Titans coach Justin Holbrook’s position is under “huge pressure” after equalling the biggest NRL comeback loss since 1998.
The Gold Coast blew a 26-0 lead to lose 28-26, storming out of the gates before they were left stunned at Suncorp Stadium.
According to The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield, three coach’s jobs were under the microscope at the start of the season.
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Now only two are facing the axe, and Rothfield believes Holbrook already came close to being sacked after last year’s 38-12 loss to the Knights in Round 16.
“There were three coaches under pressure at the beginning of the year, Griffin, Holbrook and O’Brien,” Rothfield said on NRL360 on Monday night.
“O’Brien is sweet, Newcastle are going enormous but Holbrook, remember back to that game against Newcastle last year, one of the worst performances I’d ever seen from any football side.
“I was told after that game he was gone, he wouldn’t coach this year.
“So he scraped through to keep his job and I think he has got a better roster than their position on the ladder would indicate and he’s under huge, huge pressure.”
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The Daily Telegraph’s Brent Read believes the club’s ownership will give him the chance to make amends after the loss and skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui slammed his side’s performance.
“Just the attitude, turned up in the second half with a s**t attitude,” he said to Triple M.
“We didn’t stop tries we didn’t want to defend our line. Just frustrating. Two weeks in a row, teams don’t do that. You learn from one week and then come out and do that again.
“It’s embarrassing. It makes you emotional, makes you angry especially on a day like this.”
NRL360 co-host Paul Kent also said the way the Titans threw the game away was “quite stunning”.
“He has to be (in danger), there was a lot of pressure on him at the end of last season when they underperformed and they started this year reasonably well,” Read said.
“But the last five weeks or so has been terrible and when you throw a game away like that, it is a real concern.
“That’s a game they should have, and need to win and he has got to be under pressure.”
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“They’d done the hard work to get there and the ability to throw that game away is quite stunning actually,” Kent said.
Super coach Wayne Bennett also approached the Titans to take over in 2020 but was knocked back by club powerbrokers.
Read believes that decision has come back to haunt the Gold Coast club, with Bennett’s Dolphins flying in their debut season.
“What that result on the weekend reinforces what a blunder the Gold Coast made a few years ago when they didn’t sign Wayne Bennett,” Read said.
“You talk about lacking culture and identity… if Wayne had been there that club would have an identity and a culture.
“He has done an amazing job at that footy club, I think they can play the finals now.”
“The Dolphins, they are eight weeks in their life and there’s already something about them, a bit of substance to them,” Kent said.
“Whereas the poor old Titans, they are still trying to find theirs 15, 16 years down the track.
“They’ve really become something to take notice of the Dolphins.”
