No replacing Scott Prince: ex-Titans boss

Founding chairman of the Gold Coast Titans Paul Broughton says the NRL club revolves around Scott Prince but it may learn to benefit from the halfback’s mooted UK move.

While the Prince issue remains far from resolved – he met with Titans coach John Cartwright on Wednesday for the first time since being with linked to English Super League club Hull – Broughton said a change at No.7 would ultimately serve the club well.

“The Gold Coast fans will expect whoever wears the No.7 jersey to emulate what Scott has done,” Broughton told AAP.

“But there will never be another Scott Prince because the Titans revolved around Scott Prince.”

Broughton added: “Look at Melbourne – it’s not their seven (halfback) that is the be all and end all, it’s their one (fullback), seven and nine (hooker).

“We just haven’t had that for Scott to help him along. We never had the players outside of him to take the pressure off him.

“Maybe a change in the format may advantage them because now they will have to do a little bit more themselves.

“It will disadvantage the club in the immediate future but both should benefit in the long term.”

Cartwright returned from an off-season break in the United States on Wednesday and met with Prince, the halfback’s manager Steve Robinson later telling AAP the situation had not been resolved.

“There’s not much to say that has not already been said,” Robinson said.

“It’s just a matter of finding a resolution.”

Hull coach Peter Gentle was certainly not giving anything away.

“We still have a number of irons in the fire and that includes speaking with player representatives in Australia,” he told the Hull website.

“We are working towards concluding our recruitment and we still think another pivot is important as we look to balance our squad for 2013.”

Prince is contracted to the Titans through to 2013 with an option for 2014 but the veteran is believed to be upset that he’s being shopped around by the club to free up money under the salary cap.