HE was never seriously considered for the recent vacancy on Nathan Brown’s support staff, but now Garth Brennan could be in line for an even bigger job, as head coach of the Gold Coast Titans.
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Reports on Monday suggested Brennan, the successful Penrith reserve-grade mentor who launched his coaching career in the Knights’ lower grades, flew north on the weekend for interviews with Titans officials.
Gold Coast are looking for a replacement for the sacked Neil Henry, and a host of names including Laurie Daley, Kevin Walters, Michael Maguire and Brisbane assistant coach Jason Demetriou have been touted.
Brennan boasts an impressive lower-grade CV, having steered Penrith to the NSW Cup premiership this season and an interstate challenge triumph against PNG Hunters. He also won a second-grade title with the Panthers in 2014 and the National Youth Competition grand final in 2013.
Born and bred in Newcastle, he still lives at Stockton and some felt he would have been a logical candidate when Knights assistant coach Kurt Wrigley decided recently to return to Sydney.
Instead Newcastle announced 10 days ago that they had added former Cronulla assistant James Shepherd to the coaching ranks, apparently because Brown was seeking someone with a “compatible” skill set.
Brennan left the Knights at the end of 2011 when, despite steering Newcastle’s under-20s into the play-offs, he was not retained by incoming coach Wayne Bennett.
Penrith general manager of football Phil Gould has described Brennan as “an NRL coach of the future”.
NSW Origin skipper Boyd Cordner, who played under Brennan in Newcastle’s under-16s, referred to his former mentor as “one of the best coaches I’ve ever had”.
‘‘For me personally, he’s a coach that you want to play for,” Cordner said in 2015. “He’s a real smart football coach.”
- MORE NRL: PAGE 37
