New Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan says his side can still be a force even without the budget of other NRL clubs.
Gold Coast's football department spending is among the lowest in the game, with rookie coach Brennan a cheaper option than many of the high-profile names also floated to replace Neil Henry at the Titans.
But Brennan, appointed on Thursday as head coach on a three-year deal, says his approach isn't reliant on an administration's deep pockets.
"I've seen clubs with a wealth of money behind them ... but that doesn't mean success," he said.
"Resources are nice, but you've got to be resourceful."
Brennan recalled his time as a junior coach at Newcastle, when players were using shipping containers as dressing sheds.
"It was tough, but we developed some good players out there," he said.
Gold Coast do boast a near-new $25 million Titans training and administration base, which means Brennan won't be giving his team talks in a shipping container anymore.
But he said his template for success hadn't changed.
"It's about hard work and making smart decisions," he said.
The former police officer said he had learnt how to handle people from different walks of life, and that had benefited his coaching career.
"You get to know the person away from football and find out a bit about their background," he said.
"The big key, whether it's an NRL player or an under-15s kid, is understanding their background and if you can, you can get the best out of them."
Titans chief Graham Annesley pointed to the success of North Queensland's Paul Green when addressing the risks involved in hiring a first-time coach.
Green won two Queensland Cup titles with Wynnum Manly on his way to an NRL gig, while Brennan has won two NSW Cups with Penrith.
"Every NRL coach has to get their first opportunity at some point and we hope that Garth goes on to reproduce the sort of results of other coaches when they first come into the NRL that we've seen in recent times," he said.
"Garth has an incredibly impressive record as a coach at levels below NRL and at this stage of his development an NRL appointment was obviously the next step."
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