Gold Coast coach John Cartwright’s time at the Titans is up.

After eight years in the post, Cartwright has stepped down from the NRL club, with assistant Neil Henry to take over after the Titans’ clash with the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium on Monday night.

The Titans are 13th on the ladder having won only twice since round eight.

They started the year with five wins from their first six games to be early-season pacesetters, but lost six successive matches through the middle part of the competition.

With his side facing the prospect of missing the finals for a fourth straight year, Cartwright called time on his reign with two more seasons remaining on his contract.

Cartwright admitted he was feeling “a little bit numb”.

“It’s a big part of your life and a lot has gone into it,” he said at a media conference on Tuesday afternoon.

“So it probably won’t really hit me until we finish the game on Monday.

“As a player, I was never much into doing things officially. I always met with the CEO when my contract was over and decided between us if I’d go around again … and we just decided mutually it was time.”

The 48-year-old said it was extremely hard to watch the Titans miss the past three finals series.

“We had enormous success to kick the club off, probably achieved that a lot earlier than what a lot of people would’ve thought,” said the foundation coach.

“The last four years we’ve under-achieved and, at the end of the day, that responsibility comes back to me.”

Despite standing down, the Titans’ foundation coach said he had “by no means given up on playing semi-final football this year”.

“Maybe I’m an optimist,” Cartwright said.

“I really wanted to be involved in the game this weekend and hopefully that keeps us alive for the semi-finals.”

Cartwright’s position was brought into question last month when the club began an internal review.

Cartwright had a distinguished 184-game playing career with Penrith and won the 1991 premiership with the Panthers. He also represented NSW and Australia.

Post-retirement, he served as an assistant coach at the Panthers and Sydney Roosters before joining the Titans in 2007.

The Titans said Cartwright would remain at the club in a non-football role.

Also on Tuesday, the club announced that Titans founder Michael Searle would step down as executive director of football and as a director of the board at season’s end.