Titans skipper apologises to fans
CRUSHED Titans captain Ryan James says no player has a “god-given right” to pull on a Gold Coast jersey and his players need to reflect on what it means to wear the club colours as they attempt to regain some pride in the final weeks of a shattered season.
The Titans’ 54-0 loss to Brisbane in the southeast derby on Saturday was the worst in the 10-year history of the club, with the showing forcing James to apologise to fans who were mocked by rejoicing Broncos supporters as they left the ground.
James was devastated by the Titans’ second-half capitulation, especially given the club had everything to play for following a meek loss to the Wests Tigers that snuffed out their finals hopes.
“You never want to put a performance on like that in front of your home crowd and I’m sorry to them,” he said.
“You just try and go out there and do your best but we put on a performance like that. Our Legion are great, they always stick by us but we need to keep trying to get new members and new fans.
“And the last two weeks haven’t helped us put that foot forward to try and help us to do that.
“We’re going to have to take our medicine this week and ... everyone’s going to have to own up to what they’ve done and we’re just going to have to put it behind us and move forward.”
James, who made his firstgrade debut for the Titans in
2010, said Saturday’s loss was one of the worst he had been involved in at the club.
The individual effort of most of the players cannot be questioned. But collectively, they failed to perform to the standard required and James said it was not acceptable.
“(We have to) really think about what it means to pull on a Titans jersey every week,” James said.
“I think when everyone really feels pride when they do that, it’s going to mean a lot more to all the boys.
“You can’t just lightly pull on this jersey and think it’s a god-given right to put it on. You’ve got to work hard to do it and we want the players that want to work hard to do it to be in that jersey.”
Coach Neil Henry said the loss was “embarrassing”.
“It was a big occasion for the club, a big crowd, and it was certainly not up to standard,” he said.
“It’s embarrassing, it’s disappointing, it’s all those types of words. It’s a tough place to be in at the moment.
“We’ve had two weeks in a row now we haven’t been good and it’s up to us now to find something at the back end of the year. It was a good old-fashioned flogging really, there’s no way to sugar-coast that performance.”
While the Titans were hurting, Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett offered encouragement, saying their effort could not be seen as lacking spirit.
“They couldn’t have done what they did in the first halfhour if they didn’t have spirit,” Bennett said of the Titans’ early efforts, which included 21 consecutive tackles inside the Brisbane 20m.
“We’ve all got touched up this season, we’ve had our moments.
“All the top teams have and they’ve been playing with a patched up side week after week. I thought they were pretty spirited.
“And we were here to play tonight.”