Neil Henry sacked as Gold Coast Titans coach after Jarryd Hayne fallout

THE axe has finally fallen on Titans coach Neil Henry while Jarryd Hayne has survived, but is no guarantee of playing in Titans colours in 2018.

Neil Henry during the Titans clash with Parramatta at ANZ Stadium last week. Picture. Phil Hillyard

THE King took on his leaders and lost.

Gold Coast coach Neil Henry was finally sacked on Monday following a series of events that has left the Titans in turmoil.

Jarryd Hayne has survived for now, but is no guarantee of playing the 2018 season in Titans colours.

Titans powerbrokers wielded the axe on “King” Henry following five straight losses and the explosion of his feud with Hayne.

But it was a dramatic breakdown of his relationship with Titans hierarchy that triggered Henry’s downfall.

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Neil Henry has been sacked as Titans coach. Picture. Phil Hillyard

The Courier-Mail can reveal relations between Henry and key Titans figures, including chief executive Graham Annesley and chair Rebecca Frizelle, fractured over the coach’s attempts to distance himself from the failing $2.4 million Hayne signing.

“To sign high-profile players is a collective decision and I will leave it at that,” Henry said recently when quizzed on the reports.

The faith was lost with those carefully chosen words. When Henry issued the club an ultimatum to choose between him and Hayne, the end was near.

“This is not a Neil versus Jarryd issue solely,” Annesley said during a 19-minute press conference where he refused to reveal the reasons for Henry’s axing.

“The media has been focused very much on a head-to-head issue between Neil and Jarryd, but that was really just the catalyst that brought the issue to the fore and meant it needed to be addressed before we got to the end of the season.

“There were wider issues, many of which I can’t go into, that the board needed to consider.”

Henry’s battles to manage, and salvage, his deteriorating relationship with Hayne were the catalyst for his axing following three years as head coach at the Titans.

From there, Henry was a dead man walking.

The Titans looked at a 10-year coaching career that has yielded 108 wins from 248 games (43.5 per cent) and included just one finals win.

Henry’s tenure at the Titans, which began late in 2014 when he replaced foundation coach John Cartwright, saw him win 28 of 75 games (37 per cent).

Then there were the dreadful defeats in recent weeks.

A loss to the Panthers saw them walking a finals tightrope, only to be blown away by the lowly Wests Tigers at home.

The cracks widened when the Titans suffered their biggest ever loss — a 54-0 drubbing by the Broncos — thrusting Henry’s future firmly into the spotlight.

Jarryd Hayne’s future at the Titans remains unclear.

The players predictably praised Henry’s coaching, but privately the Titans discovered unrest among the group.

His recruitment decisions, including churning through 72 players since the end of 2014, and a lack of leadership within the squad Henry had assembled were questioned by management.

The board got their ducks in a row during a secret meeting on Saturday, before Annesley fired the fatal shot on Monday morning after Henry had coached his final training session.

“This issue wasn’t raised by Jarryd. It was raised a week before (after the Broncos loss),” Titans board member and prospective owner Darryl Kelly said.

“Jarryd’s only made one public comment and that was the week after this issue was raised. Let’s make that perfectly clear.

“The issues that have risen this year, highlighted by the events in the last two weeks, have made us consider our position.”

Henry will be remembered as another coach that fell while coaching the enigmatic Hayne, but the reasons for his axing run much deeper than a scandalous feud between a coach and his star player.

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