Gold Coast Titans chief executive officer Steve Mitchell has revealed the process behind Justin Holbrook’s sacking started months ago after the club decided to replace him with Des Hasler in 2024.
Mitchell was blunt in saying Holbrook “was released from his contract” instead of agreeing to the term ‘sacked’, with the Titans now moving in a new direction.
The former Gold Coast coach replaced Garth Brennan in 2020 and managed only one finals appearance before the ruthless decision was made on Thursday morning.
READ MORE: ‘All you idiots’: Blues star takes aim at Origin fans
READ MORE: ‘Clueless’ stars among roasted Blues
READ MORE: Chappell sticks boot into England’s ‘biggest mistake’
Mitchell said the decision had come after a forensic analysis into the future direction of the Titans.
“We’ve done a lot of review over the last 18 months building out specific areas of the program, looking at the roster, looking at our high performance areas, looking at the way we’re resourced internally, looking at what we were doing and we think we’ve got large chunks of that program right,” he told media.
“The piece that we don’t know if we’ve got right at the moment is how the playing group is being brought forward from an IP (intellectual property) point of view.
“We think we need a winner in that place, and someone who’s got the IP and been to grand finals and Des has coached multiple grand finals and what that brings into your organisation and the IP that leaves behind is significant and material and I think that time is now.”
Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on 9Now
With the Titans sitting ninth, which has been helped by having three byes, Mitchell was asked why the club decided to make the decision now and not let Holbrook mount a charge towards finals.
The CEO answered by stating there was no improvement in the side, despite finishing 13th last season.
“Now we’re at a point in time where we need to make that change, arguably we’re not improving, arguably we’re actually sliding,” he said.
Titans respond to Meninga comments
“It’s the back end of a long process of review and just checking and watching how we’re progressing and we got to an end point.”
Mitchell added the decision wasn’t rushed, and had been part of the review done over the past 18 months, while also confirming he approached Hasler.
“It wasn’t a rush … it was the back end of a long process that pretty much started at the back end of last year, it’s no rush,” he said.
Mitchell added that no one from the Titans has contacted Ben Hunt despite several reports suggesting he could move to the Gold Coast following a release request from the Dragons.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
The Mole’s round 16 Team of the Week: One Bulldogs player putting ‘tackle shy’ teammates to ‘shame’
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
