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Karmichael Hunt alone couldn’t win the battle for the hearts and minds of sports fans on the Gold Coast, but with Gary Ablett on board, the Titans and the NRL should be extremely wary. At 12:30pm eastern yesterday, Gary Ablett walked into a crowded room at Melbourne’s Crown Casino and announced that he’d signed a five-year-deal with the Gold Coast Suns.
At 12:31pm eastern yesterday Michael Searle, the chief executive of the Gold Coast Titans, should’ve been on the phone to his cabinet preparing for war.
Searle almost needs to march out onto the sand opposite Cavill Avenue and deliver a Churchillian like speech to the Suns hierarchy.
The Gold Coast is rugby league heartland, but Ablett has immense and credible pulling power. His boots and not his mouth do the bulk of the talking.
A power struggle of epic proportions has started and if the Titans don’t know they’re in a fight, they soon will.
Searle and his team have done a fantastic job connecting with the local community.
They have a loyal following, but this is Gary Ablett.
It will be interesting to see how frequently the Suns and Titans share fixture times on a Friday or Saturday night or a Sunday afternoon.
The crowd figures will also be intriguing.
Logic would suggest that the AFL would want to give the Suns some clean air to work in, but AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou and Travis Auld, his counterpart at the Suns, have already shown they’re not afraid to make bold moves.
Maybe Gold Coast United, the struggling A-League outfit, should play away from home for the first two months and stay out of the inevitable cross fire.
Given Ablett’s move their crowds may drop from two men and a dog to just the dog.
It’s amazing how successfully the AFL has, intentionally or not, hijacked what was meant to be NRL Grand Final week.
While it still is, at times, it’s hard to tell.
First there was James Hird returning to his throne at Essendon, but this time in the form of coach and not captain. Mark Thompson telling Geelong he needed a break from coaching the Cats, for now, was next. Finally, the announcement the Australian sports community already knew about, but desperately wanted confirmation of.
The NRL decider won’t get our undivided attention until Sunday morning.
But back to the AFL’s specific assault on the Gold Coast. It should bring out the best in the Titans as a club. Community programs, fan engagement, marketing and promotion will all need to be spot on.
The Suns and the AFL will spare no expense to ensure its newest club gains popularity in south-east Queensland.
The battle has begun and both sides will ultimately survive, but one army will be stronger than the other.
Who that will be in 10-years time is anyone’s guess.
You can follow luke on twitter @luke_doherty and on Sky News Australia.
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