KEY POINTS:
The border area between New South Wales and Queensland hosted some of the earliest league games outside Sydney, and the Tweed Heads Seagulls were the first club formed outside that city in 1909, one year after the premiership began.
So it's no surprise the new Gold Coast Titans
play before full houses of 18,000 at home at Carrara on the Coast, nor that their season average is 24,000 thanks to games held in the bigger Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
They need more seats to put bums on and the State Government is about to provide that, spending A$180 million ($198 million) on a new stadium at Robina which will accommodate 25,000, as well as running in rail links.
The Titans have won five of six games at home, they sit in fourth place on the competition ladder and now, all those critics who picked them to run last can't be found.
They have sponsor Jetstar signed to a five-year deal. The club is enjoying the backing of a population of 500,000 and southeast Queensland is the fastest-growing area of Australia.
There are 11,000 registered juniors playing in the Titans' catchment area. Local schools compete for the Gold Coast Titans Cup and the competition is a development vehicle. They have three feeder clubs in state competition the Queensland Cup: Tweed Heads, who lie fourth of 11 teams, Ipswich Jets, who are fifth and the Burleigh Bears, the favoured club of New Zealand travellers, in seventh.
It is all a far cry from 1998 when the Gold Coast Seagulls failed on the field and were folded as part of the Australian Rugby League-Super League merger.
The club's chief executive, Michael Searle, believed in the dream since those days and has been on board since pushing the NRL to grant a licence.
"Donations" of A$16 million from local benefactors allowed them to push on and achieve that.
In 2004 they appointed John Cartwright as coach of a non-existent team "so the NRL could see we were a long way down the track", Searle said.
On Friday, May 27, 2005, after large crowds were drawn to NRL trial matches on the Coast year after year, the NRL announced that Gold Coast had beaten Wellington and the Central Coast for the one new licence available.
For Searle and Cartwright, that's when the real work started, looking for backers to build the stadium, sponsors, a team.
It's typical that this week, while the Titans were preparing to play the Warriors at Carrara tomorrow night, Searle was talking to financial backers and planning 2008. They have most of the team signed for 2008, the stars Scott Prince, Luke Bailey, Preston Campbell and Anthony Laffranchi for three years more.
The Titans took a punt on appointing former 200-game Penrith player Cartwright as head coach, poaching him from the Roosters where he was assistant, rather than buying an established NRL coach.
Cartwright said he had benefited from the lessons taught by Penrith's Phil Gould and Reece Simmons and Ricky Stuart at the Roosters. The better NRL coaches secure anything above a 50 per cent winning record, the rest get the axe, so Cartwright's position is already safe for season two. But he's wary.
"A hell of a lot can go wrong in 10 games. We're taking it in blocks of two or three at a time."
He won't talk about finals.
Queensland State of Origin legend Trevor "The Axe" Gillmeister is his assistant.
The club snared the man reputedly the NRL's toughest trainer, Billy Johnstone, who was credited with propelling the Bulldogs and then North Queensland to finals level.
Football manager is Scott Sattler, also from Penrith, who played his junior football for Runaway Bay, not far from the Titans' Southport base.
Many of their players were from the area and have returned after playing elsewhere. The weather and lifestyle are drawcards.
"We didn't have any problems attracting players," Cartwright said. "Once we got Prince, Campbell and Bailey on board other players were taking notice and saying, 'Hey, these guys are serious'."
For himself, there was the excitement of building the side he wanted from scratch.
Searle said they identified 11 players they wanted, starting with the crucial one, six, seven and nine positions and adding eight - Bailey at prop. Prince and Campbell were to be halves, Nathan Friend the hooker.
They had Irish international Brian Carney and the Storm's Steve Turner signed for fullback/wing but Carney quit, and Turner stayed in Melbourne.
Wayward Chris Walker was signed, dropped soon after for alcohol-related bad behaviour and is still in limbo.
Prop Michael Hodgson broke his leg, Brad Meyers and Richie Mathers suffered season-ending knee injuries, Campbell was out for some weeks with an ankle problem, and now Laffranchi is gone for knee surgery.
The Titans have sailed through, winning their last four on the trot and are still looking solid.
They have a young squad. Junior Kiwi James Stosic is among those getting a run as injury bites and State of Origin takes Bailey out. They actively scout in New Zealand, Cartwright said. Searle adds: "It's an important market for everyone."
Signed recently for the 2007 season are Cowboys wing Brenton Bowen and the Tigers' Ben Jeffrey. The Titans don't have much more to do in the market.
They do have big plans for the future, regardless what happens this year.
"We're hard on ourselves," Searle said when asked whether their inaugural season has not already achieved a pass mark.