PREVIEW: 2026 Gold Coast Titans
[an even longer, more exasperated sigh]
Project 2026 was a bust. We’re here now, in 2026, a time that once seemed way off in the future, and the Titans’ attempt to line everything up to make a push for the premiership under Hasler didn’t even yield a finals appearance. Gold Coast were extremely fortunate to avoid the spoon.
The Titans have a new coach, Josh Hannay, and one of their few advantages is roster flexibility. It is so flexible that, until very recently, the Titans were half a dozen players short of a top 30 squad. Fortunately, there was plenty of flotsam and Ipswich Jets-am around to plug the holes.
Reagan Campbell-Gillard, always an odd signing, lasted one (1) year of his three (3) year deal and is now captaining the London Broncos, who are not in Super League. David Fifita, who at half ass is one of the all time great Titans, is now at Redfern, looking for something a bit more stable to build on. Given the recent history of soft tissue injuries at Heffron Park, that says quite a lot about Parkwood.
Perhaps more bemusingly, Brian Kelly is now an Eel and Lofi Khan-Pereira is now a Warrior. Carter Gordon has made the rare leap from the Ipswich Jets to the Wallabies. I’m not sure anyone noticed or has considered what that means for the state of rugby union in Australia.
The Titans have used that flexibility to give the Tino deal to Jayden Campbell, which is not the worst decision for a promising playmaker in a market where you will have to compete with Perth and other has-been franchises for his services. At 25, that investment should (has to) start delivering at any minute now. Tino himself seemed to be wavering, considering the Bears, which was presumably a gambit to extract more money or security out of the Titans, which he did while giving up his ludicrous options. If he had left, the Gold Coast would have gone from a team with too much invested in the forwards to trotting out a QCup pack in the space of 18 months. Now that’s flexible.
This gives the Titans a core of Fa’asuamaleaui, Brimson, Kini, Fermor and Campbell with a new, untested coach and an anonymous cast of interchangeable characters padding out the roster. Oh and I keep forgetting this piece of news but it makes me laugh when I remember that the Titans signed Greek Brodie Croft:
The Gold Coast Titans are pleased to announce the signing of halfback Lachlan Ilias on a two-year contract, securing his services for the 2026 and 2027 NRL seasons.
We have, generously, five seasons left for the Titans to win the two premierships they set themselves as a goal as part of their interior design. There isn’t time for another rebuild and Jaimin Jolliffe already died.
I am not holding my breath.
Thank you for taking the time for our annual dive into the abject horror of Titanstown
The Titans are a deeply strange football club. Cast your mind back to last year’s preview:
In their 2021 road map, the Titans’ stated goal was two men’s premierships by 2030… If (when) this doesn’t come off, heads have to roll, and sooner would be better than later. One of the handful of details included in the road map is the importance of accountability. Act like it.
I don’t know if turning over the roster of owners, rather than players, counts as accountability but it sure is something:
The Gold Coast Titans are entering an exciting new era, strengthening the club and delivering on its strategic ambitions, by welcoming a diverse consortium of new equity partners who are leading specialists across rugby league, media, business and entertainment…
Brett and Rebecca Frizelle, who continue as the club’s major shareholders, said the consortium represents a transformative opportunity to build a community-connected, commercially powerful NRL and NRLW club that achieves sustained success on the field.
The Kellys are out and it is unclear if they left or were pushed or both. Incoming are not five new owners but five new pairs of owners, including:
Matt & Trish Johns
Gorden Tallis & Jemma Elder
Hedley Thomas & Ruth Mathewson (journalist and “journalist-nurse wife”)
Billy & Jackie Cross (entertainment promoters, specifically Thunder from Down Under)
Michael and Jodie Atkins (McDonalds franchisees)
The size of the stakes have not been revealed, and I assume they are small, but it strikes me that the Frizelles are one very unlucky draw of keys out of the fishbowl - or one very bad but more conventional break-up - from this strategy being a complete disaster.
Naturally having no access to the Titans’ boardroom or communications, it is unclear what value these people will add, although some read like the kind of people you’d want on the board of your football club (e.g. former managing director of Personalised Plates Queensland, Jemma Elder) and others are Matthew Johns. If you were an optimist, or have been married for a while, perhaps you accept taking the good with the bad as a part of life. The rest of us are less sanguine about this.
It was also strange to read about the Titans’ members’ forum last December:
[N]othing was off limits for the club’s most invested fans as they asked questions across the high-performance facility, recruitment, on-field success, team selection, team song, Membership changes and more…
On the panel was co-owner Rebecca Frizelle, CEO Steve Mitchell, NRL head coach Josh Hannay, NRLW head coach Karyn Murphy and Director of Football (NRL) Scott Sattler.
Members were allowed to pre-submit questions which the group answered, before opening the floor to all Members.
Club co-owner, Rebecca Frizelle opened the night addressing the new owners that joined the club recently and the impact they can have on the organisation going forward.
I am not a Titans fan but I don’t think the team song would be in the top ten of my concerns with the way the club is operated or how it performs on the field. At least the existence of a members’ forum suggests an acknowledgement that things have to change and the dwindling membership is of existential concern.
Hannay, Murphy and Frizelle seem to have given some cliche responses to the obvious questions of how the Titans are going to get better and what the club actually stands for. Personally, I suspect a longer term plan of waiting for the Gold Coast to demographically issue the Titans with a hoard of talent that they simply cannot mess up, a la the Panthers of the early 2020s, may be the winner.
Like a hot dog eating contest whose prizes are $2000 and a corporate box to watch the Titans against the Tigers, issuing a post to confirm you’re not celebrating 20 years this year but next year —
The Gold Coast Titans will enter a significant milestone when they take the field in 2026, marking the club’s 20th season in the NRL.
While the upcoming campaign represents an important chapter in the Titans’ story, the club has confirmed that major anniversary celebrations will take place in 2027, commemorating the full 20 years since the Titans first entered the competition…
Further details on the club’s 20-year anniversary logo, events and celebrations will be announced later in the year as planning continues.
— is something no other club in the NRL would give you. Never change.
The Titans are painful but you’re pretty much at the end…
…so that means you probably enjoyed this enough to share it?
Word of mouth is the most effective way for The Maroon Observer to pick up new subscribers and new subscribers is what keeps the newsletter going.
Thank you for your support.
Signatures
New: Enah Desic, Te Ngaroahiahi Fanua Awhina Rimoni, Torah Luadaka, Oliver Pascoe, Siale Faeamani, Jett Liu, Jensen Taumoepeau, Adam Christensen, Jai Bilish (non-zero chance I call him Billie Eilish at some point)
Extensions: Josh Patston, Phoenix-Raine Hippi, Ivana Lolesio, Lily Kolc, Cooper Bai
2027: Mawene Hiroti,
Departed: Shannon Mato (Broncos)
Notes
Pascoe and Christensen, along with the Patston extension, are the kinds of players that stood out in QCup last year but the fact that the Titans signed them means I have lost faith in my ability to scout.
Honestly unclear as to how the Titans are above the salary floor.
The women’s roster, which we’ll talk about much closer to the NRLW season’s start, is young but substantially higher quality than their male counterparts and will be boosted by the return of Evania Isaako. Desic is probably going to be a slam dunk. Expect to see her helming the U19 Maroons later this year.
Klese Haas is embracing a new challenge in 2026, shifting from the edge into the middle
Jason Oliver: What works in the Titans attack