So, will they be the South Brisbane Titans or the Perth Titans? That’s really the only question to ask after the Gold Coast’s shambolic signing of Justin Holbrook.
I’m not having a go at Holbrook, who has a success rate of 79 per cent as the boss of Super League club St Helens. He’ll give it a red-hot crack.
But being a winning coach in the UK isn’t the same as being a winning coach in the toughest rugby league comp in the world.
Really though, Holbrook getting the gig is beside the point. It’s the way he landed the role that stinks to high heaven.
Word is the Titans basically just decided he was their man, without so much as interviewing any other candidate.
As I argued last week when it had been reported that Kevin Walters was set to be the clipboard-holder without so much as an interview, “the idea he should get the job over other equally (un)qualified candidates without so much as presenting his case to the board suggests the Titans haven’t learnt any lessons from a decade of disappointment.”
Turns out, even though it was regarding the wrong candidate, the Titans haven’t learnt any lessons.
While Holbrook reportedly did have an interview – via Skype – no one else did.
Really? The likes of Geoff Toovey, Anthony Griffin and Tim Sheens are available and those men – all with winning records as NRL head coaches – weren’t even worth a quick FaceTime?
It’s not to say that any of that trio would necessarily have been better candidates than Holbrook, but how do the board know if they didn’t even bother to ask?
Justin Holbrook has enjoyed some success with St Helens. (Photo by Dave Howarth/PA Images via Getty Images)
And what happened to chair Dennis Watt’s desire for “a track record of success”? Are we really calling solid results from a small sample size – fewer than 80 matches in England – “a track record of success”, particularly given none of those wins were in a grand final?
But let’s just pretend they did interview all these eminently qualified candidates and still found that Holbrook was the best man for the job.
How do to show their faith in the new guy?
They give him a two-year deal.
Two years. A shorter amount of time than Garth Brennan got – and a period of time in which Holbrook is expected to turn the worst club in the league into, well, not the worst club in the league.
Adding to the confusion is that the club’s CEO said earlier this week they expected their new coach to oversee a roster overhaul.
“There’s a genuine understanding, desire and intent from the club to have a long-term coach, a coach that can set culture and build a squad over a three to five-year period,” Steve Mitchell said.
So the club needs a five-year turnaround and they give the new bloke two years? What are they actually doing?
As for how they ended up deciding Holbrook was their man, well, that was because the club’s head of performance and culture, Mal Meninga, made some phone calls.
“He’s worked across all levels of the game so his insight and relationship network has been great,” Mitchell said.
“It doesn’t hurt to have Mal Meninga as part of the process.”
Mal Meninga with sacked Titans boss Garth Brennan. (AAP Image/Darren England)
I don’t want to take a pot shot at the most successful Origin coach of all time, but does anyone actually know what Meninga does on the Gold Coast?
During his short tenure, the club’s star player has taken a two-month sabbatical, the coach has been sacked and the team are anchored to the bottom of the ladder.
How’s the performance and culture, Mal?
As best I can tell, Meninga’s done one thing: developed another one of his cringey acronyms.
One of his first actions as coach of the Kangaroos was to create the RISE initiative – respect, inspire, selfless, excellence – which is a confusing hodgepodge of nouns and verbs that Meninga claimed “just happened organically”.
Now at the Titans, he’s got the organisation saying they have a “new vision, mission and values” – RAPT, which stands for being resilient, accountable, proud and trustworthy.
They’re called buzzwords Mal, and no one buys them – particularly not when the first-grade side are playing the way they are – even if the first letters of each do happen to “organically” form another buzzword.
Also, just yuck. Stop it, Mal. Acronyms are the worst. I believe his response will be that he lives the MAL philosophy: more acronyms likely.
Ultimately, after promising fans and members they would search far and wide for the best possible candidate to be their head coach, because the club is at a crisis point from which it may never recover, they got Meninga to make some phone calls, then they appointed the cheapest possible candidate.
It doesn’t exactly scream excellence. But, really, what else did we expect from this shambles of a club?
So, what do you reckon? Will the Titans be relocated to Perth or Brisbane?
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
Not a lot ...52% win rate over about 3 seasons ... Not only was he blessed with terrific players at both origin and Kangaroos he had expert staff laid on. My thing is WTF does he know about administration of a football club? Generally when a bad coach goes the players are happy & respond accordingly...so WTF has happened at the Titans .........methinks the players reckon Brennan was dudded by malingerer
Tom G
Roar Rookie
No idea why Manly is always part of a proposed cull... if they ever do that there’s no team between the harbour bridge and Newcastle... great idea for the AFL
mushi
Roar Guru
Sorry forgot where I was... Fire 'em all! I could do better (despite no elite rugby league coaching experience or desire to have the job...)
