Titans fan favourite Anthony Don graduates from MBA program

Everyone needs a hobby to distract the mind from the working week, but where does one turn when that hobby is also your full-time job? Anthony Don found the answer.

Gold Coast Titan Anthony Don has just got his masters degree. Anthony at Nobby Beach with Surfers Paradise skyline in the background. Picture: Jerad Williams

Everyone needs a hobby to distract the mind from the working week, but where does one turn when that hobby is also your full-time job?

For the past six years, Gold Coast Titans winger Anthony Don has found his in completing a Masters of Business Administration degree at the University of New England.

This week, the 32-year-old veteran of 129 NRL games celebrates the conclusion of a journey every bit as tough as life in the NRL.

Gold Coast Titan Anthony Don has just got his masters degree. Anthony at Nobby Beach with Surfers Paradise skyline in the background. Picture: Jerad Williams

“I started five or six years ago, and I’ve been chipping away one subject at a time ever since,” the popular Titan said.

“I did my Physical Education teaching degree after school, and after I started in first grade the Titans and the NRL were really supportive of learning and education, to set me up for life after footy.

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“I was looking to do something in the business sector, and I could have gone to TAFE but I didn’t know if it was challenging enough.

“I thought I’d do the best degree I could and that was the MBA.”

The Titans made concessions so Don’s intensive training and interstate travel schedule never made juggling his career with his studies impossible, but balancing life on the field and in the classroom was never simple.

Gold Coast Titan Anthony Don has just got his masters degree. Anthony at Nobby Beach with Surfers Paradise skyline in the background. Picture: Jerad Williams

With his MBA completed, Don’s attention can turn back to the 2020 NRL season and an uncertain future beyond it.

“I know I’m closer to the end than the beginning of my career,” he said.

“I still want to play but I need to be realistic that these will be my last couple of years, if this isn’t my last.

“I’d love to get some experience (in business) while I’m still playing.

“I’d love to stay involved in the club some way, in coaching or on the other side of the fence, in administration.”

Don’s example has set some of his teammates on their own paths to MBA degrees, with Ryan James and Keegan Hipgrave both in the early stages of the degree.