Gold Coast are ready to stave off interest from rival clubs and make Kane Elgey a Titan for life ahead of the club's beginning to their 10th NRL season on Monday.
Official 10-year anniversary celebrations won't happen until 2017 but club CEO Graham Annesley believes the Titans are in a significantly stronger position heading into 2016 than they were this time 12 months ago.
A dramatically remodelled playing roster will come together officially for the first time when pre-season training begins on Monday with a key piece of the puzzle how the trio of Elgey, Tyrone Roberts and Ashley Taylor make up Gold Coast's halves pairing for Round 1.
The 2014 Holden Cup Player of the Year, injury handed Elgey an NRL debut earlier than expected this season and his promising and at times brilliant displays saw him spurn an approach by Manly to commit to the Titans for a further two years.
Elgey is one of more than 200 currently contracted players whose existing deal expires at the end of the current television broadcast rights deal in 2017 and NRL.com understands at least one high-profile club is ready to pounce.
A Tugun junior with strong family connections on the Gold Coast, if Elgey's rapid ascension continues its upward trend he represents the type of player a club can be built around and Annesley certainly hopes that will be as a Titan.
"Kane is a local junior, this is his home, and he just showed enormous growth and potential over the course of this year. We'd love to see him as a long-term player with the Titans," Annesley told NRL.com.
"We'd love to see a player like Kane be a life-long career player with our club.
"There are many different factors that play into that but we think that he's got enormous potential and with the addition of Tyrone Roberts and Ash Taylor we've now got a little bit of depth around the halves and I think we'll see those guys continue to emerge."
Eighteen players who were contracted to the Titans in 2015 won't be present when coach Neil Henry kicks off the 2016 season preparations on Monday with the most significant additions being David Shillington (Raiders), Nathan Friend (Warriors), Tyrone Roberts (Knights), Zeb Taia (Catalans) and Ashley Taylor (Broncos).
With room in the salary cap for an extra one or possibly two players in his top 25 squad for next season Henry is patiently awaiting any market moves and Annesley is confident they have assembled a roster capable of playing finals football for the first time in six years.
"We've brought in a good blend of experienced players and exciting young players," Annesley said.
"Guys like [David] Shillington in the forwards, Zeb Taia, Nathan Friend and complementing that with the ongoing emergence of Kane Elgey who is looking like he really has the goods, Ash Taylor who by all accounts is another potential long-term NRL player at the top level and James Roberts who had an outstanding season and we expect him to continue to show that kind of form and further improve.
"Neil is probably getting much closer to the side that he wants to have and that will be a continual work in progress in the coming years but I think the prospects are much better."