Dirk Diggler
Roar Rookie
Common mushi that's too logical mate
Don
Roar Rookie
What they really don’t like is the NRL investing in their own media and closing out the old school media. Buzz Rothfield and those guys who think they are the kingmakers in the game really are deluded. Angry and in denial...
mushi
Roar Guru
What Journalists, that have proven to possess limited ability to assess the game, may not be great evaluators of coaches. Well I never!
Larry1950
Guest
Absolutely right MORDAC I agree that Gus sold Brennan a pup, Peachey & Cartwright signed from the overrated Panthers on huge contracts when they had issues going on behind the scenes. Particularly that Cartwright business as reported at the least made you think he's not the type of character you want around your people. Then you get Taylor & Wallace as bronco benchwarmers signed for ridiculous money while Boyd was recruited as a big body when that player model was being superseded. The only one worth his salt is Jai Arrow & they've virtually broken him down with his workload already. Jarryd Hayne has a lot to answer for with his short but destructive Gold Coast holiday, and that's before he even gets into court.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
What did he win with Canberra?
Larry1950
Guest
C'mon Don that rubbish argument about 'anyone but the Broncos' gets trotted out by disaffected fans who either haven't let go after the BRL competition was lost or supporters of other Sydney clubs who don't like the Broncos and never will. Never worked with the crushers, they never drew a crowd after the initial novelty, couldn't recruit anyone worthwhile except aging near-retirees and were an absolute basket case. There aren't that many Brisbane headquartered corporates who would want to alienate the bronco followers for the sake of being a bit different, that's how it works. If the GC folds, it has to be a central Qld franchise with one of the large mining corporations as sponsor but don't hold your breath. Ipswich hasn't got any industry capable of affording NRL sponsorship costs, Logan has nothing, Cairns is itinerant like the Gold Coast so unless that Springfield development billionaire wants to waste some big money on a hobby then Qld expansion is a pipe dream. Look at the 3 QLD club positions on the ladder & you can see how the homegrown talent is already spread too thin. People like kids from the local district to get opportunities so relocation would be a complete failure. In addition, I reckon the Qld government might successfully sue the NRL for leaving them with a white elephant stadium built for the Titans.
Larry1950
Guest
Can't see why there's a fuss about the interview process, if they interviewed all those guys you mentioned they'd all outline a vision & plan to introduce accountability and give a spiel on their football philosophy and "the process", just like previous coaching failures have done. In the end what do you want a candidate for coach to say, I'd like to sack your current 30 when I arrive and bring in my own preferred squad, by the way, don't worry about payouts, contract offers, breaching NRL poaching rules and salary caps because it'll all work out. He's a throw of the dice selection and if they don't win the 2020 wooden spoon it will be a success, if they do it's part of the rebuild process. Raft will probably be appropriate as they'll possibly be looking for the life raft with a poor start to the season.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
One would suggest that considering the players response since the sacking of Brennan they may have liked the bloke. Normally when a crook coach goes the Team responds even under a caretaker coach...Never seen this sort of thing that I can remember. Possibly the owners & the Board have stuffed it badly ..... Meninga's roll as a good coach cannot be disputed with his time at Canberra Qld & Australia but that does not mean he also has an administrative brain to go with it. They forgot rule number #1 if you take on a Rookie Coach do not expect them to work miracles in a season. They really gave Brennan no chance in my book. 40 games a season and a half .....Considering the Klusterflog he inherited they were really generous I must say> My suggestion is that there were more problems in that joint than just Brennan because Meninga's coaching record at club level with the Raiders where he had a pretty solid team was only "Just" over 50% win rate and at both Qld & International levels he has had plenty of quality assistance. Just because you can coach a bit with quality players to work with does not mean you know anything about re-building a team and team confidence. Possibly they should have gone and spoken to Dean Pay who has also only coached 40 odd games, about rebuilding a team & team spirit with limited resources ...
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
you had better look up Mal Meniga's coaching record at Canberra then...
