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Des Hasler is at long odds to survive as Titans coach next year after it was revealed the club can sack him without a payout if the team does not make the finals.
Hasler’s stint at the Gold Coast has been mediocre with the team struggling to an 8-16 record last year in his first attempt to finish well out of finals contention and they are second-last after winning just two of eight matches in 2025.
According to a NewsCorp report, the Titans could punt Hasler midway through the season once they are mathematically no longer a chance of qualifying for the playoffs without having to offer a financial settlement.
Hasler is trying to ride out the team’s form slump and has dumped star forward David Fifita in recent weeks in a bid to get the Titans firing but to no avail.
They have lost five straight and travel south for Friday’s clash with the Knights as rank underdogs after Newcastle returned to form with a thumping win over South Sydney at Magic Round
“It’s all part of it. I’ve been here before in these positions. It’s called being in the kitchen when the heat is on,” Hasler said. “We’ve just got to ride through it.”
Asked how he planned to help the Titans dig their way through it, Hasler responded: “Start winning some games”.
“That starts this Friday, which won’t be easy,” he said. “They’re in a situation where they have had a win after a couple of losses. Five-day turnaround will be challenging.
“But we will get down there and give it our best shot. I believe in these players.”
Signed by the Titans on a three-year deal that began in 2024, Hasler showed signs of turning the club around in the second half of last season.
But they have started poorly this year, plagued by injuries with the coach also unhappy his team is one of the most penalised in the league for high tackles.
He pleaded with fans for patience as the Titans got their troops back on deck, while adamant the effort had been there from his side.
As to Fifita, the damaging second-rower has played limited minutes off the bench for the majority of this year, while also requiring pain-killing injections before games.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
He was relegated to playing Queensland Cup for Ipswich last weekend, before being sent to see a specialist.
A report also emerged on Wednesday that the 25-year-old had been shopped to rival clubs, less than a year on from his decision to backflip on the Sydney Roosters to stay at the Titans.
But Hasler insisted the former Queensland State of Origin star remained a part of the Titans’ future.
“Yep, big part of our plans,” Hasler said when asked if he wanted Fifita at the club long-term. “Our relationship is fine.
“Everything is good, everything is fine. We’re going well, we want to go better. So there are no issues there. Dave just needed to work on some areas and had to think a few things through. We’ve done that.”
Unwanted Roosters star Brandon Smith has fired a parting shot at the club as he prepares to make a mid-season switch to South Sydney.
The injured Kiwi international has already signed with the Bunnies for the next two years but he could be at his new club as early as this week as the two front offices negotiate the terms of an early release.
It is understood the Roosters will have to pay a significant portion of his contract for 2025 because Smith is still at least a month away from a return from major knee surgery.
Smith, on The Bye Round podcast, said from the conversations he’s had with his manager and club officials that he’s on the nose at the Roosters.
“Everything I have read so far, it doesn’t seem like I’m very wanted,” he said.
Smith said he was informed by the Roosters after attending the wedding of teammate Angus Crichton a few days ago.
“It was a very good time, I enjoyed myself but obviously the elephant in the room, on the way back I got some strange news,” he said. “It was a bit of a strange one. Something has happened overnight and my manager rang me this morning and told me.
“Nothing is official yet and we’ve still got a lot of things to sort out beforehand. It’s a bit of a surprise.”
Smith said coach Trent Robinson admitted the move was designed to save space in their salary cap.
“He told me they are trying to save some money. It was direct, but he was also pretty surprised by how it’s come about today.
“It’s gonna be weird going into training, They’re not gonna be able to draw up a contract overnight – so it’s gonna be an awkward one.”
Gold Coast Titans ace AJ Brimson has been given clearance to switch his rugby league allegiance from Australia to England, ruling him out of State of Origin contention but opening up the chance to play against the Kangaroos in the Ashes.
The 26-year-old utility, who’s played four times for Queensland in Origin and has played his entire club career at the Titans over seven years, has had his application for a change of allegiance granted so he can play for the country where his mother Vanessa was born.
With Australia and England both ‘tier 1’ nations in international rugby league, Brisbane’s Brimson had to ask for permission from an International Rugby League tribunal for the switch, having previously represented Australia at the World Cup 9s in 2019.
That switch was confirmed on Wednesday, with IRL Chair Troy Grant calling Brimson’s “a unique case” and explaining why stopping the move would be unfairly restricting the player.
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Explaining the clearance, Grant said: “A player who qualifies for two tier-1 nations had elected to represent one of those nations in 9s, and was therefore unable to represent the other nation in 13s.
“Yet the player has had no further opportunity to represent his elected nation in 9s, as he had anticipated, and has also not played a senior international match.
“The aim of the international eligibility rules is to ensure that the best players are able to represent a nation for whom he or she qualifies, but in this case the player had been left sidelined.”
It means he will no longer be eligible for Origin selection for Queensland.
There are no guarantees Brimson, who never played a Test for the Kangaroos, will waltz into coach Shaun Wane’s England squad for the eagerly awaited first three-match Ashes series in 22 years at Wembley, Liverpool and Headingley in October and November.
Brimson has plenty of competition for places at fullback or in the halves, with Wane able to call on players of the talent of Jack Welsby, George Williams, Mikey Lewis and Harry Smith.
If successful, he would join other NRL players in the England side like Dom Young, Herbie Farnworth, Kai Pearce-Paul and Morgan Smithies.
with AAP
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