Titanic struggle

There’s an old saying about rats deserting a sinking ship and an old (true) story about a hyped up massively expensive ship sinking on its maiden voyage. It seems to me the Gold Coast Titans could be heading for the same murky waters. I’m expecting the Titans to perform about as well as their much maligned predecessors the Gold Coast Seagulls and the Gold Coast Chargers – badly. Today they lost two wingers and gained one – by my count that’s one step forward and two backwards – not the kind of start to training they’d have been hoping for – and then their one new winger (one dually converted (league – union – league) Matt Rogers) suffered a training ground injury in a possible testimony to his predilection for injury inflicted stints on the sideline. That’s right folks – the Titans this morning released Melbourne Storm winger Steve Turner from his contract after a protracted, long winded, annoyingly intriguing (at least if you’re the News Ltd Media – can any body else smell a rat – or a conspiracy? News Ltd are part owners of the Melbourne Storm) contract dispute*. The Titans were in an untenable position – they couldn’t afford to have a player not wanting to play for them on the books – but they also couldn’t afford to let him turn his nose up at the contract. This announcement was followed by Brian Carney’s shock decision to give the game away. That’s right. Just a day after addressing the media on his desire to cement a first grade spot for the whole season, the Titan’s marquee signing, who came over a year early to prepare for his NRL career with the Newcastle Knights and won a Dally M winger of the year award for his troubles, announced his retirement to finish his Masters degree in the UK. Things aren’t looking good for the Titans, who are still busily talking up their finals prospects.
*Well spotted Mr Finden.