Titans CEO Steve Mitchell believes the Gold Coast's 2024 XXXX Derby success is proof they can become a finals force in Des Hasler's second year at the helm.
Crucial victories against the Broncos twice, Cowboys and Dolphins in the middle stage of the season helped Gold Coast become the prestigious kings of Queensland Rugby League and raise the prestigious timberware for the first time under the new format - showing they have what it takes to beat the premier teams in the NRL.
But the Achilles Heel for the Titans was consistency across the season - starting slowly over the first 10 weeks, before becoming one of the form teams of the competition up until Round 23, where it all came crashing down in the final month to finish 14th.
'We're really happy with the draw': Mitchell
Mitchell believes his NRL side has what it takes to be a genuine premiership challenger in 2025, now just needing to find that regularity in order to reach their full potential.
"Consistency goes back to mindset, leadership and what those expectations are," he said.
"We played a really gritty and tough style of footy for 60 percent of the year in that middle part and probably lost games by four points that we should have won.
"It's interesting at the moment... there's momentum in the community that even though we finished 14th, the way we played and the way people watched us play was materially different to how we had years gone by.
"We need to improve the outcome [to be more consistent], but if I was to go into how we change that, I'd have to declare myself as a mindset coach... but I'm not."
Declaring the aim in 2025 is to win more games than lose - having not achieved that feat since 2010 - the club is entering a key stage with the development of the roster - bolstered by captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui's return from injury and the addition of 200+ game forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
"We're at a point in time where we have an apex-level coach who knows how to win... we've now had 12 months with Des and the player group know his expectations and knows what his frameworks are with his compounded learning," Mitchell said.
"We have a high performance team that sits beside him and have been consistent year-on-year and have a player group who, if we can keep healthy, are starting to mature into a really genuine group of elite-level rugby league players who have genuine leadership trhough it.
"2025 and 2026 for us is a really important period."
Match: Bulldogs v Titans
Round 2 -
home Team
Bulldogs
away Team
Titans
Venue: Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
Speaking after the release of the 2025 draw, Mitchell was overly pleased with the Titans fixtures in the new year given the number of blockbuster clashes at Cbus Super Stadium, alongside a record number of Gold Coast NRLW games that will be played (5).
"We're really happy with it and excited for the teams that are coming to visit us," he said.
"The times that we are playing on Saturdays and Sundays are good. We have the bye in first round... it is what it is and we move beyond that but we've got some really big teams coming.
"We also have three double headers with our NRL and NRLW teams playing which will be huge at home.
"Karyn Murphy and her team are putting a lot of work into that. All in all, we're pretty excited about the draw."
