Titans looking in all the wrong places for a way out of the dark

It’s not great coaches that make players, it’s great players that make coaches - and the Titans better find some soon, writes MIKE COLMAN.

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Why all the fuss about the Titans search for a new coach?

It’s not a great coach they need, it’s a great player. Preferably two or three.

You have to feel for the poor old Titans this week. After months of being virtually ignored they are suddenly the biggest story in the game – and for all the wrong reasons.

Everyone has an opinion about who they should be hiring as coach, who should be on the board and whether they should even be in the competition.

The sacking of Garth Brennan has put the Titans in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Picture: Michael Chambers/AAP

Seems to me we’re missing the big picture.

There’s no need to close the Titans down or put them on a train to Perth, Adelaide or the Central Coast.

Rugby league exists because of broadcast rights. It doesn’t matter where the club is based as long as it provides around 35 hours of screen product each season and the Gold Coast is as good a place as any. They have a loyal fan base, a great stadium and in Keebra Park High School one of the best junior programs in the country.

What they do need is what every club needs, a genuine marquee player. Someone who can control the play, win a tight game and, most of all, set the standard for the rest of the team.

As for the coach, well, obviously you can’t have a complete muppet in charge but if you give him the right cattle surely that’s more than half the battle.

Many years ago I remember Russell Fairfax, who was then coaching the Roosters, being asked about the value of a good halftime speech.

What he said has stuck with me ever since.

“You’ll find,” he said. “That the coach who makes the best half time speech is usually the one with the best players.”

In other words, you can yell and wave your arms around all you like, but unless you’ve got the right players you’re just wasting your breath.

And over the years there has been a fair bit of breath being wasted down on the Gold Coast.

Except in 2009 and 2010. What was different back then? How come John Cartwright was a good enough coach to get the Titans into the finals in those two seasons and not good enough to keep his job four years later?

I’ll tell you in two words: Scott Prince.

Scott Prince led the Titans from the front in 2009-10.

In Prince the Titans had a premiership winning captain with the experience, talent and will to win needed to lead a team to the finals.

Throw in the likes of Luke Bailey, Mat Rogers, Preston Campbell, Ashley Harrison, Nathan Friend and Mark Minichiello and you had a side of professionals willing to pay the price week in, week out.

But Prince was the X-factor that every team needs.

The Cowboys had Johnathan Thurston, the Broncos had Darren Lockyer and before him Alfie Langer. Last year the Roosters had Cooper Cronk. Souths were turned around by the arrival of Greg Inglis and of course the Storm has had the luxury of Cameron Smith for 400 games.

Put any one of those players at their peak into the Titans for the past two seasons, supported by workers like Ryan James and Jai Arrow, and I guarantee that Garth Brennan wouldn’t be looking for a job right now. He’d be in line to win Coach of the Year.

Ryan James is the type of player the Gold Coast needs - as long as he has someone special to follow. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Of course one player doesn’t make a team, but the real good ones, like Thurston, make the players around them better and when the time comes to pull off the miracle play they’ll do it time after time.

Look at the end of the Broncos-Warriors debacle last weekend. Two teams had a combined six shots at field goal to win a club game and couldn’t land one.

In the 2015 grand final Thurston had one chance to seal the Cowboys’ first-ever premiership and nailed it.

Johnathan Thurston didn’t need a second invitation to ice the Cowboys’ first premiership in Golden Point. Picture: Brett Costello

Needless to say, players like Thurston, Smith, Lockyer and co don’t come around every season – and when they do they cost a lot of money.

The Broncos have thrown the best part of $1 million a season at Anthony Milford in the hope that he is that player but so far he hasn’t delivered consistently. The Titans went all in on Ash Taylor for the same amount and the pressure has proved unbearable.

But that doesn’t mean they should stop looking. The difference between an average team and a great team is one once-in-a-generation player and three or four “goers” to follow him.

The difference between an average coach and a great one is exactly the same.

Originally published as Titans looking in all the wrong places for a way out of the dark