They were the building blocks that the Titans built their club on and Scott Sattler has named five of the foundation players as his favourite players to have come through the club in the past 10 years.
The Titans will unveil their Team of the Decade prior to kick-off of their clash with the Warriors with only two of the current squad expected to be included, the club's old boys to form a guard of honour as the team runs out onto the field.
Along with Michael Searle and inaugural coach John Cartwright, Sattler was integral in putting together the foundation squad for the Titans, the trio operating on a motto of "sign the man before the player".
As such they targeted Preston Campbell, Luke Bailey and Scott Prince and Sattler said what they gave to the club went far beyond what they contributed on the field.
"They became recruitment tools. When we said we've got 'Presto', 'Princey' and Bailey as well, straight away they became a recruitment tool," Sattler told NRL.com.
"Presto was the first signing and he basically didn't sign a contract; he just said he'd come up. He was a man of his word.
"'Bull' Bailey was the best front-rower in the world at that stage and agreed on a handshake and never went back on his word.
"Princey at that stage was probably one of the premier halfbacks in the world. We signed him on the back of a Clive Churchill Medal, only a few months after that.
"From a start-up club you've got to have relatability with the community. People would walk up to them on the street and they would be really accommodating with their time.
"Those three burnt the midnight oil just to ensure the club was seen in a good light but also that their own profiles were seen as someone who was relatable.
"They were all great players but it goes beyond what they did on the field to what they did for the club and the community in the first three to four years. They went above and beyond."
In addition to the three pillars the Titans were built upon Sattler pointed to two back-rowers signed from other clubs who took their games to new heights when they arrived at the Gold Coast.
No player in the club's history has made more Titans appearances than Mark Minichiello's 173 while Anthony Laffranchi went from a premiership player with the Wests Tigers to a New South Wales and Kangaroos representative.
"The due diligence that we did on 'Mini' was that he was a fantastic trainer, he looked after himself and we got him at the right time," Sattler said. "He was ready to explode and our trainer Billy Johnstone was great for him.
"You could trust that he was going to prepare himself really well and you could trust that if he did something wrong in the game he was always going to work on it the next week.
"He didn't matter what you threw at 'Boof' (Laffranchi) when it came to training workload. He wouldn't complain, he'd just eat it up and it ended up making him into a player that went on to represent his state and his country.
"He never left any stone unturned and he just did everything right. He ran the right lines for his halves, he was always good in contact in defence and he always got offloads when you needed him to.
"He was one of those guys that was the rock foundation of the team that went unnoticed.
"He was the first player that had never played representative football before and came to the club and was the first legitimate representative player.
"I thought he was outstanding for the club."
