Henry hits out at critics as rumours swirl

Gold Coast coach Neil Henry has launched an impassioned defence of halves Kane Elgey and Ash Taylor following reports they wanted him sacked from the NRL club.

Embattled Gold Coast coach Neil Henry has vowed to continue in his job and savaged suggestions Ash Taylor and Kane Elgey wanted him sacked.

Pressure continues to mount on Henry after the Titans suffered their fifth loss in a row in their 30-8 NRL defeat to Parramatta on Thursday night.

Henry dug his heels in amid reports he was a dead man walking and was set to be axed in the coming week despite having a year left to run on his contract.

The spotlight was trained on the Titans following Jarryd Hayne's firmly worded comments about the coach last week.

And while Henry denied the two were engaged in a feud, CEO Graham Annesley suggested there were broader problems at the club.

Henry's position appears increasingly untenable after his side's shaky 7-15 season but he said he intended to be at the helm when the club takes on Canterbury next Saturday.

"Until someone says I'm not," Henry said when asked if expected to be coaching next week.

"We'll do our reviews tonight with the coaching staff and tomorrow we'll look at some vision with the players, do our recovery.

"Hopefully it's not my last game at the club, I'm contracted and I want to stay here."

Titans skipper Ryan James angrily snapped at reports that Henry had lost the playing group and that halves Taylor and Elgey had threatened to walk out if the coach wasn't axed.

"You just say allegedly from an unknown source and you can say anything. It's BS," James said.

"I know that the media just came out and said it and I don't know how good their sources are because two young kids were rattled."

Henry launched an impassioned defence of Elgey and Taylor, saying the pair had been shaken by stories they were manoeuvring behind the scenes.

"Kane was really upset when the back page came out. He's said 'where's that come from?' He addressed that," Henry said.

"Ash Taylor said the same thing.

"You can fabricate a story, have no decent quotes in it, you can run it back page. You can throw it out there and it's my integrity, my character, my image.

"It's two young halves and you've put them out there and you've got absolutely nothing in there that validates that headline."


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Source: AAP


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