Introducing the Titans teenage halves
The Gold Coast Titans NRLW side was rated an $11 chance to win the 2023 premiership before a ball was kicked this year.
Fast-forward two weeks and Head Coach Karryn Murphy now leads the second favourite in this year’s premiership race, following the Titans fast-start to the 2023 season.
When marquee signing Taliah Fuimaono went down injured in Round 1, the alarm bells were ringing on the Gold Coast. She’s an experienced campaigner and a clever playmaker who would have been tasked with steering this squad around the park.
In her absence, teenage halves Chantay Kiria-Ratu and Sienna Lofipo have impressed with their maturity and control in attack.
They’re not doing it all on their own, though.
Lauren Brown, Georgia Hale and Evania Pelite are a presence in the spine while Shannon Mato and Jessika Elliston spearhead the second-best yardage team in the competition, two rounds in.
It all makes for a very well-balanced squad that knows their strengths and how to play to them.
The Gold Coast didn’t pile on the points against Brisbane last week, but I’ve picked out a few actions from that game that suggest to me this Titans side are the real deal in 2023.
They found a weakness in the spaces around Mele Hufunga early on and impressed to consistently work towards it in attack.
With their first good-ball possession, the Titans fired their first shot at Hufunga from a mid-field scrum:
Lofipo swings over to the right edge and plays her role smartly here. She straightens at Gayle Broughton which invites Hufunga to turn in on the Kiria-Ratu decoy, before throwing out the back to Pelite in space.
Hufunga recovers well on this occasion but the Titans weren’t done yet.
A settler through Mato resets things towards the posts as the Titans prepare to go right again. Brittany Brealey-Nati is pointing at Hufunga from behind the ruck and that’s exactly where Kiria-Ratu goes.
Like Lofipo two tackles earlier, Kiria-Ratu nails her involvement on the ball here.
A fake underneath sits Broughton on her heels and prevents Hufunga from sliding out early on her opposite number. With the space created, Niall Williams-Guthrie puts on a specialist centre move to beat Hufunga for speed and pass Emily Bass into a try in the corner.
Having coniditoned the defence with their first try, the Titans mixed things up for their second.
Using the ballplaying of Hale at lock, Gold Coast compress the defence towards the ball before swinging it to the right edge.
Fresh with the memory of Williams-Guthrie and Bass beating them in the corner, Broughton chases hard when the ball goes to her outside here. She’s trying to support Hufunga in the centres but opens up a space back on the inside by doing so.
Shout-out to Kiria-Ratu for the casual one-handed catch and pass here, too.
Finding success in good-ball on their right edge, the Titans went looking there in yardage too.
When edge backrower Tazmin Gray gets caught up in the tackle here, Kiria-Ratu identifies an option down the short side.
A long pass from Brown gets Kiria-Ratu clear of the ruck defence, and she plays with great tempo to engage Broughton in the line. That isolates Hufunga again, who can’t recover on Williams-Guthrie when she bounces to the outside.
Bass is late to the party and lets a chance slip here, but the Gold Coast impressed to get it right the second time.
With the scores locked up and the clock winding down, this Titans set best captures how well they’re working as a unit right now.
Starting from inside their own 30m line, Mato and Elliston both bend the line on plays one and two:
On tackle three, Kiria-Ratu plays for that same shape in yardage, only this time Bass is pushing up flat in support and streaks down the touchline.
A settler through Hale gets the Titans back at the posts on tackle four, splitting the Broncos defensive line down the middle.
Now it’s Lofipo’s turn to chime in, orchestrating this left edge movement and picking the right pass on the end of it. With Brisbane’s right edge passive and turned out, Lofipo passes short to Shaylee Bent for a 10 metre gain through the Ali Brigginshaw tackle.
Bent gets so close to the line that Hayley Maddick is drawn towards the tackle, leaving space in the in-goal for Brown to roll a grubber into on the last:
And just like that, the Titans go 70+ metres in five tackles, firing a shot at either edge in the process and forcing a goal-line dropout on the last.
That’s NRL Penrith Panthers kind of stuff.
The NRLW Titans are playing a smart and purposeful brand of footy right now. Hale and Brown are directing things around the ruck and both Kiria-Ratu and Lofipo are playing roles beyond their years.
It’s a pleasure to watch and an ominous sign for the more-fancied Roosters and Knights who’ve had a slow start to the 2023 season.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Aiken sweeping
The Roosters attack was clunky in NRLW Round 2 and I suggested after a loss to the Raiders that Sydney might need some time to gel on the field. There’s a little bit of the men’s Roosters side about this NRLW squad but they’ve got the talent to be the best attacking team in the comp.
This action with Tarryn Aiken last week stood out for its potential.
Isabelle Kelly tore up the NRLW last season with this double-fullback shape but it’s Aiken here adding the extra number on a long-side shift.
It won’t be long before this action turns into points.
Shaniah Power on short sides
When Shaniah Power exploded to life down the short side in NRLW Round 2 to gift Jetaya Faifua her first try in Cowboys colours, I sat up in my chair.
That’s slick ballplaying from an edge forward, but the wide shot shows us it was even better than that.
Look who’s slotted into the line on the short side for the Knights here.
Tamika Upton has added a number to the defensive line but she is a false number. She’s ready to drop out the back and is late off her line when Power calls the ball and hits the short side.
This is the latest example of the growth of the women’s game.
A backrower identifying a fullback filling in down the short side and organising an action to expose it is great footy and something we see often in the NRL.
Mature footy from Power and the Cowboys.
Saraha Togatuki paasing
Sarah Togatuki is one of the hardest running prop-forwards in the NRLW. She’s usually a two- or three-man tackle and consistently bends the line in yardage. If she’s not generate post contact-metres, Togatuki is triggering a scoring action with a quick play-the-ball.
That’s why I was surprised to see her string this pass together in the lead up to Kezzie App’s try last week.
She doesn’t look like a natural ballplayer and it’s unlikely she’ll ever become a great one.
Like Jason Taumalolo in the men’s game though, the threat of Togatuki popping a pass every now and again can buy her more space with the ball in hand.
She threw two passes in five games last year for the Roosters, but has already thrown five in two games for the Tigers this season.
I’m looking out to see how much Togatuki develops in this area throughout the regular season.