Some fans will know him as Mark, or someone will know him as Mini Jr. – but for the younger brother of the Minichello family, he has made the decision to remain with the Gold Coast Titans, signing a new 2-year deal with the club.
The deal will see Minichello remain on the Gold Coast until at least the end of the 2014 NRL season, and as the club’s most capped player, having played in 122 games for the Titans – Mini Jr. was pleased that he had the chance to stay on the Gold Coast.
“It’s good to get the deal done, my family and I are really settled up here on the Gold Coast so it makes things easy to stay. It wouldn’t have been an easy decision to walk away,’’ said Minichiello.
“Being a foundation player, I’d love to play out my career here with the club as the most capped player. Although I’ve been at a couple of clubs, it will be eight years at the one club and I feel I’ve played my best footy here.
“The pack we’ve got is one of the best in the comp so to be a part of that for the next couple of years, I believe we can really be a force in the NRL.”
John Cartwright, coach of the Titans, said that keeping Minichello on board at the club was important, as he is one of five foundation members, still playing for the club.
“Mini’ has been a part of the club since day one and he’s played his best football as a Titan,’’ said Cartwright.
“It’s been great to see him develop as a player and as a person over the past six years. He’s very thorough in his
preparation and that’s one of the reasons why he’s played so many games for the club over the past six seasons.
“We have a really good balance in our forward pack at the moment and it’s important that we have been able to keep the nucleus of the forward pack together moving forward.’’