IT’S time. The Titans must start an aggressive raid on the player market, starting with a $700,000 bid for Bulldog Moses Mbye.

And NRL chief executive Dave Smith should assist in reviving the Gold Coast as a premiership force.

It was just five years ago that the Titans were one game shy of a grand final.

Today, they are NRL whipping boys with a roster as skinny as a Kenyan marathon runner.

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Tomorrow night, the once vaunted Queensland battle between Brisbane and the Titans threatens to degenerate into a smash-up derby.

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If the table-topping Broncos are on song, and the Titans maintain the mediocrity of recent weeks, Brisbane could win by 40.

The Titans have confronted tremendous turbulence this season and they need help from the NRL, which now controls their licence, to haul them out of the mire.

media_camera Israel Folau makes a break for the Wallabies.

For two years we’ve heard about Smith’s discretionary power to use NRL funds to help deliver a marquee player to a nominated club.

In that time, the NRL war chest has remained untouched. Smith has not assisted any club in any pursuit of any player.

For a year, rugby pundits speculated on the future of off-contract Israel Folau. The Marsden High product would have been the perfect poster boy for the Titans, but the silence from League Central was deafening.

The NRL must now dip into their pockets and help the Titans secure a nominated Super Six group of players, including Mbye, the Bulldogs playmaker who has the class, chutzpah and charisma to be a future captain.

Rival teams will throw their toys out of the cot at the notion of the NRL helping the Titans but for too long, the governing body has allowed myopic self-interest to override what is good from a whole-of-game perspective.

There are too many sporting carcasses on the Gold Coast to think the Titans can rise again without some form of assistance. The AFL were wise enough to provide financial concessions to Sydney Swans and the Gold Coast Suns to safeguard their expansionary clubs in their crucial formative years.

Unless the NRL do something, the Titans could be a basketcase for another five years. That would be a disastrous scenario in a region where the Suns are gradually chipping away to win the hearts and minds of the Gold Coast public.

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Here are the six players the Titans should attempt to sign over the next two years to make the club competitive again:

media_camera Moses Mbye in action for the Bulldogs. Picture: Renee McKay

MOSES MBYE

His management have told the Titans he is prepared to quit the Bulldogs if they offered him $700,000 a season. The Titans are prepared to pay around $400,000. They should open the purse strings today because Mbye is a blue-chip investment. The kid from Noosa ticks all the boxes: Queensland boy, classy playmaker, popular clubman with the intellect and level head to be the face of the Titans for a decade.

media_camera Josh Papalii celebrates a try for the Raiders.

JOSH PAPALII

The Titans need homegrown products with connectability to local fans and Papalii, the wrecking ball from Logan, is the ideal package. He is off-contract next season and would be a devastating weapon in the Gold Coast back row with his rampaging charges and hitting power in defence.

media_camera Dale Copley in action for the Brisbane Broncos. Picture: Darren England

DALE COPLEY

For the past two months, Copley has languished in the Intrust Super Cup, stuck behind Jack Reed, Justin Hodges and Jordan Kahu at the table-topping Broncos. Copley has the talent to play Origin one day and is too good to be stuck in second-tier football for another three months. The Titans should strike now.

media_camera Cameron Munster of the Storm offloads the ball during the round 19 clash with Penrith.

CAMERON MUNSTER

The Storm sensation has been tagged the next Billy Slater but he is being forced to serve a long apprenticeship in Melbourne. Slater plans to play another two years and whether Munster is prepared to wait until 2018 for a crack at his cherished No. 1 jumper is debatable. Munster hails from Rockhampton and would be a revelation at the back for the Titans.

media_camera Nelson Asofa-Solomona in action. Picture: Colleen Petch

NELSON ASOFA-SOLOMONA

The Storm rookie is arguably the best young front-rower on the rise. Was outstanding for the Junior Kiwis earlier this season and terrorises teams with his size, footwork and offloading ability. Off-contract next year. The Titans need serious mongrel up front and Asofa-Solomona would provide it.

media_camera Aidan Guerra in action for the Roosters. Picture: Mark Evans

AIDAN GUERRA

It would take a lot to prise him from the Roosters but the Titans should at least ask the question armed with bagfuls of cash. Guerra is a Queensland boy and the prospect of returning home is always a handy lure. The Maroons Origin star would bring toughness, credibility and workrate to the Titans’ back row.

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