Fighting to save a season

THE scrap factor is back for the Gold Coast – but that alone is not enough.

The asset that underpinned their run to the 2016 NRL finals series was undoubtedly present in last night’s 18-16 loss to South Sydney in a scrappy contest at Cbus Super Stadium.

But for all their effort to find a way to somehow hang in the contest, the Titans simply shot themselves in the foot far too many times to come away with the two competition points when their season was on the line.

They gave away frequent penalties, fumbled balls, bombed certain tries, missed tackles – not to mention enforcer Keegan Hipgrave twice being sent to the sin bin.

The best part of 900km away from home and without all four of their Origin aces, the Rabbitohs had a fair case of the dreaded butter-fingers.

It was an ideal chance for Garth Brennan’s side to defeat a front-running outfit and keep the gap to the top eight within reach but no matter how bad the visitors were, the Titans still often looked the second best side on the field and by a long way.

Injuries didn’t make their life easy, it has to be said.

Will Matthews was ruled out pre-game, Max King had barely entered the match by the time he succumbed to a shoulder injury and teen prop Moeaki Fotuaika was also forced from the field with a heavy head knock.

For every ounce of effort Gold Coast threw at the Rabbitohs, their own bad habits undid them.

At the end of the day, results talk.

The side that made the semis two years back made the very most of their relatively limited assets to mould themselves into finals material.

Such ticker had footy fans lining up to mark them down as their second team.

Their 2018 model is making too much work for themselves.

Their leaky defence has attracted plenty of attention during the course of this season.

Last night, it was basic discipline – penalties and handling errors – that continually gave Souths too much of a helping hand to overcome.

The Titans now have four wins from 13 starts.

They could drop to as low as 15th by the end of the round.

It’s a long way back from there.

They have a fair bit of improving to do before their trademark ticker can consistently get them over the line again.