Gold Coast Titans NRL Hub: Karyn Murphy has launched the club’s NRLW junior Academy amind drawn out CBA negotiations
As the NRLW expands and faces a signing freezy once drawn out pay battles have ended, the Titans have sought to cement their future with a historic move. FIND OUT MORE HERE >>
Gold Coast Titans NRLW coach Karyn Murphy has set about cementing the outfit’s identity as a force of locally bred talent upon announcing the berth of the NRLW Academy.
As the elite women’s competition expands to 10 sides in 2023, poaching and recruitment raids are set to be at a premium as is often the case in the NRL.
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Murphy’s hopes are that by providing a genuine pathway for Glitter Strip products to compliment the Future Titans, the squad under her tutelage will have a sustained presence of players from the region.
Girls in the under-17s and under-19s will be brought into the fold as part of the Academy, with the two groups of 24 players identified as the next generation to don the sky blue jumper.
In the aftermath of regular training camps, the players will take part in contests with their counterparts at the Newcastle Knights.
Chantay Kiria-Ratu is a graduate of the Future Titans program. Picture: Tertius Pickard
“We really want them and their families to be a part of the Gold Coast Titans and make it a genuine pathway they can come through,” Murphy said.
“Like other players who have come through in the past, we want them to play for us in the NRLW.
“It’s so important to have this right; the pathways. I really am passionate like so many others to make sure we can keep our girls local.”
"Especially with the expansion of the competition we want to make sure we keep them. With the way it works you will lose a few players, but we want to keep them here local and part of the Titans.”
Murphy’s long-term vision for the Titans may be on track, however the immediate future is still clouded as negotiations over the game’s Collective Bargaining Agreement continue to be stretched out.
Debate has raged between the Rugby League Players Association and Australian Rugby League Commission over what the salary cap will look like in 2023 and beyond.
It has put a hold on teams and athletes being able to ink contracts, presenting issues for the way in which the NRLW’s players can prepare their lives on and off the field.
Karyn Murphy.
As reported by NewsCorp last month, the ARLC’s proposed $1.32bn deal included a women’s salary cap rise from $350,000 per team to $800,000.
At the time, RLPA boss Clint Newton pushed back on the deal, with one reason being a desire for a retirement fund to be put in place.
It has left players in the women’s space uncertain over what their future holds, with many still required to work outside of football in order to make up a full-time salary.
Given four new teams — the North Queensland Cowboys, Wests Tigers, Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Raiders — will enter the mix, a feeding frenzy to acquire the game’s best talents will likely ensue.
Murphy expressed her hope that an agreement would be reached soon so that rugby league’s women could set about locking in their arrangements on and off the field come 2023.
“It’s still a huge commitment; a lot of our girls they're mothers and they have jobs and even last year they were getting up at four in the morning doing a shift and then coming to us until late at night,” Murphy said.
“It’s a huge ask, and next year … with the 10 teams and the pre-season it’s anything up to five months we're going to have them.
“We really want to work hard on and off the field to make sure they’re happy and OK off the field.
“We’re waiting to be given the start to start talking to the girls properly and being able to contract them.
“Everyone wants it done now, it’s a big chunk of next year so they need to start planning if they are moving and importantly to make sure we’re keeping as many here as we can.”
Gold Coast recruit Sam Verrills has vowed to become repay the faith of the Titans and become the club’s long-term number nine after officially starting pre-season training on Monday.
Verrills departed the Roosters at the end of the 2022 season after gun hooker Brandon Smith signed with the Sydney team.
Despite being a premiership winner with the Chooks in 2019, the arrival of the former Storm rake effectively ended his opportunity as a starter and he was headhunted by the Titans, despite having two years left on his contract.
But the 23-year-old has already promised the two-year deal will be worth the move to the Gold Coast.
Sam Verrills arrives at the Titans.
“I can’t wait to prove to the guys here that I’ll be the number nine for a while,” Verrills said.
“I promise I’ll put my best foot forward to cement this number nine position for a while.”
Verrills will form part of a new spine with incoming half Kieran Foran, who departed the Manly Sea Eagles after nine seasons at the club across two stints.
“Kieran Foran coming in next year, that senior guy coming in, it’s a very exciting time,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to playing with (Foran) … he’s a Manly boy and I’m from the beaches so growing up I always watched him play.
“He’s a tough competitor and he’s one of the better sixes out there in the competition.
“They’re all fast, agile forwards that can play the ball pretty quick for me.”
The pair join Jayden Campbell, Toby Sexton and AJ Brimson among candidates for the Titans’ spine, with coach Justin Holbrook facing some tough decisions on his key playmakers.
Verrills said Justin Holbrook was a major drawcard in coming to the Titans, with the coach having played with the Roosters in 2002 before becoming an assistant from 2015-17, before Verrills was contracted.
“The coach, he had a lot to do with the Roosters down there and I spoke to a lot of the players and they always talked highly about Justin,” Verrills said.
“When I had a meeting with him, he was really good and made me want to come up here.”
While Foran will be one of the more experienced players on the list, Verrills said he viewed the team as young but with a great deal of potential, despite the thirteenth place finish last season.
