Titans coach Neil Henry has urged his humiliated squad to not only earn some personal redemption against the Dragons on Saturday but prove that the Titans have a prosperous future on the Gold Coast as the fallout from last Saturday's 54-0 loss to the Broncos continues.
Twenty-four hours after suffering the worst loss in the club's history long-time benefactor Darryl Kelly said that he was considering withdrawing any future financial support for the club only to back-track on those comments yesterday.
But Kelly's short-lived threat is not the only financial hit taken by the Titans this week with confirmation that major sponsor Aquis has chosen not to take up the two-year option to continue their support as they channel their energies into the local racing industry.
The Aquis decision has been in the offing for a number of weeks but the timing could hardly have been worse for the club as they plummeted to new depths just a week after falling out of finals contention with a listless display against the Wests Tigers.
Proving a hindrance to the top eight aspirations of the Dragons is not the only motivating factor for Titans players this week as they fight to earn back some belief amongst their fans and support amongst potential sponsors.
With limited depth in his squad and injury clouds still hanging over halfback Ashley Taylor (knee) and Kevin Proctor (hamstring) Henry was not in a position to make wholesale changes, preferring for the most part to allow the 17 that took the field last week to earn some redemption.
"Really it's about the same squad getting out there and looking for a bit of redemption," Henry said.
"We are limited in what we can do. I and the other coaches feel that they need an opportunity to redeem themselves as well.
"We need to resurrect ourselves there and prove to ourselves that we're a better team than that."
After the past fortnight's performances Henry's position as head coach has also come under the intense glare of the media spotlight but he has not shied away from any accountability, accepting that such speculation "is the nature of the beast" for NRL head coaches.
"Obviously things fall with the head coach, that's the nature of the game and I accept that," said Henry, who guided the Titans to the finals last year but has seen his squad decimated by injuries to key players this season.
"You roll with the good times and you've just got to hang in during the tough times but we all agree that it wasn't a very good performance at all.
"We accept that, it's done, what we can do now is react to it and we've got four games to go to play some decent football at the back-end of the season."
Henry also accepted that with the front of jersey up for sale and the club currently in the process of being sold to private owners by the NRL that the players running out to represent the Gold Coast this week need to show far greater pride in the jersey.
"We need to get results, we need to build our club," said Henry, who also trumpeted the re-signing of Morgan Boyle and signing of Manly prop Brenton Lawrence.
"Your sponsors want to see a team competing every week and a team ideally playing finals football. Certainly that's not going to be achieved this year but what we can achieve is some good performances at the back-end of the year.
"[Aquis] were a very good major sponsor for us and certainly looking to raise their profile on the Coast but I've got complete faith in our team upstairs that are finding sponsorship for the club."