Dirk Diggler
Roar Rookie
Joe I think you're spinning a great yarn there with the idea of relocation. That's almost a side issue to the real issue which is the alarming drop off in effort & accountability at a club some had to make the top 8 this year. The senior players are just riding the season out by the looks of it. Jarrod Wallace, Kevin Proctor wouldn't have them in my run on 17 if I was coach. What a complete joke of a club, funny things started to go south when they signed Jarrod (Mr NFL) and then sacked Neil Henry. And what is Mal doing anyway.....other than overseeing the most inept, joke of a football team.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
A few thoughts: 1. Since when did the idea come into Australian professional sport (specifically NRL and AFL) that the team at the bottom end of the ladder needs to be replaced/relocated etc? Every year someone is going to finish at the bottom there is no way around this. It is the reality of sport. Even a significant period of time at the bottom shouldn't bring this question up. It is just so easy and lazy to write that team off and not only are the faceless keyboard warriors going down this path but even sports journalists. The Gold Coast (ironically both NRL and AFL) is the easy target current day but in the future it will be another team. Does anyone seriously believe that the geographical location of a sports team is going to make a difference to their performance in Australia? Relocating the Titans to Perth or the Suns to Hobart won't suddenly given them new players or magic powers to perform better. 2. Mal Meninga. No one can say a bad word about the bloke as a player. He was a gun. But I can't subscribe to the theory that he is some sort of super coach or has significant influence in his current role. He coached a Queensland side that any former/current NRL coach could have guided to those State of Origin victories. He was blessed with having several future immortals in that squad along with NSW being a absolute shambles at the same time. He then conveniently jumped shipped as the retirements started rolling around and Walters is now feeling the heat of having a genuine SOS battle year or year (which Mal very rarely if ever had). He has been at the Titans since the end of last year and the Club on-field is in more disarray then any other year since before his arrival. What is he offering? Why is his involvement not being questioned? 3. The AFL. The NRL would be basically handing the Gold Coast and surrounding area to the AFL (who are committed with money in hand) should they relocate or start playing games in Brisbane. The first option won't happen and the second is just as bad - you are not going to gain any new fans to the game or keep the current Gold Coast Titans members engaged having a bet each way playing in Brisbane and at GC. Can you imagine the marketing campaign if the Titans attempted option 2 above. All you will do is drive people away. There is a core of people currently rolling up to games when the Titans are at their worst but we have seen in the past that people will go to CBus in big numbers when the performance is good.
beepee
Roar Rookie
Disagree with the main thrust of this article. Titans would be one of the last teams the NRL would allow to re-locate. If that happens, they might as well run up the white flag and allow the AFL to completely roll over them. No - the NRL can't and won't cede that area to AFL, no matter how little success the Titans may be having on the field. For whatever reasons, the Gold Coast does seem to be a tough gig for professional sporting teams, but that doesn't mean it can't happen with persistence and the right people. Holbrook seems a reasonable choice given his record thus far, and the lack of any stand out alternative.
mushi
Roar Guru
Recruitment is like dating most of the time it doesn't work as intended. I recall a study from a couple of decades back that went through a multi national's recruitment scores and performance reviews. Correlation between the two was incredibly low.
Jerman
Guest
I'm not convinced Holbrook is the right man for the job! St. Helens were unbackable favourites to win the Challenge Cup, but bombed out at the Semi Finals to Catalans last season. Fast forward a month, St.Helens wins the League Leaders Shield only to fail again in the Semi Finals, missing out on a Grand Final birth at Old Trafford. If Holbrook doesn't claim the Challenge Cup or the Grand Final this season, I would be worried for the Titans. I hope I'm wrong, I want the Titans to be successful.
mushi
Roar Guru
The issues in the article appear to be management and on field performance. Not sure Perth (or any known location on the planet) is a magical panacea for those issues. When we talk about depth and expansion does anyone consider the front office talent in rugby league?
RandyM
Guest
10k at bankwest last night between two western Sydney clubs and people are calling for the Titans to be relocated/culled? like, are you kidding me??? the NSW folk wanting to Titans to die can p*iss off.
Billo
Roar Rookie
The relocation argument rears its head again. I would suggest the NRL relocating the following clubs out of Sydney. The Roosters, the Rabbitohs, the Bulldogs, the Tigers, the Dragons, the Sharks, the Sea Eagles, the Panthers and the Eels. Then at least my sport, which is rugby, would have a chance again in Sydney. In reality, the idea of moving out of the Gold Coast would be absolute madness for the NRL. And Holbrook will do a good job with the Titans, I'm sure.