Gold Coast Titans coach Garth Brennan slams his team as ‘mentally soft’ after Sharks loss

“Dumb.” The tone of the sole word Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan spoke in the first 10 seconds of his post-match media conference said it all about how much their 26-18 loss to Cronulla at Suncorp Stadium hurt.

“DUMB.”

The tone of the sole word Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan spoke in the first 10 seconds of his post-match media conference said it all about how much their 26-18 loss to Cronulla at Suncorp Stadium hurt.

Usually chatty, Brennan cut a sometimes abrupt and certainly exasperated figure after his side managed to surrender a handy halftime lead against an already wounded Sharks outfit that then lost props Andrew Fifita and Matt Prior early in the match.

The second-year coach proceeded to question his players’ resilience and admitted there is no overnight fix to their tendency to crumble when the going gets tough.

Garth Brennan. Picture: Getty Images

He delivered several stern messages in a rare show of frustration:

■ “Our senior guys probably need to take a bit more control and our halves as well.”

■ “It’s just when the pressure comes and we have got the heat on us, we resort to dumb things like dumb penalties, hanging on too long, lazy tackles.”

■ “We’re mentally soft … and I don’t like saying that too many times. It’s a hard thing to hear and a hard thing to say. We’re not a soft football team in general but when we get put under pressure we don’t handle it mentally well at all and we’re mentally soft at times and we look for quick fixes, whether it’s miracle passes or kicks on play four instead of just getting in the grind.”

Tyrone Peachey came up with some poor plays late in the game. Picture: Getty Images

■ “We lack a little bit of leadership there at the moment.”

■ “Players have got to take some accountability.”

■ “We had some players out there that have played some representative football and just didn’t dish that up.”

Having slumped to a 2-7 record, defeat in Gold Coast’s next match against the Bulldogs at Cbus Super Stadium would all but end their play-offs hopes.

“Semi-finals are just not even in the equation at the moment for us,” Brennan said.

“We’re just focusing on our week-to-week performance. I know it’s an old cliché, coaches saying week-to-week, but for us it is. We have got to dust ourselves off.

“Hopefully we can take some lessons out of that second half and be better. I just don’t want to see us making the same mistakes week in, week out.”