20 REASONS TO CHEER

THE Titans have taken another historic step, revealing its inaugural 20-player squad for this season’s NRLW competition.

Karli Hansen (left) and Georgia Hale will be among the players to don the blue and gold when the competition is tipped to begin the same weekend as the NRL grand final.

The squad will begin official training at the end of this month.

AFTER months of hurdles and hiccups the Gold Coast Titans’ NRLW squad has finally been revealed.

The Titans last night released the list of 20 players that will make history as the club’s inaugural NRLW squad.

Fans knew of marquee signings Georgia Hale, Brittany BreayleyNati, Karina Brown, Crystal Tamarua and Tazmin Gray, and a handful of boom young gun recruits like Tiana Rafstrand-Smith, but not of the stars that would join them in the Titans’ blue and gold – until now.

Eleven of the inaugural squad have NRLW experience, split between former Warriors (six), Broncos (four) and Dragons (one).

The Titans will hand NRLW debuts to nine first-time talents, many of them State of Origin standouts, junior national stars and, in the case of former Queensland Reds and Australian Wallaroos halfback Cobie-Jane Morgan, a crosscode international convert.

The first-year squad boasts a strong local connection, with exactly half of the list turning out for either Tweed Seagulls or Burleigh Bears in the 2021 BHP Premiership season.

The NRLW season was originally fixtured to begin next week and run in-line with the remainder of the NRL Telstra Premiership. However, it has been pushed back to an early-October start date due to recent Covid-19 outbreaks across the country.

The competition is now expected to begin the same weekend as the NRL grand final.

It will run for six weeks, with every team playing each other once, before the top two sides progress to the NRLW premiership decider to be held in the first week of November.

The Titans will begin official training as a full squad in the last week of August.