Former South Sydney coach Michael Maguire has added another twist to the Gold Coast coaching saga by revealing he will only contemplate joining the club once the ownership situation has been clarified.
Maguire has been consistently linked with the vacant Titans coaching job since the sacking of Neil Henry and has confirmed he had explored the position.
However, uncertainty over the Titans’ ownership threatens to drive Maguire away.
The Gold Coast licence is on the market and the NRL has been actively pursuing a sale, with the franchise likely to be in the hands of private owners by the end of the month.
If the Titans follow their timeline for finding a new coach, which they submitted and had approved by the NRL, a decision on Henry’s replacement will be made before the licence is sold.
If that is the case, Maguire will not countenance taking the job given there will be no certainty over the club’s future or its finances.
“I explored the situation but I will not be part of a club without knowing the owner and their version of success,” Maguire said.
Reports in recent days have suggested Maguire is among the final contenders for the position — Brisbane assistant Jason Demetriou and Manly coach Trent Barrett have also been linked with the post, along with current assistant Craig Hodges.
Of the three, Demetriou and Hodges appear the most realistic options given Barrett has another year remaining on his deal with the Sea Eagles.
Manly are locked in talks over extending Barrett’s current contract and chairman Scott Penn confirmed this week that he was hopeful a deal would get done, although it is understood the coach’s management is demanding a significant increase in his salary.
Asked about talk of Gold Coast interest in their coach — Barrett is believed to have held talks with Titans officials — Penn insisted he was not concerned. The other factor weighing against Barrett’s departure from Manly is the look for the game.
The Titans are currently in NRL hands and there possibly would be an uproar if a club owned by the governing body convinced a rival coach to leave his contract a year early.
Maguire shapes as the most proven option but his concerns are well founded given the Titans have existed on the smell of an oily rag in recent seasons. The club’s football department spend is among the lowest in the game and the change in ownership has the potential to dramatically alter the landscape by giving the club the power to compete on a financial level with their rivals.
It is understood there are four consortiums in the mix to buy the licence, although two are considered the most viable options.
One is the consortium involving former Titans chair Rebecca Frizelle and board member Darryl Kelly. Their group is considered the most likely to secure the licence given they are Gold Coast-based and Kelly is a former shareholder, having lost several million dollars when the club originally collapsed.
The other group in the thick of negotiations is the consortium involving the North Sydney Bears. Their group is headed by private equiteer Peter Wiggs and includes Gold Coast-based businessman Harry Cheung.
Their plan is to play one or possibly two games in Sydney each year, with the remainder to stay on the Gold Coast. The issue with their bid is that it would involve a change of name and colours, and the NRL is reluctant to tinker with those aspects given the number of faces the club has already had.
A decision is expected to be made by the NRL before the end of the month, meaning the new owners can take charge when the rugby league financial year starts on November 1.
That date also signals the beginning of the new funding arrangement struck between the clubs and the ARL Commission. Under the deal, clubs will receive funding from Rugby League Central equivalent to 30 per cent of total player payments up to $13 million a year.
Along with the cap on football department spending, which will be phased in over the next three years, the Titans should at worst break even.
It is understood the Kelly-Frizelle bid to secure the licence will also work towards putting in place external revenue streams for the club.
The Titans are the only club yet to hire a coach for next season and the sense of urgency around the appointment is being driven to a large extent by the impending return of the players as they begin pre-season training as well as contract talks with star half Ashley Taylor.
Taylor is off contract at the end of next season and rival interest is likely to mean the young half secures a contract in the vicinity of $1 million a season.