“It’s a young one, but they’ve got plenty of experience in the international and State of Origin level.
“They’ve got a lot of NRL experience here with Tino (Fa’asuamaleaui) and AJ and my old mate Isaac Liu is here, I spoke to him for a while when I was on the move, they play an exciting brand of footy and they’ve got a new defensive coach here in Brett White.
“(The Titans) weren’t far off knocking the Roosters out the year before in the finals so they’re definitely not far off.
“It’s looking up for the club.”
'Taking control’: Schoolboys star reveals plan to debut in 2023
Transitioning from schoolboy phenom to NRL hopeful has been a trial by fire for Tom Weaver. A series of bruises inflicted by Kiwi gun Eliesa Katoa are proof of that.
However the Titans rookie senses his opportunity to crack the elite is nearing, and he has declared a first-grade debut is within his reach by the back end of 2023.
Once the pride of Palm Beach Currumbin, steering them to Langer Trophy glory, Weaver’s campaign this year was the start of a new journey. The beginning of his quest to the top.
The 19-year-old halfback said his focus in his first full season training alongside the Titans was to be a sponge, soaking in every ounce of information he could to transform his game.
Now he has bigger goals in sight.
Tom Weaver in action.
Externally it may appear that more experienced campaigners in AJ Brimson, Toby Sexton and Tanah Boyd will be vying for the right to share the playmaking duties with new recruit and New Zealand international Kieran Foran.
But Weaver believes with greater exposure to the Queensland Cup, it will not be long before he enters the conversation.
“I just want to still learn as much as I can, but maybe towards the back end of the year I would like to think I’m sort of knocking on the door to get a spot,” Weaver said.
“But at the moment throughout this pre-season I’m looking to build on as much as I can, build myself up and dominate at that Cup level before I take any steps forward in the NRL.
“I’ll bide my time as much as possible, but I’ll definitely look towards the back end of next year. I would hope I’m playing well enough that I’m knocking on the door there.”
Weaver admits his maiden steps into senior football were a profound “eye-opener”. Making his QCup debut for the Tweed Seagulls against Redcliffe, he found himself in the crosshairs of Katoa — the wrecking ball edge forward who has been signed to the Melbourne Storm.
The young man who went toe-to-toe with Cowboys star Jeremiah Nanai in the 2020 Queensland Schoolboys final was suddenly thrust from the role of commanding game manager while at PBC to desperate defender, a self-proclaimed “lightweight” in a battle against men.
But watching his former high school adversary in Nanai rise so rapidly — a State of Origin and Kangaroos sensation barely two years out of school — has only lit the fuse for Weaver.
Tom Weaver lifts the Cup for PBC. PIcture: Liam Kidston
For if he could compete on a level playing field with the NRL Rookie of the Year, all he felt he needed was time to build physically — one of his main goals this pre-season — and truly find his voice among the more senior members of the squad.
“You definitely feel a bit sorer after the games (in senior football), and for me going from playing school footy and 21s and stuff you definitely feel the pain,” Weaver said.
“It wasn’t so much the speed of the game, it was more the physicality. I was definitely a lot smaller that everyone else out on the field, but the second game around I felt a bit more confidence going in knowing I had played against a solid Redcliffe team on my debut.
“It definitely takes a bit of time to find that confidence to be able to tell someone who has played NRL where to go and what to do.
“But towards the back end of the year I started feeling a lot more confident being around the boys and having been there for the whole year.
“This year I’ll hit the ground running straight away and start taking control a bit more when I’m out there.”
— Nick Wright, November 16
How axing, recruit could transform Titan into 2023’s Tom Dearden
With each loss throughout the Gold Coast Titans season, Toby Sexton admits the pressure that built up stripped him of the passion that thrust him into the NRL.
That desire and enjoyment is what he had used as fuel to earn a chance at the club’s scrumbase, however he soon found himself axed at the back end of 2022.
But upon his return to pre-season training, the 21-year-old has declared his omission was the best thing for him, as he plots a similar rise to that of a close friend.
Sexton will join a three-man race to be new recruit Kieran Foran’s halves partner — alongside AJ Brimson and Tanah Boyd.
Without an experienced campaigner by his side, the Palm Beach Currumbin product was thrown to the wolves and struggled to make an impact across the opening 20 rounds of the 2022 competition.
Amid constant media scrutiny and the dagger to the gut each defeat inflicted, he was eventually sent back to ply his trade for the Tweed Seagulls.
Toby Sexton endured a tough 2022 campaign. Picture; Getty Images
But Sexton believes it was that change that perhaps served him best for the year ahead, hopeful that the arrival of Foran would make as much of an impression on him as what Chad Townsend’s move to North Queensland did for fellow PBC alumni Tom Dearden.
Dearden cast aside a turmultuous tenure at the Brisbane Broncos to become one of the breakout stars of the 2022, earning a heroic State of Origin debut as his side charge to the preliminary final.
With Townsend pulling the strings next to him, the rising star was able to break the shackles; finishing the year with 16 try assists, 11 linebreaks, 17 linebreak assists and nine tries to his credit.
