With the Titans struggling on and off the field, Searle tendered his resignation as a director and head of football, while Cartwright became the sixth coach to part company with his club this season after reaching a mutual agreement with the Gold Coast board to hand over the job to assistant Neil Henry after next Monday night’s game.

However, both will remain involved with the club they helped bring to life in 2007 as Searle – the driving force behind the formation of the independent commission to take control of the game from News Ltd – still holds a 40per cent stake in the Titans and Cartwright has been offered another position beyond this season.

Henry, who previously coached Canberra and North Queensland, is now favourite to take over the coaching reins next season in a move that would rule him out of the St George Illawarra job and increase the chances of Paul McGregor being appointed full-time at the Dragons.

After failing to make the finals since 2010, Cartwright admitted he had little choice but to fall on his sword, saying: ‘‘I put my hand up, we haven’t been successful on the field to maintain my job.’’

The Titans are 13th on the NRL premiership ladder and have won just twice since round eight.

But results aren’t the Titans’ biggest concern as they are also fighting a losing battle with Gold Coast Suns, who are underwritten by the AFL to the tune of up to $20million per year and have been growing crowds, while attendances at Skilled Park have decreased  a third since 2008.

As a result, doubts have again begun to emerge about the future of the team  and Searle’s decision to distance himself from the club appears designed to help limit the fallout that continues from the controversial construction of the ambitious Centre of Excellence.

Searle, who spent five years with the Titans founding chairman Paul Broughton campaigning for a new NRL team on the Gold Coast after the axing of the Chargers, had already taken more of a back seat after the restructuring of the club following financial problems caused by a blow-out in costs for the Centre of Excellence.

‘‘Last week Michael Searle approached our board and indicated that he felt it was in the best interests of the club’s future if he stood down from his position as a director effective immediately and also stood down from his role as an administrator, as the head of football, effective from the end of this season,’’ Titans chief executive Graham Annesley said.

‘‘Michael felt that his ongoing presence was a diversion that was having an impact on the club and as someone who was instrumental in the formation of this club he wanted to make sure that this club had the best possible chance for the future.’’

Searle also lost money invested in the club and had been forced to sell some of his shareholding to new partners, including chairwoman Rebecca Frizelle, who paid tribute to the club’s founder at a  press conference in the building that eventually  led to his downfall.

‘‘On behalf of the board I think it should be acknowledged this is a very sad and defining day for the Titans,’’ she said. ‘‘Without the work of Michael Searle and John Cartwright quite frankly we wouldn’t have the Gold Coast Titans.

‘‘The work that they have put in has been selfless, they have made every single effort to make it a success. Carty proudly got us through to the finals in the third and fourth seasons, which was an outstanding achievement and I think we all must pay them the respect that they deserve for what they have contributed to the Gold Coast community and to the club.’’

Cartwright, who has been with the club from the moment the Titans bid to enter the NRL was approved in 2005, said he felt ‘‘numb’’ after tendering his resignation following a meeting with another of the club’s owners, Daryl Kelly, on Tuesday.

The Titans are under investigation for possible salary cap breaches but an NRL official said they were unaware of any links between that and the departures.