LINE IN THE SAND
Why Titans must play hardball
FOUNDATION Titans football manager Scott Sattler has applauded the club’s tough stance over disgruntled recruit Tyrone Peachey, saying the Gold Coast has little option but to play hardball to ensure it can target high-profile recruits.
Peachey’s manager Sam Ayoub travelled to the Coast five weeks ago to meet with the Titans and outline his client’s concerns but the issue seems now to have reached an impasse, with the Origin utility telling reporters on Wednesday he was considering reneging on his agreement with the club.
The 27-year-old backflipped on those comments in a later television interview, though, and no formal request has been made for a release from his Titans contract.
But Sattler said the Titans had to make a stance.
“I love the way that Graham Annesley and the club is making a stance on this,” Sattler said of the outgoing chief executive.
“If you continue to put your hand up and wave the white flag on the really big battles in life, you’re always going to get walked over and won’t get taken seriously.
“So it’s a really good test for the Gold Coast Titans to make a stand for what they stand for and I applaud (coach) Garth Brennan and Graham Annesley for the stance they’ve taken.”
Sattler said the Gold Coast was once in a position where
it had to make concessions to players due to its standing in the game and community.
But it was now in a position of strength and had to act accordingly.
“We went through a period there with the Gold Coast Titans where they had to put their hands up, they had to wave the white flag and they had to take what they could get because the club was so tarnished in the rugby league landscape from that era,” Sattler said.
“Around that era of the Centre of Excellence and the harm that it did to the community, no one took the club seriously.
“But not now. The place is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and I think it’s on the right path.”
But Peachey’s manager Sam Ayoub said his client had not asked him for a release from his contract and rubbished talk his concerns were a ruse to get more money.