two years on it has still not passed approval stages, let alone started construction.

Kelly was ready to put up the white flag before a meeting with the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation last week gave him renewed hope.

“It has been a long process, we were supposed to be open this month,” he said.

“I was pessimistic until we had a meeting last week with the OLGR. I think we can overcome the issues.

“Whether we proceed with it will still depend on revisiting the economics of it. COVID will have an impact. We need to know what the club environment will look like.

“It was a $25 million investment and I don’t know how much it will be now. You don’t invest that sort of money unless you’re confident it can pay its way.

“The football club doesn’t need it like we did when the Frizelles and Kellys took over the Titans. We have turned things around internally to not need it.

“But I see it as adding another dimension to the community aspect of our involvement in the Gold Coast.”

RAISING THE TITANIC

The reasons for the Titans’ on-field struggles over the past decade vary.

They made the NRL preliminary finals in 2010 before crashing to a wooden spoon the following year as controversy engulfed the club’s headquarters in Robina.

The Titans have endured drugs scandals, salary cap rorts and monumental financial issues throughout a decade of drama.

Holbrook is the fourth coach in their 15-year history and it is hard to find someone with a bad word to say about the 2019 Super League title-winner.

Kelly believes the Titans have found the right coach, as evidenced by a contract extension issued last year until 2024, and weeded out the bad influences.

“He seems to be so measured,” Kelly said.

Justin Holbrook shapes as the right coach to deliver success for the Titans. Picture: Jason O'Brien

“The players respect him. When he talks they listen. They do what he wants them to do. He wants them to enjoy their football.

“There were a lot of negative influences in the club in the past and he has turned that around at the player level.

“I think they’re an excellent group of young men as a whole. The influences of the leadership group are a lot better than what they have been in the past.

“There is a feeling within the group that it’s about the team, not the individual. There were some selfish individuals in our club previously.

“At the moment we’ve got a damn good group of people who want to be there for the right reasons.

“The number one question we ask now is ‘do you want to play for the Gold Coast or come up here and have a nice lifestyle?’

“We want players who want to play for the Gold Coast and represent the area.”

I WILL NOT QUIT

As we sit in a Surfers Paradise cafe on the day the NRL season begins, a local walks past wearing a South Sydney Rabbitohs polo.

“The Titans are my second team this year,” he says to Kelly with a smile.

It signifies a change in attitude towards the Titans following years of disappointment with the local club.

It could take a generation for the Titans to garner a loyal band of supporters and Kelly’s hope is for the club to transfer to a community-based ownership model in that time.

Either way, he is here for the long-haul.

“Go and ask my cardiologist,” Kelly said when asked how much longer he will be around.

“Not alive — at the Titans,” I clarify.

“I’m not disappearing in any hurry,” he said.

“It’s one of the two things I’m still heavily involved in (also chairman of Major Events Gold Coast). My life and investments have been simplified elsewhere. I’m trying semi-retirement for the third time.

“I tried to retire at 50-something and it didn’t work. Then I came up here and got involved with the Titans.

“That was good for my heart.”