7 days ago
Footy great slams NRL team for having the worst name and mascot in the league
Former Parramatta Eels star Eric Grothe Jnr has launched a scathing attack on the lowly Gold Coast Titans, questioning why anyone would support them.
Just days after the Titans lost to the Panthers in a heartbreaking golden point game, Grothe Jnr teed off on 'how boring' the club's mascot was.
'A f***ing Titan, how boring,' he said on the League Lads podcast.
'Gold Coast Titans, as if you want to go for the Titans. Imagine if your team was the Titans. It's the sh***est mascot, colours.'
Grothe Jnr suggested the club should have been called the 'Miami Dolphins' like the NFL team in America and possibly because Miami is a well-known suburb on the Gold Coast.
'That place should be like the Miami Dolphins of the Gold Coast. How do you market a Titan, what's a f***ing Titan?' he said in his rant.
'Bulldogs is awesome, Eels is good because there's no other Eels, it's different, it's unique. You've got Tigers, Tigers are cool, a Bear, it's all cool, a Panther.
'Who cares about a Titan?'
Grothe Jnr claimed he was not taking any personal shots at the club, saying he 'loved' coach Des Hasler and veteran playmaker Kieran Foran.
Then he threw up a comical suggestion for the team's mascot which had his fellow podcasters in stitches.
'Even if they did something stupid like a blue bottle. At least people can put on blue balloons with antennas and the crepe paper. At least it's something,' he said.
The Gold Coast currently sit 16th on the NRL ladder and are in a wooden spoon battle with Souths, Parramatta and Newcastle.
Some of their fans reminded Grothe Jnr that he played for the Eels and mocked that mascot.
'I admit the Eels is weird but it's cool how it's the only pro sports team with an Eel for its logo,' he said.
Titans fans stood up for their club online, while many neutrals found Grothe's rant funny.
'Big Titans fan and will always be a Titans fan. I don't care about a name, I care about what this club means to me and I will support this team through thick and thin,' one fan wrote online.
'I love them too. Just spewing I wasn't there when they decided on a Titan so I could've put my two cents in,' Grothe Jnr said.
'Titans just seems like they didn't put enough thought into the whole thing.'
Grothe Jnr, who played 142 NRL games between 1999 and 2010, then took a shot at the now-defunct Western Reds after their three seasons in the top grade in the 1990s.
He mocked the choice of their major sponsor.
'Did you see their jerseys? Cash Converters,' he said.
'How's that your sponsor? I don't care how much they're paying.'
The ex-Origin player's rant comes just months after he revealed how he turned the tables an online scammer.
