IF SCEPTICAL fans suspect the budding rivalry between the Broncos and Titans is contrived by the media and marketeers, they need only spend a minute with Gold Coast managing director Michael Searle.

In a barb sure to add spark to tonight's clash at Skilled Park, Searle believes Brisbane's treatment of Gold Coast as "second-rate" citizens will make for a first-class local derby.

"We've always been seen as second-rate citizens, not only from Broncos players but probably their fans as well," Searle said. "I think the Gold Coast-Brisbane rivalry is generational. There's always been a condescending approach from Brisbane to the city of the Gold Coast."

Bogans, fibros, a giant retirement village - Searle has heard all the taunts. He can trace the ill-feeling to May 8, 1988: the round 10 clash between the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants and the Broncos at Seagulls Stadium in front of 13,432 fans. With former Sea Eagle Ron Gibbs instrumental, the Giants defeated a star-studded Broncos side 25-22.

"Ron Gibbs and Chris Close ripped apart the Broncos - which were potentially an Origin football team at that stage - and I think the rivalry from that day forth has been strong," Searle said.

Even if some of the Titan's imports are yet to understand the cultural importance of beating up on Brisbane, Searle said the punters in the stands had a deep appreciation of the frayed relationship between the two regions.

"It's not only the relationship between the teams, it's the relationship between the cities," he said. "You can't manufacture these sorts of rivalries. They just happen. Marketers can do whatever they want … It's an opportunity for the people of the community to say, 'Our city won."'

Searle hopes 27,000 blue-clad fans will be saying just that tonight.