{"id":50812,"date":"2025-08-07T16:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50812\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T16:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:38:13","slug":"afl-teams-instagram-post-about-an-nrl-team-was-meant-to-be-a-light-hearted-joke-but-it-has-backfired-badly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/50812\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL team’s Instagram post about an NRL team was meant to be a light-hearted joke – but it has backfired BADLY"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gold Coast<\/a> Suns took to Instagram on Thursday afternoon to post a light-hearted joke about their NRL<\/a> neighbours, the Gold Coast Titans, but the trolling appears to have backfired big time on the AFL<\/a> club.<\/p>\n

Controversy exploded this week in the NRL in the wake of the \u2018trainer-gate\u2019 saga, after the Titans suffered a last-gasp 26-30 defeat by Penrith last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary<\/a> booted a penalty in the 78th minute to send the match to a golden-point winner, with Panthers five-eighth Blaize Talagi bundling his way over the try line to seal the nail-biting win and keep Penrith\u2019s eight-match winning streak rolling.<\/p>\n

But the match was overshadowed by a bizarre incident as Titans half Jayden Campble appeared to miss a shot at goal, which could have won the home side the match. It came as Panthers trainer Corey Bocking appeared to run directly across the field and in his eye line.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have been handed a prospective $50,000 fine and Bocking has been handed a prospective suspension over the incident.<\/p>\n

The Suns<\/a>, meanwhile, took to Instagram to poke a barb at Des Hasler\u2019s struggling side by publishing images of Suns\u2019 star Ben Long and Titans\u2019 prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

An apparent joke published by the Gold Coast Suns’ Instagram account has backfired massively on the AFL side<\/p>\n

\"Bizarrely, <\/p>\n

Bizarrely, the Suns appeared to take a cheap shot at their NRL neighbours, the Gold Coast Titans on Instagram, joking about last weekend’s ‘trainer-gate’ incident<\/p>\n

\"Panthers' <\/p>\n

Panthers’ trainer Corey Bocking (right) appeared to run on the pitch when Jayden Campbell was kicking a potentially match-winning shot at goal. The Titans star missed the kick, before Penrith won the match<\/p>\n

\u2018What\u2019s the difference between these two Gold Coast players?\u2019 the first slide on the Instagram post read.<\/p>\n

On the second slide, the club posted a picture of Long again, celebrating the Suns\u2019 84-point gazumping of the Tigers at the weekend.<\/p>\n

An piece of text, overlayed on the image, read: \u2018SUNS WIN,\u2019 with the club\u2019s social media managers also throwing a cheap shot at their neighbours, writing: \u2018(a trainer didn\u2019t wreck us).\u2019<\/p>\n

The Suns then captioned the post: \u2018Not the trainer\u2019, adding an \u2018exploding head\u2019 emoji.<\/p>\n

The bizarre and rather impromptu post was slammed by many in the comments, including the Titans themselves, who didn\u2019t find the barb funny.<\/p>\n

The Titans posted a \u2018raised eyebrow\u2019 emoji, appearing both unamused and perplexed at why the Suns came after them following the match.<\/p>\n

Others echoed the sentiment. \u2018Coming after the other team in your town is very odd,\u2019 one wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2018Broncos and Lions would never do this to each other,\u2019 another added.<\/p>\n

\"On <\/p>\n

On Instagram, the Suns made light of the agonising moment, asking fans what the difference was between\u00a0Suns\u2019 star Ben Long and Titans\u2019 prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard. They then\u00a0 posted a shot of Long celebrating the side’s win against Richmond\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"They <\/p>\n

They also made light of the ‘trainer-gate’ incident, which garnered the scrutiny of the bewildered Titans social media account\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Wow! Too soon… too soon…\u2019 an Instagram user wrote. Another added: \u2018Ahh man, this ain\u2019t the energy. The universe always has a way of humbling us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Wow, you really gonna do us like that,\u2019 one said, while another added: \u2018Still time to delete this.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some of the Titans\u2019 NRLW players, including Lauren Brown and Georgia Hale, sarcastically posted a \u2018thumbs up\u2019 emoji in the comments.<\/p>\n

The bizarre swipe is made even more strange when noting that the titans and the Suns have held a close relationship over the years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panthers boss Ivan Cleary revealed on Wednesday that the coach in the middle of the \u2018trainer-gate\u2019 saga has been \u2018struggling\u2019 since the incident took place, insisting that it was an \u2018honest mistake\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think the punishment is pretty heavy,\u2019 the four-time premiership-winning coach explained.<\/p>\n

On Bocking, he added: \u2018I think his suspension is the biggest of anyone in the NRL this year. I think it’s a bit harsh to come and say that his penalty is based on other things.<\/p>\n

\u2018He’s struggling, has been right from the time it happened.<\/p>\n

\"Campbell <\/p>\n

Campbell would go on to miss the kick that could have won his side the game late on<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"The <\/p>\n

The Suns copped heat from other fans in the comments, who claimed it was a bizarre shot to take against your city neighbours<\/p>\n

\u2018We kind of try to temper that with banter, which he takes in good nature.<\/p>\n

\u2018But yeah, he’s struggling. He cares about his job and understands that he made a mistake and it’s become a big deal.<\/p>\n

\u2018The last thing he would want is any excess attention, that’s his nature. You can see clearly that he was embarrassed and apologised.<\/p>\n

\u2018I just think it’s harsh and I think it’s a little unfair.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gold Coast Suns took to Instagram on Thursday afternoon to post a light-hearted joke about their NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[638,64,63,100,9130,1202,1203,761,762,158,588,85],"class_list":["post-50812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dailymail","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-instagram","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}