NRL 2022: Justin Holbrook opens up on brutal season, how he can turn Titans around
After just avoiding the axe last season, Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook has lifted the lid on the pressure he faces and how he survived a brutal 2022.
Justin Holbrook has opened up about the toughest year of his coaching life, declaring he is the right man to stop the rot at the Titans and lead the Gold Coast back to the finals.
The Titans were the first club to kick-off the 2023 pre-season on Tuesday and Holbook spoke candidly with News Corp about the blazing pressure for him to be sacked — and why he can engineer a Coast comeback next year.
A playoffs team in 2021, the Titans crashed to 13th last season and when the Gold Coast suffered their worst loss of the year in July — a 38-12 belting by Newcastle — speculation was rife Holbrook was days away from being axed.
But here is, still standing at Parkwood, having dodged the brickbats and bullets, searing criticism which has not only shocked Holbrook, but fortified him as he braces for a perform-or-perish campaign at the Titans.
“We know we need a big pre-season,” he said. “I don’t want a year like that ever again.”
DODGING THE AXE
After the Titans’ loss to the Knights, Holbrook was rocked by reports he was on the verge of having his multimillion-dollar contract torn up.
Holbrook is contracted until the end of 2024 and had taken the Titans to the finals the previous season. So when there were calls for his head, the Gold Coast mentor says he was left genuinely stunned.
“To be honest, I didn’t realise so much pressure would come on me so quickly,” he said.
“I didn’t expect that.
“Considering we made the finals last year, I thought I had improved the club for a couple of seasons. We had gone from the wooden spoon to ninth, then ninth to the finals, so we were going in the right direction, then the media pressure comes and it escalates in other avenues.
“I am not shying away from the truth. The region and the fans thought we were on the way up and they feel let down. I feel responsible.
“It doesn’t sit well with me and it affects everybody in the club, but I believe we have the right structures in place for us to recover quickly.”
TITANIC FIGHTBACK
Holbrook accepts his restoration plan for the Titans must happen quickly. Another failed season, and Holbrook will almost certainly be jettisoned by a Titans club that hasn’t won a premiership - or made a grand final - since their inception in 2007.
“I was really happy the club backed me,” he said.
“I couldn’t control the talk (about him being sacked), but I was very happy that the owners backed me and we quietened the noise and got on with the job.
“That’s the reality. If you win games in the NRL, the noise stops and if you lose, the noise will get louder.
“But I got through a difficult year and now I need to get the club back on track next year.
“For myself, it’s been hard to accept. At every other club I’ve been at, I’ve always done well and improved the place.
“I’ve made grand-final qualifiers, I’ve won reserve grade and Super League comps.
“No coach is going to think they are a bad coach, but I have been coaching for 17 years and I’ve got results everywhere.
“The buck stops with me as head coach and I believe I am the man to get us back up there.”
THE SAVIOURS
Holbrook insists player morale is not an issue and says the recruitment of marquee buys Kieran Foran and Sam Verrills can spearhead a top-eight bounce back.
The Titans’ youthful playmaking spine was badly exposed last season.
Holbrook has addressed that by signing 32-year-old playmaker Foran, a 262-game NRL veteran who won a premiership at Manly, and Verrills, a classy 23-year-old hooker who tasted title success at the Roosters.
“No-one is disgruntled on the player front,” he said.
“Collectively as a club, we can see where things have gone wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.
“Inexperience cost us. We made a decision to go with youth, but the NRL is tough and when we fell a bit short early, we fell into a rut and we didn’t have the experience in the right places to get us out of it.
“We needed more experience in the spine. Having Kieran on board will make a massive difference and Verrills will give us the genuine hooker we lacked last season.
“When you are under the pump, we needed that senior playmaker in the spine to take charge.
“We had those 10-to-15 minute periods (last season) where we leaked three tries, then we calmed down and fought back, but by then the game was gone.
“The top sides don’t have those periods. That’s a learning for us and I believe Kieran and Sam will give us calm heads on the field under pressure.”
FIXING FIFITA
David Fifita is the Titans’ misfiring $1 million recruit.
The former Broncos young gun goes into the 2023 season as the most scrutinised player in the NRL.
Gold Coast sensationally poached Fifita from the Broncos two years ago to turn the Titans into a title force. After 17 tries in his first season, Fifita struggled this year, moved from back row to centre and even benched for three games - fuelling rumours he had fallen out with Holbrook.
The Titans coach admits he is partly to blame for Fifita’s inconsistency and has vowed to get the 110kg wrecking ball firing.
“We all have to play a part in helping Dave,” Holbrook said.
“It’s not all on Dave.
“We all get excited in the game on what he can do and then everyone criticises him every time he doesn’t beat five blokes to score a try.
“He is built for speed and power, he isn’t built for endurance, so you can’t have everything.
“Dave has to work hard on that endurance part of his game and he knows to play bigger minutes next year, it’s through his fitness.
“Then it’s up to us as coaches and the halves to make sure we use him smarter.
“We got caught in ruts during the year trying to get him early ball and the opposition knows it’s going to happen, so they get numbers up on him.
“I put him in the centres for one game so we mixed him around a bit and even changed sides of the field with him.
“All in all it’s a collective approach to get the best out of Dave, but at the back end of the year he improved when the cohesion of the team improved.”
NEW THREAT
Queensland will have another NRL team next season when Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins hit the big league.
They are another Sunshine State threat to the Titans and Holbrook says it’s crucial the Coast do not wallow in the shadows of the Broncos, Cowboys and the Dolphins.
“It’s good for our game to be expanding, but selfishly, you don’t want them to be close to your doorstep,” he said.
“No-one would want another side getting established nearby because it gives players more options.
“I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t worry us at all. It definitely does, but what we have been able to do off the back of not having a great season is keep players at our club and that’s the main thing.
“For me as a coach, it’s good to know players want to stay at our club and it’s a credit to what we have been able to do without success.
“It’s easy to keep players when you are winning every week, but guys like Tino (Fa’asuamaleaui), AJ (Brimson) and Jojo Fifita have signed new deals with us.
“The Dolphins will be looking at some of our kids, but if we control our club, get results and have the right structures in place, guys will want to stay here.”
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