Consecutive heavy defeats haven't quelled Craig Hodges’ coaching desire as the Gold Coast Titans' search for their next head coach nears its conclusion.
In what is believed to be down to a two-horse race between Kevin Walters and Justin Holbrook, Titans powerbrokers have hinted that an announcement could come early next week and that they are confident they have the man to take the club forward.
Consigned to the bottom of the Telstra Premiership ladder for a further week in the wake of a 34-12 defeat at the hands of the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday night, good news can't come quick enough for the embattled franchise.
Given the task of guiding the side in the wake of Garth Brennan's sacking, Hodges remains excited by the challenge of the next six weeks, whether he remains at the helm or not.
"I haven't been told anything," Hodges said when asked whether he would given the opportunity to see out the season as senior coach.
Match Highlights: Titans v Broncos
"I haven't asked the question, I haven't even thought of it.
"I guess it will depend if whoever they appoint currently has a job that he's got to finish somewhere or what's available."
The Titans were confronted by an unrelenting wave of Bronco battering rams in the shape of Matt Lodge, Payne Haas, Tevita Pangai, David Fifita and Patrick Carrigan yet managed to repel the initial onslaught.
They could have scored first points but when Brisbane winger Corey Oates pounced on an intercept and raced 90 metres to score, Gold Coast were unable to swing momentum for any lengthy periods.
An assistant under Neil Henry when he was sacked towards the end of the 2017 season, Hodges remains upbeat about the challenge ahead.
"I'm a bit of a footy nut so I just stay focused on what we've got to do,” said Hodges, a former Broncos under-20s coach.
"For me, I see it as an exciting challenge. It hasn't gone right for us for a lot of reasons – and I'm sure people are happy to debate those reasons and have their opinions – but the reality is we are where we are at round 19.
"I see it as a very exciting challenge to try and turn that around by the end of the year.
"I'm not naive enough to think you go on a run and win six straight when you haven't even won six games all year but we can certainly get better at a lot of things that we haven't done right, and a lot of that is from Monday to Friday.
"A lot of it is our training and our preparation and pretty quickly when you start getting that stuff right it starts to transfer through to game day.
"But until we get that right we're never going to get consistency in game day."
