Titans coaching overhaul continues with Raiders assistant in sights
SHANE Flanagan has been overlooked by the Titans with embattled coach Justin Holbrook eyeing off Brett White – Ricky Stuart’s deputy at Canberra – to help him lead a Gold Coast revival.
News Corp can reveal Holbrook is in talks to poach White from the Raiders and be his right-hand man as the beleaguered Titans construct the coaching arsenal to hit back as a finals force next season.
Speculation over the composition of the Titans’ coaching staff has raged for the past two months, with NRL premiership winners Flanagan and Michael Maguire mentioned as possible assistants for Holbrook.
Titans hierarchy held high-level discussions about signing Flanagan, who delivered a title to Cronulla in 2016, but Holbrook has identified White as his preferred candidate to succeed Jim Dymock.
Former NSW Origin and Test prop White has been Stuart’s assistant at Canberra since 2017 and played a key off-field role in the Green Machine’s charge to the 2019 grand final against the Roosters.
Holbrook is seeking an assistant who can implement structures to fix a Titans defence that has leaked 608 points this season and White is highly regarded by Stuart.
Titans chief executive Steve Mitchell was tight-lipped about specific names but confirmed the announcement of Holbrook’s deputy was imminent.
“We are very close to having that finalised this week and by the middle of next week we’ll have them in place,” Mitchell said.
“We don’t have things finalised at this point, but we’re getting very close.
“We need to focus on a couple of areas. One is time spent in the NRL, intellectual property and our defensive merits.
“How we are going to improve around our defensive principles and the workload that goes into making an NRL squad that’s strong defensively. That will be a key focus going forward.”
There were fears Holbrook would be sacked in July following a dismal 38-12 loss to Newcastle but Mitchell says the Titans are determined to give their coach more support.