{"id":73607,"date":"2025-08-16T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/73607\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:54:08","slug":"ex-wallaby-star-gives-titans-hope-for-life-after-foran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/73607\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wallaby star gives Titans hope for life after Foran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast hope former Wallabies No.10 Carter Gordon can be a long-term playmaker in the NRL and his first rugby league game in 357 days for Ipswich Jets was a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

After an inspirational return following surgery on a spinal fluid leak, Gordon played 40 minutes at five-eighth for Titans affiliate club the Jets on Saturday in a 32-12 win over Western Clydesdales in Miles in the Queensland Cup.<\/p>\n

“Carter was very silky with his attack and had a try assist. It was a really successful comeback for him,” Jets chairman Steve Johnson told AAP.<\/p>\n

Titans veteran playmaker \u00a0Kieran Foran, who won the 2011 NRL title with Manly, will hang up the boots at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Gordon would make a more than suitable replacement for Foran for the 2025 cellar dwellers who are on track for the wooden spoon.<\/p>\n

“When they lose Foz (Foran) next year he is perfect to drop into that Titans side , particularly if they are not also playing a genuine halfback,” Johnson said<\/p>\n

“Carter can lay on those sweep balls that Foz would lay on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He has a big boot and was getting a lot of distance with it for us. You can see he is a class player. His passing game is really clever and he is a big body at six.<\/p>\n

“The Titans would be very pleased with his 40 minutes on return.”<\/p>\n

\"Kieran
\n Gold Coast playmaker Kieran Foran will retire from the NRL at the end of 2025. (Andrew Cornaga\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Gordon, who played eight Tests for the Wallabies, spoke to AAP before his comeback about how much of a thrill it was to be making it back on the park.<\/p>\n

“It is very exciting to get on the field and put into action what I’ve learnt,” he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the Jets were only too happy to facilitate the 24-year-old’s comeback<\/p>\n

“It is good for us as a club, as part of the Titans system, to be helping their players come back,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n

“We are always happy to help get blokes back on their feet.”<\/p>\n

Gordon is expected to increase his minutes towards the 80-mark in the coming weeks as the Jets remain on track to play finals.<\/p>\n

When he signed with the Titans, former Gold Coast No.6 and Wallabies gun Mat Rogers told AAP he had high hopes for Gordon.<\/p>\n

“I called a couple of Carter’s rugby games for Stan (Sport) from the sideline and I was really impressed with his running game and his ability to take the ball to the line and find the right person in support,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n

“They are attributes that transfer to rugby league. \u00a0I think he could be a tremendous asset to the Titans.”<\/p>\n

\"Carter
\n Gold Coast’s Carter Gordon (L) follows in the footsteps of fellow former Wallaby gun Mat Rogers. (Darren England\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The Titans are last on the NRL ladder and Gordon could be a chance to get a top grade debut in the closing rounds.<\/p>\n

Titans centre Harley Smith-Shields, formerly with Canberra, also returned from a long-term lay-off with Ipswich against Clydesdales. He is yet to play an NRL game this year.<\/p>\n

“Harley came back well,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n

“He returned from a back issue and \u00a0played against the Capras in round nine but then tore a hamstring badly. He missed \u00a0a lot of weeks but now he is looking good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast hope former Wallabies No.10 Carter Gordon can be a long-term playmaker in the NRL and his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,1348,3355,3359,3353,761,762,44,3356,3354,3357,158,85,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-73607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-nrl","tag-sports","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73607","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=73607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}