Gold Coast land Titan

GOLD Coast has landed a recruitment coup, luring national team coach Mal Meninga to the NRL club as head of performance and culture.

Meninga was on the Gold Coast yesterday and will begin immediately in the role as he relocates with his family from Canberra on a three-year contract. Meninga will remain Australian coach as he balances his new role, which will include mentoring second-year NRL coach Garth Brennan.

Club chairman Dennis Watt said Meninga would be used across the business both on and off the field.

“To have someone like Mal Meninga, with everything that he has achieved in the game, be so excited about joining the Titans is a terrific show of faith and belief in the strength, leadership and potential of the Gold Coast,” he said.

But Meninga said he would not step on Brennan’s toes when it came to running the team. “That’s not me,” he said. “I have said on several occasions I have no desire to return to NRL club coaching and that remains the case.

“But working with the Titans — the youngest club in the NRL — in this role allows me to contribute to the game at club level with new and different challenges.”

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said a condition of the appointment was that Meninga’s national coaching duties would have top priority.

“Mal is required throughout the year to promote the game, providing mentoring and assistance to young players and to assist with the elite level of the game,” Greenberg said.

“But since there are no Kangaroos matches until the end of the 2019 season he will have capacity to devote to the Titans’ role.”