BREAKING: Holbrook to Titans confirmed

NRL’s worst kept secret is finally official.

JUSTIN Holbrook is officially the new Titans coach.

His former club St Helens released a statement on Wednesday night.

Holbrook said of his two-year deal: “It has been an extremely tough decision to leave such a great club in St.Helens. Since I arrived here in 2017, everyone at the club and the fans have been brilliant to myself and my family and we have loved our time here.

“Eamonn McManus, Mike Rush and the board wanted me to stay and did everything they could, which I greatly appreciated, but an opportunity to return home to the NRL is what I feel I need to do. It is very difficult as the only time I would get an opportunity like that is when we are winning and doing well as a club, which makes the decision even harder for me.

“I want to pay a huge thank you to my staff who are all excellent at what they do and especially the players who make coming to work enjoyable every day. The main thing for me is that I know the club is in a great position moving forward.

“Finally, with a Wembley Cup Final coming up as well as the Super League playoffs, I want to make it clear that I am fully committed and focussed on St.Helens and I am determined to lead this great club to the success it deserves in 2019.”

Titans legend Mat Rogers this week said administrators “are absolutely dreaming” if they think a new coach alone will fix things.

SIGN UP NOW FOR OUR FULL ON FOOTY GOLD COAST RUGBY LEAGUE NEWSLETTER

Asked what is needed of their next mentor, Rogers said: “I think he certainly needs to be pretty firm in his direction and with his confidence in what he is doing.

TITANS FANS TO GET COACHING WISH

“He needs the support of the board to let him do his job and he needs a leadership group of players that are going to lead the club.

“If you don’t have the answer to get yourself out of it or you don’t have the group of players that can pull together in that tough time, you’re paddling up stream really.

Live stream the 2019 NRL Telstra Premiership on KAYO SPORTS. Every game of every round live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14 day free trial >

“A lot of things need to change at the Titans – one coach is not going to do it unfortunately.”

Rogers declared powerbrokers must instil faith in the new coach to build a roster to his liking.

“The administration need to give the coach the opportunity to get to a point where he has got the team he wants, not the team they have put in there that are overpaid,” he said.

“I’ll never bag a player for getting overpaid because I was a player and I would have loved to have been overpaid.

Saint Helens head Coach Justin Holbrook (Photo by Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images)

But he said that when the decision making on salary allocation wasn’t up to scratch “then you end up in a situation where you have got a sub-par team that is getting paid more money than what they are worth”.

As for rectifying the Gold Coast culture, Rogers said it was concerning that while players tend to improve upon joining Melbourne, the only player he has seen improve at the Titans is Jai Arrow.

KING OF UNDERDOGS KEEPS TITANS TITLE

“Something has got to change and if they think it is just the coach, then they are absolutely dreaming. It is so much more than that,” he said.

“We need the Gold Coast to succeed. I’m sick to death of hearing that it’s a geographical thing because it’s not.

“In the middle of a Global Financial Crisis, the Gold Coast Titans that I played with in those first four years were doing pretty bloody well.

“We had 20,000-plus people at games, we were winning games of football and were overachieving from a talent standpoint because the culture was right, they had great leadership in the playing group.

“They have got to get back to that.”