** Queensland viewers can watch the special documentary Building Titans immediately following tonight's clash between the Broncos and Titans on Nine. Stay tuned for the inside story into the Gold Coast Titans' dramatic rebuild from 9.40pm!
It was described at the time as the club's "last stand" – the decision on who would succeed axed coach Garth Brennan at the Gold Coast Titans.
Having finished 15th, 14th and 16th over the period from 2017-2019, the club was in danger of going the same way as other sporting teams on the holiday strip and disappearing into oblivion.
The decade from 2011-2020 brought more wooden spoons (2) than finals appearances (1). Since entering the competition in 2007, the club has just a single finals victory to its name, a 28-16 win over the Warriors in 2010.
Successive top-four finishes under John Cartwright are a distant memory, although his successor Neil Henry took the club to the finals in 2016. Since his departure it's been all downhill, culminating in the disastrous reign of Brennan which came to an end midway through 2019.
Club chairman Dennis Watt was the man who decided to sack Brennan, and his comments at the time are now being seen as a turning point for the Titans.
"We're in no doubt that this is it," Watt said when Brennan was axed.
"This is the last stand, we have to get it right.
"There are plenty of other people banging on the door who would probably like to launch teams elsewhere.
"It's a tough business and we live or die by our results. That's it in essence."
Weeks later St Helens mentor Justin Holbrook was unveiled as Brennan's successor, a shock appointment to many who had expected Queensland State of Origin coach Kevin Walters to get the job.
Premiership-winning coach Phil Gould was one who had his doubts about the appointment.
"I think it's a huge, huge gamble – I like Justin Holbrook, great bloke and I hope he does really well, but that club that have openly said this is our last chance if we don't get it right this time around," Gould said on Nine's 100% Footy in 2019.
Fast forward 18 months and the Titans are mentioned as a genuine chance of making the top eight in 2021.
Nine wins in 2020 represented the club's best season since 2016, even allowing for the reduced number of matches, and the Titans finished just two points behind -placed Cronulla, on the back of five straight wins to close out the season.
With North Queensland finishing 14th and Brisbane collecting the wooden spoon, Gold Coast suddenly found itself as the state's best performed team, and by some margin.
A new documentary, Building Titans, explores not only the decision to sack Brennan, but the bounce back under Holbrook, with Peter Badel, the chief league writer for the Courier Mail noting the club was a basket case.
"I look at the recent history of the Titans, and I just see it as shamefully shambolic," he said.
"One finals appearance in ten years, two wooden spoons.
"Lowest membership in the NRL, poor crowds, (but) look at the off-field stuff.
"The drugs scandal in 2015, they were training at Southport School at the time, they get kicked out of the school because of the drugs scandal. They're homeless, they've got nowhere to go.
"They were Australian sport's train wreck."
Pointing out the club was effectively bankrupt twice, firstly in 2012 and then when the NRL took over the running of the organisation in 2015, Badel felt the club was fortunate to survive.
"If you were a patient, they were dead-set going into intensive care with the defibrillators out," he said.
"They're very lucky to still be here, and it's only the generosity of people like (co-owner) Darryl Kelly and (former chair) Bec Frizzell that have kept this club afloat."
But it was Watt's media conference in 2019 that Badel highlights as a pivotal moment in the club's history.
"(It was a) brave statement by Dennis, and an admirable one," Badel explained.
"Having covered the Titans since day one, the one thing I've been sick and tired of is people internally who lived in fairyland.
"They had warped opinions of how good they were, they were comfortable with mediocrity.
"If I was at the club I'd want mongrel, I'd want winners, I'd get rid of people who just want to have an NRL contract.
"That's not acceptable for me, you either be in with a crack and you want to win the comp, or you tolerate mediocrity."
Having turned the club around in 2020, Holbrook now has ambitions of going further this season, and taking the club to the finals for just the second time in 11 seasons.
"All of a sudden I think we've got a bit of credibility from the rest of the league, and that's important to me," he said.
"I don't want to be in the competition to make up the numbers, nobody wants that.
"A lot of people have said to me, 'now that there's expectation on you how do you find that?' and that's good, we're in sport, everybody wants winners and losers."
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