Cashed up Gold Coast Titans drop out of race for Johnathan Thurston The Titans are out of the race to sign Johnathan Thurston. THE Titans have withdrawn from the race to sign Johnathan Thurston after holding internal discussions about bringing the Queensland star to the Gold Coast to solve their playmaking conundrum. News Limited can reveal Gold Coast hierarchy privately canvassed the merits of a big-money bid for Thurston as a replacement for skipper Scott Prince, who joined the Broncos after a messy split with the Titans in November. Off-contract at season's end, Thurston heads a coterie of high-profile playmakers who are free agents for 2014, giving cashed-up clubs like the Titans a prime opportunity to beef up their scrumbase stocks in the coming months. Rarely has the NRL player market featured so many quality off-contract halves at the one time. Cowboys maestro Thurston aside, NSW Origin duo Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce, Brisbane's Corey Norman, the Dragons' Jamie Soward, Cowboys young gun Michael Morgan and Manly centre or pivot Jamie Lyon are still unsigned for 2014. Having missed out on backline targets Michael Jennings and Lyon in the past fortnight, the Titans are cashed-up and may shift their recruitment focus for fresh playmaking options if rising triumvirate Albert Kelly, Jordan Rankin and Beau Henry fail to fire at halfback this season. Thurston was one name mentioned to coach John Cartwright, but his $1 million-plus price tag was too exorbitant for a Titans club already boasting big-money stars Jamal Idris, Dave Taylor, Greg Bird and Nate Myles. Titans boss David May confirmed the interest in Thurston, but said the club was prepared to show faith in the unproven Kelly, Rankin and Henry in the post-Prince era. "I'd be lying if I said we haven't had discussions about signing Johnathan Thurston," May said. Internally, yes, we've talked about it, but when it comes to forking out $1.2 million a season for a player ... we just can't pay that. The challenge we've got is the sort of money that is being thrown around for Johnathan and that is the level we needed to be at. To be honest, the figures being reported (for Thurston) are more than we are prepared to spend on a player. Johnathan is unlikely to happen for us. As much as we rate him as a human being, and a number of people know him at this club and think the world of him, I don't think he's for us for next year. While NSW Origin hopeful Aidan Sezer was a revelation at five-eighth last season, there are fears the Titans could lack creative punch and be rendered rudderless without Prince's premiership-winning nous. Henry has played just 10 top-grade games and battled injury since his arrival from Newcastle, while Kelly's 14 matches have been marred by a series of off-field sagas that saw him axed by Parramatta and Cronulla. The 21-year-old Rankin, meanwhile, has played 15 games in five seasons and struggled to live up to his wonderboy tag since being pitchforked into the NRL as a 16-year-old in 2008. May is acutely aware of the available playmaking talent but wants to see how the Titans' halves respond to the challenge before deciding whether to raid the player market. "We really want to give them a go, the reality is we want to find our own Daly Cherry-Evans, that's what the system is there for," the Titans boss said. We are going to sit tight for a little while, clearly we want the best players here. Our recruitment has to be logical, methodical and planned and for a club like us we have to weigh up the investment decisions we make. At some point you have to have faith in your youth system and that's where we are at right now. I've looked at the list of off-contract playmakers and there is a lot of creative talent available, certainly more than there was the year previous. Everybody wants to have success, but sometimes buying isn't the only way. We have an obligation to give guys like Albert Kelly and Jordan the chance to make the No.7 jumper theirs ... if we tell them we are in the market for another halfback that doesn't help their confidence. There are certainly a number of guys available. But we're giving the three guys a chance to step up ... we want to see how our halves go before we look at the market. Brisbane five-eighth Norman is one playmaker on the Titans' doorstep, but the Broncos are sure to fight hard to retain the Beenleigh junior. "I'm a Logan boy so if I can stay at the Broncos it would be great," Norman said. I'm off-contract at the end of this season, so we'll see what happens. I learned some lessons last year so I need to play some good football. Kelly, thrown a lifeline by the Titans, recently revealed he faced a make-or-break season on the holiday strip. I'm just going to make the most of it. I just want to get in there and try my hardest and put it all in so I can get a first-grade crack," he said. I'm putting loads of pressure on myself (to succeed here). I'm not going to leave any stone unturned, I'm just going put everything in.