“Tommy’s one of my good mates and he had a great year, and Chad has been on the back of that. I think Kieran can do pretty similar to that; he’s obviously a very experienced and calm head and similar to what Chad Townsend offers,” Sexton said.
“Looking at it now I think it (his axing) was the best thing for me … it was obviously a massive year physically, but more than anything it was mentally.
“I didn’t necessarily lose confidence last year, I just lost that enjoyment of playing footy. I got to go back to Tweed and win a few games and just really enjoy my footy and that’s probably the biggest thing I took out of that.
“Media happens that’s all part of it, I know that now. But it was just losing, losing take a toll on you and it takes a toll on the best of people.
“You can’t forget about it, you take good lessons out of it. I think sometimes you need a year like that to really move forward.”
Sexton’s comeback to Parkwood coincided with the all important November 1 date when players who are off contract at the end of 2023 can be approached by rivals.
Toby Sexton in action for the Titans. Picture: Getty Images
For the Titans, no name stands out more than marquee man David Fifita.
The Tongan international has been a magnet for criticism ever since he inked a multimillion dollar three-year deal in 2020, with pundits damning of his performances for not living up to that value.
There were flashes of the individual brilliance the 22-year-old wrecking ball could bring to a team during the Gold Coast’s slide down the ladder, and Sexton has issued a plea to his teammate to shun interest from rivals.
“I’d love him to stay, he’s been such a big part of our side in the last couple of years and he’s only going to get better,” Sexton said.
“I love playing alongside him, that’s just up to him but I definitely but myself and the whole playing group want him to stay that’s for sure.
“It’s part of rugby league (the criticism), you cop it at the best of times and it’s all part of it. “He’s a great player, he’s playing really well over in the World Cup at the moment and I’m looking forward to him coming back.”
– PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2
‘I didn’t want to play’: New dad Haas reveals emotional motivation
Even in the fledgling stages of his NRL career, Klese Haas has been forced to mature at a rapid rate.
However after becoming a young father earlier this year, to a son who bears the name of his brother who tragically died two years ago, the 20-year-old has declared he has plenty of motivation to ensure 2023 is the year of his making.
As he faces the cameras for his first media appearance upon a return to Titans pre-season training on Tuesday, Haas defies the nature of a young man whose family has been embroiled in the headlines in the past.
Humble and sharing a laugh while shaking each journalist’s hand, it is a far cry from the perception one could expect given the public attention thrust upon his older brother — State of Origin superstar Payne — and his mother in recent times.
Mum of 10 Joan Taufua was recently released from a short stint behind bars, after pleading guilty to assaulting two security guards at the Gold Coast’s Star Casino.
Klese Haas is ready to become an NRL regular in 2023. Picture: Picture: NIGEL HALLETT
Payne, arguably the NRL’s finest prop, has faced the music himself for previous off field indiscretions.
But the younger Haas following in the Broncos sensation’s footsteps up the M1 is adamant his family is why he is so determined to capitalise on his opportunity at the Titans.
In August 2020 another of Haas’ older brothers’ — Chace — passed away, suffering from a respiratory failure.
The then 21-year-old had already spent most of his life confined to a wheelchair, after becoming a ventilated quadriplegic at just five months old after a car accident in 1999.
Haas admits for a while he turned his back on the rugby league path in front of him, too burdened and broken to even think about picking up the Steeden.
But ahead of his first full pre-season with the Gold Coast outfit, fresh upon making his NRL debut this year, he said it was the rest of the large Haas clan who lifted him up — with the smallest member of his family, Chace II, playing a telling role.
“I didn’t really want to play footy for a couple of years with the passing of my brother,” Haas admits.
“But it then just made me want to push, you try to get more out of life than where I was at the time.
Chace and Payne Haas. Picture: Supplied
“I was less motivated, it was tough but having family around it was a really big motivator for me. Especially with the birth of my son that made me have to mature a bit.
“He’s five months old now, even waking up for him at 2 o’clock in the morning changing diapers is pretty hectic.
“I just want to make my family proud, that’s my number one goal.”
While the backrow appears one of the few position the Titans are well placed for — the likes of David Fifta, Beau Fermor and Bulldogs recruit Joe Stimson in the mix — Haas showed enough in his maiden two appearances this year to suggest there was plenty in his future.
Klese Haas in action for the Titans. Picture: Supplied NRL Images
Given the Titans poor results in season 2022, Haas has every chance to cement himself in the club’s top 17 and forge a legacy of his own — one out of his famous brother’s shadow.
Not that he gives the surname he carries much thought on the field. According to the blossoming forward, it a blessing rather than a curse of expectation.
“I don’t’ think there’s much pressure, I get paid to play footy,” Haas said.
“I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I want to become a more experienced role player and hopefully get more games under my belt.”
Rugby League Gold Coast’s top players battled it out in an enthralling day of grand final action. See all the pictures from all four grand finals in our mega gallery of over 200 snaps.
Two of the Gold Coast’s most promising rugby league talents have been rewarded for their exceptional seasons with full-time NRL deals at the Titans. Details.
