Could The Suns and the Titans give the Gold Coast a sporting chance of recovery?

Could The Suns and the Titans give the Gold Coast a sporting chance of recovery? Asks Paul Weston.

THE Gold Coast began building a different type of city this week. It began at a Titans game and gained momentum at the Suns match. Next day, somehow it reached City Hall.

We dug deep in the sand for community spirit. We have COVID-19 to thank for it.

At Suncorp Stadium, on a cold and rainy afternoon last Saturday, more than 1700 Titans fans drove up from Coast, as the gates to a sporting event finally opened in Queensland.

Phillip Sami of the Titans competes with Mikaele Ravalawa of the Dragons during the Round 6 NRL match between the Gold Coast Titans at the St George Illawarra Dragons at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane (AAP Image/Dan Peled).

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The game has changed, on and off the field.

Signs indicate you must stand 1.5m apart in the male loos. How that is going to be managed with a larger crowd of 10,000 this weekend is anyone’s guess.

A siren, at first sounding like those for trains leaving Roma Street, now signals every time a referee calls “six again” for a player being held down in the ruck.

From television coverage, we all know the new rule makes the game faster, but watching the game live we can see how the bigger forwards are buggered, unable to get back onside.

How good was it to have some normality return on the weekend?

Socially distanced spectators watch the Round 6 NRL match between the Gold Coast Titans at the St George Illawarra Dragons at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

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Back home that night on the Coast, scanning the Facebook fan sites after the Titans lost to the Dragons 20-8, keyboard warriors who have never laced on a boot let alone paid membership fees took aim at the Coast side.

Their team, three players down, held St George to a 6-6 scoreline in the second half. Titans players looked up to the fans and were applauded as they left the field. They had a dig.

This is a step forward for sporting Gold Coast.

At Carrara’s Metricon Stadium on Sunday, the AFL was back.

Hearing the score on the car radio, it was a quick rush home to see the Suns blast the Crows off the park 82-29.

Combined with the shock West Coast victory a week earlier, the Suns are being talked about as the real deal, a finals contender. What they are for non-members like me is now required weekend viewing. A bigger sporting step forward.

Interstate television commentators who have long ridiculed the Coast for its sporting failures were talking up a visit to the city, and how 20,000 spectators will be packing Carrara.

Suns fan, Finn Reynolds, 10, at Metricon Stadium, Carrara. Picture: Jerad Williams.

My corporate box spy noted how council CEO Dale Dickson, who knows how to kick a Sherrin, seemed so relaxed less than 24 hours out from unveiling the city’s toughest budget.

A return to work on Monday, and we all had our reality checks.

A contact told me about a friend who has a young son, a bar tender, who reached out to nine employers without luck.

Could more fans at games, some tourists from down south, get him a stadium job?

Searching my emails, there was one from Burleigh MP Michael Hart showing the Central Chamber of Commerce wrote to Mayor Tom Tate warning “the current state of the Gold Coast business community is terminal” and “survival was almost too far out of the reach of many”.

The council budget might not have delivered all that businesses wanted, but there was a rates freeze for many, a $94 discount for those struggling the most and huge financial incentives for sporting and community groups.

From the Mayor’s opponents in council to those who hold different political views, this budget was applauded – quietly, like Titans fans at the end of the game.

No ratepayer funds were allocated to the Mayor’s pet projects – an offshore cruise ship terminal and a cableway.

Our community had some wins this week. On and off the battlefields.