Titans the real heroes

ONLY those NRL clubs contracted to jersey manufacturer ISC will don superheroes jerseys this weekend in the Marvel round, and the Gold Coast Titans are not one of those teams.

But the Titans have no need for a cape, mask or even superpowers. After last weekend’s magnificent victory over the highly fancied Eels, the Gold Coast club has added yet another chapter to a chronicle of courageous efforts spanning three decades.

Missing nine of their NRL squad, the Titans were simply heroic. And they didn’t just win – they hammered the previously unbeaten Eels 26-14.

Nothing has changed much this weekend – in fact the injury front is even bleaker. But so it is for the Cowboys too, who are coming of an unexpected hiding at home and have seven squad members in their casualty ward.

And while the visitors will come to the glitter strip dressed in their Captain America regalia, the home side will be the same old Titans – busted and besieged, but always brave.

Being the odd man out and struggling against sometimes insurmountable odds is nothing new to the rugby league franchises that have tenanted the Gold

Coast over the past three decades. They have perpetually been the poor relations of the NRL, have rarely had the financial resources to match it with the big boys and have battled to attract elite players.

Yet when under the pump they have produced some heroic wins, and last weekend’s victory stands among their best.

But probably their finest hour was back in 1988, their foundation year, as the Gold Coast Giants, with a win against big brother the Broncos. It was round 10 and the Broncos had lost just two games – the Giants were winless.

Despite the Broncos being stacked with seven internationals including the likes of Lewis, Miles and Dowling, the underdogs did a job on the visitors with literally a team of Sydney cast-offs, winning 25-22 in an absolute cliffhanger.

Graham Annesley and Neil Henry would give their right arm for a super performance like that tomorrow night.