Gold Coast Titans 2019 Season Draw

Author: Chris Kennedy NRL.com Reporter
Timestamp: Fri 26 Oct 2018, 09:06 AM

Here is all you need to know about the Gold Coast Titans' 2019 Telstra Premiership draw.

Teams they play twice: Sharks, Warriors, Panthers, Knights, Cowboys, Sea Eagles, Broncos, Storm, Dragons.

Teams they play once: Raiders, Rabbitohs, Tigers, Bulldogs, Roosters, Eels.

Day-by-day breakdown: Thursday - One, Friday - Seven, Saturday - Eight, Sunday - Eight.

Five-day turnarounds: 2 (Rd 4, Rd 14).

Kick-off: After hosting the Raiders in their season opener, the Titans have a three-game road trip against 2018 finals teams - travelling to Cronulla, ANZ Stadium to face Souths and Auckland for a clash with the Warriors.

Five key matches

Panthers (Round 5, Cbus Super Stadium): There will be plenty of eyes on this clash and, in particular, new Titans recruit Tyrone Peachey. He will join fellow ex-Panthers Bryce Cartwright and coach Garth Brennan on the glitter strip. Results-wise, it's hard to know which would have hurt Gold Coast more last year – getting pumped 35-12 by Penrith in round six or being on the wrong end of a Panthers comeback special after they looked comfortable at 16-6 up after 73 minutes later in the season.

Five key matchups of the Titans' 2019 draw

Raiders (Round 1, Cbus Super Stadium): One of the sweetest moments of an eventually disappointing season for the Titans came in round one when they completed what proved to be the first of too many (if you're a Raiders fan) big comeback losses for the Green Machine. Down 18-0 in the first 10 minutes and 24-6 not long after, Gold Coast nailed a 79th-minute match-winner through Konrad Hurrell. Man-mountain Shannon Boyd will also get to line up against his former club.

Broncos (Round 13, Suncorp Stadium): Always plenty of spice when the local rivals go up against each other with the Titans still looking to shake the "little brothers" tag. They have played Brisbane more times (25) than any other club but have the equal-fewest wins (six) against them, amounting to easily their worst win-rate against any club. The Titans did claim an impressive win against them in round four on the back of a Phillip Sami hat-trick and try assist via a remarkable winger-to-winger cross-field kick to Anthony Don before getting lapped 34-0 in round 17.

Cowboys (Round 8, 1300Smiles Stadium): Queensland's other rivalry for the Gold Coast, and they went down twice last season despite North Queensland flirting with the wooden spoon for most of the year. The Cowboys eased to a 26-14 win in Townsville in round seven and the second bout, on the Coast in round 25, was memorable for being a sell-out in the final ever game of Johnathan Thurston. The home side stunned them early and threatened to ruin the fairy tale with three first half tries before Thurston wrote his own story-line one final time. The Titans will be desperate to snap a seven-match losing run against the Cowboys.

Sea Eagles (Round 11, Lottoland): The Titans proved a thorn in Manly's side last year and will have fond memories of both meetings against the boys from the northern beaches. Manly will have not-so-fond memories of the round five trip to Gladstone for plenty of reasons, including a Titans win. Round 23 was another breakout performance, this time from burgeoning star AJ Brimson who was saving and scoring tries for fun. Many were the only team the Titans beat twice last year so they should be looking forward to the next instalment.

Toughest stretch: Rounds 17-21. Coming out of an Origin period that is likely to be taxing on two or three of their key forwards, they face off against the might of Melbourne then Brisbane at home in rounds 18 and 19 off the back of a visit to Penrith in round 17. They cap all that off with more travel against top-class opposition, heading to Sydney to face premiers Sydney Roosters then the Dragons at Jubilee Oval.

NRL Telstra premiership draw 2019

And another thing: The Titans start their 2019 campaign in identical fashion to 2018: hosting Canberra on Sunday evening in the final game of round one. It had a happy ending last time with a memorable comeback win so Garth Brennan's boys will be hoping for a repeat dose.