Former Gold Coast playmaker Aidan Sezer has backed Neil Henry as a coach, but said his old club doesn't look like a happy place from afar.
Sezer played 71 games across four seasons for the Titans, with about half of those under Henry, before he joined the Canberra Raiders ahead of the 2016 campaign.
The 26-year-old said he rated Henry as a coach and felt what had been written about his former mentor didn't reflect his own experiences of working with him.
Henry started his coaching career in Canberra before joining the North Queensland Cowboys as an assistant 15 years ago.
His first head coaching gig was with the Green Machine, where he spent two seasons before returning to the Cowboys to take over the top job.
Now there's speculation his time with the Titans will end following a public spat with star player Jarryd Hayne.
Hayne's future with the Titans was also under a cloud, although he's signed for next year on a deal reportedly worth $1.2 million.
The fullback was ruled out of the Titans' clash against his old club Parramatta at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night.
"I enjoyed being a player under Neil. He's a very good coach, very tactically sound and personally I enjoyed playing under him," Sezer said.
"Most of what you read is far from the truth and far from my experiences as a player."
Watching from afar, Sezer felt the alleged feud between Henry and Hayne had been "blown out of proportion", but still didn't look like it was too happy.
Henry said on Tuesday he hadn't had a falling out with Hayne, despite the reports - which also suggested Henry had lost a large portion of the playing group as well.
Last season, when Gold Coast made the eight, they won nine of 19 games before Hayne arrived. Since then, they've won nine of 27.
"I only make out what I read in the papers and it's not too happy going off what I've been reading. It's a tough situation between the player and the coach," Sezer said.
"I guess it's been blown out of proportion a little bit, but I'm at the Raiders so I don't know what's going on up there."
While the Titans' finals hopes were over, the Raiders need to win their final three games to sneak into the top eight.
They face a hot Penrith side that's won six in a row, although the Green Machine were on a three-game winning streak.
Sezer said their "tough going" earlier in the season had "galvanised" the group at the back end of the season.
Sixth-placed Penrith are two wins ahead of the Raiders, but a win will keep Canberra's hopes of sneaking past one of the three teams on 28 points - the Panthers, Manly and the Cowboys.
The Raiders have to win all three of their remaining games to keep their dream alive and Sezer felt that pressure had helped them click into gear.
"We need to win. It's a non negotiable. We need to win to keep our season alive and I feel like we're playing a bit of positive footy off the back of it," he said.
"In terms of clicking I guess it is, but we've got no other choice.
"They'll be really tough. They've won six in a row now so we're coming up against a team that's high in confidence and off the back of a lot of momentum.
"They've got a lot of quality players so we've got our work cut out for us and it will be good to get back home in front of our fans."
NRL ROUND 24
Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Penrith Panthers at Canberra Stadium, 2pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.
Raiders want: Brisbane to beat the Dragons, Cronulla to beat the Cowboys and Canterbury to beat Manly.
Raiders: 1. Jack Wighton 2. Nick Cotric 3. Jarrod Croker (c) 4. Joey Leilua 5. Jordan Rapana 6. Blake Austin 7. Aidan Sezer 8. Junior Paulo 9. Josh Hodgson 10. Shannon Boyd 11. Josh Papalii 12. Joe Tapine 13. Elliott Whitehead. Interchange from: 14. Kurt Baptiste 15. Clay Priest 16. Dave Taylor 17. Luke Bateman 18. Michael Oldfield 19. Jeff Lima 20. Royce Hunt 21. Erin Clark.
Panthers: 1. Dylan Edwards 2. Josh Mansour 3. Tyrone Peachey 4. Waqa Blake 5. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak 6. Matt Moylan 7. Nathan Cleary 8. James Tamou 9. Sione Katoa 10. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 11. Corey Harawira-Naera 12. Isaah Yeo 13. Moses Leota. Interchange from: 14. Tyrone May 15. Bryce Cartwright 16. Tim Browne 17. James Fisher-Harris 18. Trent Merrin 19. Dean Whare 20. Viliame Kikau 21. Mitch Rein.
