Hope on the horizon for Gold Coast Titans fans despite lowly NRL finish

THIS was not a Titans team content to bow out of the NRL season quietly.

BOTH halves had painkilling needles to get on the field and their fullback played a week after dislocating his shoulder and breaking his hand. This was not a Titans team content to bow out of the season quietly.

Gold Coast finished the season in 14th place with an 8-16 record after being leapfrogged by the Cowboys following their come-from-behind 30-26 win in captain Johnathan Thurston’s final match.

And while coach Garth Brennan admits missing the finals will make the year a failure to some, the passion he has seen his squad play with in the back end of the season while knowing they could not make the eight has him convinced there are bright times ahead.

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Ashley Taylor of the Titans had to have a painkilling injection just to get on the field against the Cowboys. Photo: AAP

The emergence of young guns Moeaki Fotuaika, Phillip Sami and AJ Brimson has also been a shining light for the Titans, with Brimson shunning advice to stay on the sidelines this week to play his 15th game of the season.

“People don’t realise that we were a bit busted there,” Brennan said.

“Both our half and five-eighth had needles to get on the field with shoulder injuries, our fullback, AJ Brimson, dislocated his shoulder in last week’s game but wanted to play.

“The bruised hand that he’s got is actually a fracture in his hand.

“He actually said: ‘No, you’re not stopping me from playing, it’s my last game of the year and I want to play’. He’s one tough kid.”

Halves Ash Taylor and Kane Elgey were also initially in doubt before having painkilling injections, with Elgey desperate to play in his final match for the Titans ahead of an off-season move to Manly.

“It was a pretty emotional night for me but I’m just stoked,” Elgey said.

“It’s all over now and I am moving to hopefully better things for me.”

Taylor was in doubt early in the week but desperate to play in Thurston’s final match.

“It was important to me,” Taylor said.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to get on the field early in the week, I couldn’t even lift my arm up but I wanted to be out there for (Thurston’s) last game.”

Brennan said the youngsters’ actions showed the character in the Titans team that could be built on next season.

The emergence of players including Moeaki Fotuaika (centre) has been a huge bonus for the Titans this season. Photo: AAP

“You look at the table and think, they’re down the bottom and they’re not playing semi-final football but if you look behind the scenes and understand what’s going on behind the scenes with this club and this team, there’s some real positive marks going forward,” Brennan said.

The Titans had been desperate to rain on Thurston’s parade and looked as though they would cause a boilover after leading by 12 points at halftime and still clinging to the lead late in the match.

But as has been the case too many times this season, a few moments of madness cancelled out swathes of outstanding play.

“It probably sums up our year about controlling the match,” Brennan said.

“The second half we just had no football and they had plenty of football and they’ve got someone playing in the No. 7 jersey that can control a game all right.

Phillip Sami finished the season as one of the Titans’ leading tryscorers in his first full year in the NRL. Photo: AAP

“That’s a promising thing for us, we’re competing against some really good sides — we’re just not competing for the 80 minutes unfortunately.

“But one thing I am very happy about is we never gave up, we scored the last try, we kept coming and we competed with a side that had plenty to play for as well.”