Frustration at missing out on Cameron Smith was quickly forgotten by the Gold Coast Titans when Robbie Farah flew into the tourist strip on Tuesday.
Titans boss Michael Searle made it clear the NRL club was hardly impressed with their dealings with Smith's manager Isaac Moses, prompting them to withdraw a reported $3 million, five-year offer to the international on Monday.
But the smile returned when NRL premiership-winning rake Farah showed he was very serious about talking business by touching down with manager Sam Ayoub.
"We start talks with Robbie tomorrow. Negotiations have only just started so there is a long road ahead - we are not expecting anything to come out of the next few days," Searle said.
"But he's a very exciting hooker. And if he is genuine in his desire to move to Queensland, well it's a big move and we will sit down with him and see how it goes."
Searle knows the club faces a challenge luring Farah from Wests Tigers and getting the classy No.9 to link with the Titans in 2010.
But the initial feedback was positive from Farah's camp.
"They are a competitive club and there are players there that he has played with before, so there is certainly a lot of attractions," Ayoub said, referring to Farah's former Wests Tigers teammate and current Titans halfback Scott Prince.
While it may be only early days in their talks with Farah, they already seem to have progressed further than they ever did with Smith's management.
Searle said Moses only wanted to hold talks on the phone and "didn't get back to us" when a request for face to face negotiations was made.
"There did not seem to be a lot of enthusiasm there when we spoke about it yesterday and on that basis we felt that it was going to be a process we did not want to participate in," he said.
Searle hinted that his club may have been used to increase Smith's deal to stay with Melbourne.
