Gold Coast coach John Cartwright is holding faint hope “tragedy” hasn’t befallen utility Luke O’Dwyer who could be forced into an early retirement after leaving the field injured in the Titans’ loss to North Queensland on Saturday.
Injuries to O’Dwyer and captain Greg Bird further soured a bad night for the Titans, who were beaten 22-10 in an error-riddled match against the Cowboys in Townsville.
The foundation Gold Coast player last week announced he would retire from the game at season’s end regardless however, after suffering a suspected anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in second half, O’Dwyer could be forced to hang up the boots earlier than expected.
It appeared something was wrong immediately after the Titan went to ground in the 65th minute with the Cowboys players who tackled him waving to the sideline for help.
Cartwright said he was hoping for the best with the 30-year-old set to undergo scans on his knee.
“It’s a tragedy mate, if it’s what they think it is,” Cartwright said.
“He’s going to definitely be missed for the rest of the year and there’s a faint hope that it’s not an ACL but they’re not usually wrong when they diagnose those things.”
There was better news for Bird, who went off five minutes after the half time break clutching his back but the early diagnosis suggested it was just spasms.
Titans prop Nate Myles said the injuries to the veterans did not excuse their performance as they backed up from a win on Monday night against Canterbury.
“I think the work ethic of both of those guys is a definite strength of theirs but it wasn’t the end of us, we still didn’t play the footy we wanted with the guys on the field,” he said.
The Cowboys led the match start to finish, scoring first through Gavin Cooper in the fourth minute after co-captain Johnathan Thurston put the backrower into a giant gap.
David Mead responded for the Titans four minutes later down the right side.
Little separated the sides before Cowboys rookie winger Kyle Feldt was put into space by a big Matt Bowen cut-out pass to give the home team a 12-4 half time lead.
Kevin Gordon backed up from his hat-trick on Monday night with a try in the 50th minute to cut the lead but Feldt crossed again with 21 minutes remaining after latching onto a Bowen grubber, his second try-assist of the match.
Glenn Hall pounced on a Thurston kick with seven minutes remaining to put the result beyond doubt.
Co-captain Matt Scott sent a scare through the Cowboys camp after he went down clutching his ankle and was taken off the ground but the prop said he had been corked on a nerve.
Cowboys coach Neil Henry was pleased with the win and his team’s line defence but said they would need to improve on their ball handling if they wanted to keep their three match winning streak going.
They finished the match with a completion rate of just 59 per cent.
“We accept that we made too many (errors) tonight and we had to grind it out then at the end and I thought they didn’t really look like scoring too many tries when we’re defending well,” Henry said.
