Camp can wait if bub comes calling
GOLD Coast veteran Ryan Simpkins is pulling together an emergency plan to leave the Titans’ camp in Toowoomba should the birth of his second child come early.
Simpkins’ wife Shayne is due in mid-January but the couple are preparing for a repeat of circumstances from their firstborn, daughter Tinsley.
“Our first kid was four and a half weeks early so it could be any time from now,” Simpkins said.
“I’m just trying to work out how to leave camp because if it’s similar to Tinsley I might have to come back.”
Titans players will be in Toowoomba all week for a fitness camp plus some promotional activities for the club’s game at Clive Berghofer Stadium in March against St George Illawarra.
Recovering from a knee reconstruction, Simpkins has been running for months to get his fitness up to speed and is ready to rumble in camp.
That is unless he receives the urgent call to rush back to the Coast.
The players will not be the only ones being put to the test out in the west.
Staff including coach Garth Brennan will join in fitness drills as the Titans as a whole unite.
Rookie Kiah Cooper, who has joined the club from the Sydney Roosters, is expecting a brutal week on the training track before the squad breaks for Christmas.
“That will be hard for sure,” Cooper said of the camp.
“They have been quiet as about it.
“They are not really letting us know about it.
“But the coaches are joining in with us in the camp so it should be good.”
Marquee halfback Ash Taylor welcomed the prospect of heading to the Toowoomba region where he grew up.
“It will be an eye opener for the boys,” Taylor told the Bulletin.
“Obviously it is a lot different to the Gold Coast, a twohour bus trip and then doing a bit of training up there.
“It will be good to see where I grew up.
“Where I played a bit of junior footy and to see what the culture is about in Toowoomba.”