Mal Meninga on why the Gold Coast Titans are important to the NRL

Everybody needs to back off the Titans. We aren’t relocating now, and nor should we ever relocate because we are too important to the health of the NRL, writes Mal Meninga.

Stop bringing the Gold Coast Titans into this whole relocation and expansion debate.

We have got nothing to do with it and shouldn’t even be mentioned in the conversation. We are not going anywhere.

We are the second team in south east Queensland and we need that definition and acknowledgment.

Despite what has happened on the field with our NRL side this year, we remain one of the strongest clubs and rugby league regions in the competition.

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Our junior numbers and participation rates are growing, we have two great affiliate clubs in Burleigh and Tweed who are in the Intrust Super Cup finals this week, while our under-18s won the Mal Meninga Cup and our under-15s won the Andrew Johns Cup in NSW.

Titans rookie Tanah Boyd with Keebra Park students. Picture: Glenn Hampson

That is not even mentioning the great work of schools like Palm Beach Currumbin and Keebra Park, two of the most powerful schoolboy rugby league programs in Australia.

At the Titans, we have put an incredible amount of hard work into re-establishing ourselves on the Gold Coast under new ownership and have a lot of great things in place around our development and pathway programs.

We are not going backwards. We have made some really strong leaps and bounds behind the scenes in trying to get our rugby league community back engaged with our football club.

This past season has been a challenge for us but we are redeveloping all our systems in the football department, to create a strong high performance unit that will help players reach their potentials.

Titans football director Mal Meninga acknowledges it has been a tough year but is excited for the future. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

We are looking at our playing roster and are determined to build one that is going to be in finals contention.

We don’t want to be languishing where we are at the moment and want to make sure that in the next one or two years we are pushing for finals.

We need on-field success. There is no doubt about that. Success breeds success.

All the work we have done around our standards, our expectations and club culture, is pivotal to how we will move forward.

Behind the scenes the players have bought into it. It might not reflect what we are doing on the footy field at the moment but I have no doubt it will.

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We want to be playing in the finals every year and be a consistent and sustainable rugby league club and I believe the Gold Coast and the Northern Rivers deserve that.

It is a great rugby league region and we don’t need to give up that stronghold.

The AFL is throwing lots of money each year at the Gold Coast Suns to help make them competitive, so that is another reason why we are doing everything we can to help keep rugby league in general strong on the Gold Coast.

There is overwhelming evidence there to argue we must protect the Gold Coast as a rugby league city, not get rid of it.