Crisis-hit Titans still hoping to lure DCE

NRL crisis club Gold Coast hope their handling of the cocaine supply scandal shows prime target Daly Cherry-Evans they're serious about rebuilding.

Australia's Daly Cherry-Evans

Australia's Daly Cherry-Evans

No major sponsor. No training venue. Several players stood down and facing drug supply charges.

It's hardly the pitch that the Gold Coast Titans would be hoping to use to lure NRL star Daly Cherry-Evans to their club.

Last week the Manly halfback visited the Titans with wife Vessa to check out their facilities amid reports the Titans were offering a $3 million, three-year deal to bring the Queensland and Australia star north from Sydney.

Within days however the Titans have been rocked to their very core with five current players, including representative stars Greg Bird and Dave Taylor, set to face court next month on charges of supplying cocaine.

All five are due to meet with the club's board in the immediate future to argue why the club shouldn't rip up their contracts for the damage they've done to the Titans' brand, regardless of how the matter plays out in the courts.

Bird, the 30-year-old NSW and Australia back-rower, looks particularly in danger of finding himself on the NRL scrapheap considering he's already been put on notice after being stripped of the club's co-captaincy and fined following a public urination incident in December in the aftermath to his wedding in Byron Bay.

It hardly projects the image of a stable club ready for success but Titans chief executive Graham Annesley is hopeful Cherry-Evans will view the handling of the matter in a positive light.

"The decision about Daly's future is really with Daly but hopefully one of the things that is coming through loud and clear from the adversity that we're facing at the moment is that this club is absolutely determined to turn this around," Annesley said.

"We want a club that has a culture that the community can be proud of, that all the players and people associated with the club can be proud of.

"Hopefully he sees that there is a great opportunity at this club should he decide to get involved with it."

Sunday's chaos ended with Taylor, Bird, outside back Kalifa Faifai Loa and former player Joe Vickery all being served with notices to appear in court on March 9 by Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission (QCCC).

The pending charges stem from the same QCCC investigation which resulted in notices being served to Titans' player of the year Beau Falloon and fringe first-grader Jamie Dowling as well as Queensland Reds code-hopping star Karmichael Hunt.

That trio are poised to face Southport Magistrates Court on March 5 along with an unnamed 22-year-old woman.

Annesley said he hoped to talk to those players who remain at the Titans at some point on Monday.

He also couldn't rule out any further revelations, although he was confident the extent of the Titans' worries could be over.

"My information is that this is the last of them from our club's perspective," he said.

"Whether there are other players involved from other clubs or codes I have absolutely no idea.

"I can't give you a guarantee about the outcome ... that's the best of my knowledge at the moment."


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Source: AAP


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