HALF CLOSED
Titans tyro all but sends one-time hero Elgey out the door
TITANS dynamo AJ Brimson has all but ended Kane Elgey’s tenure at the Gold Coast after clinching the No.6 jersey for the rest of the season.
Brimson was sensational for the Titans in Sunday night’s 20-12 home loss to the Roosters that put a dagger into the Gold Coast’s faint finals hopes.
The 19-year-old junior Queensland playmaker produced the best performance of his eight-game NRL career.
Brimson (right) was given a crack at five-eighth in Round 10 after Elgey and Bryce Cartwright flopped as Ash Taylor’s playmaking partner.
Elgey, a Gold Coast product, is offcontract at season’s end and destined for the exits after not being offered a new deal in the wake of Brimson’s rise.
With seven games left, Brennan is expected to persevere with Brimson and Taylor together.
“I’d love to keep partnering him,” Brimson said.
“We work well together and I really enjoy playing with him.
“He is a dominant half.
‘‘I let him call the shots and I back him up and have faith in his calls.
“I’m slowly getting more confident and easing into the role.
“It’s hard to judge it when you have a loss like that. You don’t really look at it that way (like it was my best game).”
While Taylor struggled for the second-straight round against the Roosters, Brimson was electric.
He ran for 108m and made 21 tackles in a strong performance to prove his talent is worth persisting with.
The Titans are expected to welcome back Queensland Origin prop Jai Arrow from a corked knee for Saturday afternoon’s trip to Newcastle.
REFS: WE GOT IT WRONG: P38
NRL referees boss Bernard Sutton has admitted his whistleblowers got it wrong when they awarded rookie Sydney Roosters half Sean O’Sullivan one of the most controversial tries in several years.
The bunker was slammed for giving the green light to the four-pointer in the first half of the Roosters’ 20-12 win over the Gold Coast at Cbus Super Stadium on Sunday.
The decision was described as a howler and Titans coach Garth Brennan was angered after the video referees had several looks at the incident yet still awarded a try.
O’Sullivan, standing in for Cooper Cronk, had the ball stripped from his grasp by Titans prop Jarrod Wallace before the 19-year-old appeared to rake it forward off the goalpost padding then bobble the ball a second time.
Sutton admitted senior review official Steve Chiddy was wrong to award the try.
“Once it touched the ground it constituted a knock on and should have been ruled that way,” Sutton said.
The referees boss however defended several other contentious calls over the weekend, including two dubious forward-pass decisions and the penalty that led to Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith potting a game-winning twopoints against Manly.
The Sea Eagles were penalised after the ball bounced forward off Trent Hodkinson’s head and Joel Thompson regathered in the closing stages of the Storm’s gripping 14-13 victory at Lottoland. Thompson was penalised, however Manly coach Trent Barrett questioned why it wasn’t ruled accidental offside, which would have resulted in a scrum rather than Smith booting the deciding penalty conversion with just eight minutes remaining.
Sutton said the stance taken by his men was correct after Thompson played at the ball from an offside position.
“It was a correct decision to award a penalty to the Storm,” Sutton said.
He also defended controversial try rulings that led to Roosters forward Poasa Faamausili and Melbourne winger Suliasi Vunivalu being awarded four-pointers.
Faamausili barged over off what appeared to be a forward pass from Kurt Baptiste in the second half against the Titans.
Vunivalu crossed after a flick pass from Curtis Scott, which was widely considered to have travelled forward out of the hands.
Sutton said the passes leading up to both tries were judgment calls.