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Message: [QUOTE="Super Freak, post: 2736291, member: 8536"] DARIUS Boyd planned to join the Titans during his battle with depression before the Gold Coast’s financial crisis torpedoed their hopes of snaring the Maroons ace. Boyd has detailed how close he came to donning Titans colours as he tried to escape his off-field demons. Titans founder Michael Searle went to great lengths to poach Boyd in 2012, meeting Boyd’s manager George Mimis to discuss a multi-year $1.5 million contract. Searle tried to seal the deal with a presentation spruiking the Titans’ Centre of Excellence training facility. Boyd was off contract at the Dragons and ready to sever ties with the Red V and his mentor Wayne Bennett but the move collapsed when Boyd questioned his motives for joining the cash-strapped Titans, who were not obliged to honour player payments under the code’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Queensland flyer has since reunited with Bennett at the Broncos and can rub more salt into the Titans’ wounds by leading Brisbane to victory on Friday night at Cbus Super Stadium. “I did really want to come back to play for the Titans a few years ago,” Boyd said. “I just wanted to come home. I was sick of being away in Sydney and my grandmother, who raised me, wasn’t getting any younger. “My manager spoke to the Titans just before I signed with Newcastle. I was going to go to the Titans instead.’’ With the Titans crippled by debts of more than $25 million, Boyd’s management were concerned about the club’s ability to honour his deal if it went broke. Under the code’s CBA at the time, clubs were not legally required to honour player wages, a scenario that convinced Boyd to follow Bennett to Newcastle and ultimately the Broncos. “The Titans also had their issues so all that were reasons why I didn’t come in the end,” Boyd said. “I wanted to do the best I could in football and I thought if I went to the Titans, I’d be doing it for the wrong reasons. It was all just to be home with my family but it wasn’t to be a better player, to be the best I could be in the small window of opportunity I had.’’ Broncos playmaker Anthony Milford has credited Boyd’s presence for his own sizzling form and the Brisbane fullback says he is relishing his senior role at the club. “I try and talk to Milf a lot,” Boyd said. “I’m a bit older and I’ve been around for a while. “He’s only just starting out so I’m trying to be the calmer person on the field and when things are going a million miles an hour, I try to talk to him and Ben Hunt. “I’d like to think I can still get better. “That is part of the thing that still drives me, if you felt you couldn’t get better and you were past your best, it wouldn’t be a good way to approach your career.’’ [url]http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/broncos-v-titans-darius-boyd-reveals-how-close-he-came-to-signing-for-gold-coast/news-story/5b5feab608c97a41dd08591731a5df47[/url] [/QUOTE]

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