The Gold Coast Bulletin

Finals is just the beginning for Titans: Club supremo

- EMMA GREENWOOD emma.greenwood@news.com.au

TITANS boss Graham Annesley says the Gold Coast are not content to set their sights below finals football and want to be a club capable of winning NRL premiershi­ps.

A poll of more than 400 fans on the Gold Coast Bulletin’s website showed a mix of results to the question of a “passmark” for this season, new coach Garth Brennan’s first in charge and the first since the club returned to private ownership.

While just one per cent said finishing in the top four was required – something the Titans have done just twice in their time in the league – making the top eight and being able to play finals was what 37 per cent of fans regarded as a pass this season.

But after a tumultuous 2017, during which Neil Henry was dumped as coach and the club lost marquee man Jarryd Hayne, 36 per cent of fans felt finishing in the top 12 was a pass, while 26 per cent said an acceptable mark was “to be competitiv­e”.

Annesley said regardless of the result, the drive had to be to play finals.

“That’s our reason for existence is to play finals,” he said.

“You can’t win the competitio­n if you’re not in the finals.

“If you make the finals then you’re only four weeks away from winning the finals – but, it’s tough to get there.

“Even though half the teams make it and half the team don’t, to get into that top half is really tough. I can understand at the moment that given what’s happened in the past, the expectatio­ns of the community are really just initially to have a team that has a crack, is competitiv­e and they can have some pride in.

“But everyone needs to have their sights set on higher goals than that.

“We do. We want to be a finals team, we want to be a top four team, we want to win competitio­ns.

“But that doesn’t come without a lot of planning and hard work.”

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