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Gold Coast coach John Cartwright’s time at the Titans is up.
After eight years in the post, Cartwright has stepped down from the NRL club, with the Titans announcing his resignation at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Titans are 13th on the ladder having won only twice since round eight.
They started the year with five wins from their first six games to be early-season pacesetters, but lost six successive matches through the middle part of the competition.
With his side facing the prospect of missing the finals for the fourth straight year, Cartwright has called time on his reign with two more seasons remaining on his contract.
His position was brought into question last month when the club began an internal review.
Cartwright had a distinguished 184-game playing career with Penrith and won the 1991 premiership with the club. He also represented NSW and Australia.
Post-retirement, he served as an assistant coach at the Panthers and Sydney Roosters before joining the Titans in 2007.
In also confirming that Titans founder Michael Searle had stepped down on Tuesday, the club said Cartwright would coach the side for the last time in Monday night’s clash with the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
Assistant coach Neil Henry will take over for the rest of the season, with the club saying Cartwright will remain at the Titans in a non-football role.
Cartwright admitted he was feeling “a little bit numb”.
“It’s a big part of your life and a lot has gone into it,” he said.
“So it probably won’t really hit me until we finish the game on Monday.
“As a player, I was never much into doing things officially. I always met with the CEO when my contract was over and decided between us if I’d go around again … and we just decided mutually it was time.”
The 48-year-old said it was extremely hard to watch the Titans miss the past three finals series.
“We had enormous success to kick the club off, probably achieved that a lot earlier than what a lot of people would’ve thought,” said the foundation coach.
“The last four years we’ve under-achieved and, at the end of the day, that responsibility comes back to me.”
Despite standing down, Cartwright said he had “by no means given up on playing semi-final football this year”.
“Maybe I’m an optimist,” he said.
“I really wanted to be involved in the game this weekend and hopefully that keeps us alive for the semi-finals.”
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