Gold Coast godfather Paul Broughton urges Titans to hire Phil Gould
Peter Badel
News Limited
August 17, 2014 12:00AM
TITANS godfather Paul Broughton has the urged the club to hire Phil Gould as a consultant to combat AFL’s Gold Coast Suns and Wayne Bennett’s planned resurrection of the Broncos.
Ahead of Sunday’s clash against Manly at Cbus Super Stadium, Broughton believes Gould is the ideal troubleshooter for a Titans club currently performing a sweeping internal review.
Rocked by the twin resignation of foundation pillars John Cartwright and Michael Searle last week, the Coast face multifaceted threats to recover as NRL force.
AFL’s Suns are making major incursions in Gold Coast’s sporting turf war, while Bennett’s return next season will cast an ominous shadow over Brisbane’s Queensland NRL rivals.
The embattled Titans need to fight fire with fire — and former chairman Broughton is adamant Gould can help formulate a strategic plan for Gold Coast’s resurgence.
Gould, NSW’s greatest Origin coach and a two-time premiership-winner, is one of rugby league’s sharpest minds.
In 2010, the Cowboys board sought his input as an advisor to then coach Neil Henry, now the Titans’ caretaker who is likely to take charge in a full-time capacity next season.
The following year, Gould returned to Penrith as general manager of football, armed with a plan to repel the AFL “monster” when the rival code setup a development base in the Panthers’ backyard.
While Gould has links to the Panthers, Broughton believes his passion for rugby league to become Australia’s No.1 code could motivate ‘Gus’ to help the Titans.
Gould is a strident fan of the Gold Coast, having lauded the start-up efforts of Searle and Cartwright, whose father Merv helped create Penrith with Broughton in 1967.
“I know the NRL is concerned about the franchises and the Titans are under challenge from several areas,” Broughton said.
“Gus is quite excellent and what he has done with Penrith is revisit their roots and he’s helped them counter the AFL threat in western Sydney.
“Phil loves the game and cares about the development of the game.
“I have known Phil for decades, since working with him during his Origin days (in 1992-96) and he’s very much a manager of people’s way of thinking.
“He can change their way of thinking without appearing to be impinging on their own philosophies of how to do things.
“Gus is excellent at putting in structures at grassroots level and the major concern for the Titans, in my opinion, is their under-20s.
“Whether Gus would do that (help the Titans) or not I don’t know, but at least if the Titans got him on board, people would listen.”
Gould has previously lent a helping hand to the Titans.
In 2012, Gould travelled to Port Moresby with Searle for talks with the PNG government on a proposed rescue package when a $25 million debt threatened to send the Titans broke.
The Titans just survived that crisis, but if anyone is mindful of the ever-present AFL threat, it is Gould.
In the past four years, the AFL has targeted rugby league’s traditional heartland with a $32 million development raid on western Sydney.
The Suns are making similar advances on the Gold Coast, in part leveraging the Titans’ failure to make the finals for the fourth consecutive year.
And if Bennett transforms the Broncos into an NRL powerhouse next season, the Titans will be under mounting pressure to keep pace in south-east Queensland.
“We face a challenge from AFL,” Gould said when he returned to help the Panthers.
“Our game has underestimated the AFL. I certainly haven’t. I don’t want to be complacent about our position out there.
“Quite simply, the AFL is a monster. You have no idea how powerful, how well resourced, how well connected and how determined this code is in its aim to not only be the No.1 sport in Australia, but to totally obliterate rugby league in the process.
“The AFL has a 20-year strategy to achieve generational change in people’s sporting preferences and habits.
“The AFL is all about ripping the heart out of rugby league ... this, my friends, is only the beginning.”
The Titans last month commissioned Dr Dave Arthur to preside over a club review, with preliminary recommendations to be delivered in the coming weeks.
Titans CEO Graham Annesley said the club would largely be guided by Dr Arthur’s findings, but was prepared to embrace any assistance from Gould.
“I’m always open to ideas from anyone,” he said.
“Phil Gould is currently employed full-time by Penrith, so I’m not too sure how keen anyone from another club would be keen to help a rival club.
“But I am open to assistance from anybody. I never thought I had all the answers so if Gus has some knowledge, we’d certainly consider it.
“The first thing we have to do is finish this review.
“There will be some recommendations that will come out of that and the board will have to consider those.
“Some of those recommendations could involve additional outside expertise, I haven’t seen the report yet, there is a board meeting next week where an update on the report will be presented by Dr Dave Arthur.
“But Gus is one of the most knowledgeable people in our game ... there’s no question about that.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 7026688664
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