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Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook is hopeful his Titans will be able to return home before facing Newcastle in Round 5 of the NRL.
Gold Coast will likely know by Wednesday where they will be able to host Newcastle next Saturday as the NRL watches Queensland’s COVID-19 outbreak closely.
The Titans are scheduled to again play in south-east Queensland in Round 5, after Saturday night’s game against Brisbane was moved to Sydney.
Their shift to Sydney on Wednesday was listed as “indefinite”, joining Brisbane in an interstate camp due to the outbreak.
But while the Titans went down 20-4 to Canberra on Saturday, so far the signs off the field are promising.
There was just one case of community transmission reported on Saturday in Brisbane. However, that came from a man who visited a Gold Coast brewery.
The NRL’s Apollo committee are still meeting regularly on the topic, but it’s expected any decision for the round-five match at Cbus Super Stadium would be made by Wednesday at the latest.
“We’d love to be (home),” coach Justin Holbrook said.
“One thing we’ve learned with COVID is you don’t know how things are going to go and you’ve got to react to things.
“We were the only team to lose a home game out of this. And that makes it tough.
“But it didn’t affect the way we played (against Canberra). We had a good preparation to win.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s not going to be ideal for anybody at any stage so I’m not here to make excuses.”
The NRL has longer to decide on the Broncos’ situation, given they don’t play at home until the Thursday night of Round 6 against Penrith.
But they too would like to return home, having set up camp in Sydney last Monday.
Meanwhile, the Titans are hopeful a cork suffered by halfback Jamal Fogarty won’t rule him out of the Knights clash.
Already without Ash Taylor for another week through a broken hand, Gold Coast desperately need Fogarty’s input in attack with Eric Clark and Tyrone Peachey the other option.
The Titans failed to make use of their opportunities in the loss to the Raiders, with three clear try-savers denying them while completing at 67 per cent.
“It was a bit of a shambles all round,” Holbrook said.
“We’ve played well the last couple of weeks (against Brisbane and North Queensland) and we had to play better (against Canberra).
“We missed our chances…that made it a tough night against a good opportunity.”
© AAP
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