Myles helps set culture for new club on Gold Coast as career comes full circle

HE played just two games in their debut season but David Myles was key to helping set the culture of the Titans.

HE played just two games in their debut season but David Myles was key to helping set the culture of the Titans.

After racking up more than 100 NRL games with the Gold Coast Chargers, New Zealand Warriors and North Queensland Cowboys, Myles headed to France, content that he had wrung every drop out of his NRL career.

But a phone call from inaugural Titans coach John Cartwright brought him back to the city where his career started, with Myles jumping at the chance to join the new franchise.

“When I left the Cowboys and went overseas, I had no real desire to come back to (the NRL),” Myles said.

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David Myles at Gold Coast Titans training.

“But I got the phone call from Carty who said, do you want to be an old boy and go around again?

“I’d got 115 games (when I left the Cowboys) which is a lot more than I thought I’d get and a lot more than other people thought I’d get and then to get another chance to do it again in front of my parents and friends and family, that was pretty cool.”

Myles played just two games for the Titans but helped mentor many of the younger players as the culture of the new club was set.

He also won a Queensland Cup premiership with Tweed.

“It wasn’t many (games I played) and I knew that going in there,” he said.

“I didn’t play a lot, most of it was with Tweed. We won the grand final that year so it was a good way to finish.”

Like Preston Campbell — who was also lured back to the Coast for the first year of the Titans — Myles started his NRL career with the Gold Coast Chargers and was happy to come back.

“I’m from Brisbane, so it was great (to come back to the Coast),” he said.

“When I left here, I had to go to New Zealand for a few years — which is a bit different to Brisbane — and then from there to Townsville.

David Myles was among the inaugural Titans intake and helped set the culture at the club.

“And then I went overseas, so essentially I did a lap and then ended up where I started.”

Co-founder and successful franchisor of gutter guard business Gutter Knight, Myles brings the principals he learnt during his years in sport to business.

“I don’t have a roofing background or anything but what I wanted to create and I missed from footy was the culture, the teamwork, that environment,” he said.

“That’s what we’ve created and we’ve got a great culture and great people and the business is really growing.

“A lot of things I’ve learnt in football, you can translate across to business — or any profession. And that’s where a lot of the drive comes and I think the (franchisees) find that attractive as well.”

David Myles

Age: 40

NRL debut: Gold Coast Chargers, Round 4, 1998 v Brisbane

NRL clubs: Gold Coast Chargers (1998), New Zealand Warriors (2000-02), North Queensland Cowboys (2003-05), Gold Coast Titans (2007)

Titans debut: Round 12, 2007 v Canberra Raiders

Titans games: 2

Rep honours: USA (2 games 2007, 2011)

Both Myles’ games for the Titans were against Canberra and while he played most of his career in the backline at fullback, wing, centre and five-eighth, in both games for the Titans he slotted into the forward pack from the bench.

A Brisbane product, Myles started his NRL career on the Gold Coast, at the Chargers, playing 17 games in 1998 with teammates including another future Titan, Preston Campbell.

After winning a Queensland Cup premiership with Tweed in 2007, Myles played park footy with a group of mates from school who he’d never had the opportunity to play with before and then helped the US qualify for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.

Has translated the skills he learnt during his football career into the business sphere, with teamwork, individual development and education key parts of the Gutter Knight success story.