Titans to make play for Storm hooker

THE Gold Coast Titans will use salary cap space freed up by the departure of Bryce Cartwright to jump on Melbourne Storm star Brandon Smith if he hits the open market.

News Corp can reveal the Titans are intent on securing a high-quality hooker for next season and have New Zealand Test gun Smith ( pictured) in their sights.

The Titans freed up another $450,000 of salary cap space for 2021 on Thursday when they released Cartwright from the final year of his contract to return to Sydney.

The club will farewell $4 million of their salary cap after next Friday’s final game of the season against Newcastle at Cbus Super Stadium.

The Titans have already parted ways with Leilani Latu (Warrington), Kallumwatki Kallum Watkins s ( T o r o n t o ) , Shannon Boyd d (retired) and d Cartwright (reeleased). Captain n Ryan James will ll join Canberra a next year while e forward Jai ai Arrow is headded for South Sydney. ydney

Former NSW Origin hooker Nathan Peats will not be resigned along with Dale Copley and Tyrone Roberts.

The Titans are now monitoring the Storm’s intriguing situation around club legend Cameron Smith.

Cameron is yet to announce his plans for 2021 and if he opts to play on, that could force Brandon Smith or Harry Grant to look elsewhere to continue their careers.

The Titans would be happy to secure any of those three hookers, however Brandon appears the most likely to leave.

The Titans recruitment manager Ezra Howe is heavily involved in the New Zealand Test set-up as Junior Kiwis coach and an assistant to Kiwis head coach Michael Maguire.

Holbrook has already secured three key signings in David Fifita (Broncos), Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (Storm) and Herman Ese’ese (Knights) for 2021 and the acquisition of Smith would give the Titans a finals-quality spine.