In what was a tough night for the Gold Coast Titans at Suncorp Stadium against the Broncos, AJ Brimson was the silver lining.
The fullback had arguably his best game of 2021 with ball in hand.
Brimson ran for 218 metres, which topped his team’s count.
That figure is even more impressive when you consider that he spent 10 minutes in the sin bin after it was controversially decided that he’d slowed the play the ball as the Broncos attacked the Titans line.
Averaging 159 running metres for the season, his round eight performance saw him well up on these numbers.
He notched three line breaks in the game, which doubled his season tally (six line breaks recorded for season 2021).
With the Titans attack humming early, Brimson scored a try reminiscent of his feats in State of Origin last year where he chased a bouncing ball, put it down in the in-goal and in the act of scoring finished the play with a tumble.
The Titans scored off the very next set and it was AJ involved again, this time put into space by Tyrone Peachey. The fullback handed back to Peachey who scored his sides fourth try.
Brimson missed most of the Titans pre-season after recovering from a foot injury sustained while playing for Queensland.
He’s improving every game and picked up the Cameron Baird Trophy in the Titans ANZAC Round match against South Sydney for his efforts as the last line of defence.
While providing spark in attack, it’ll be defence that’s focussed on as the Titans prepare for their next match with Coach Justin Holbrook conceding post game that this is an area in need of improvement.
“We are really playing as a team when we have the ball and defending by ourselves when we don’t have it,” Holbrook said.
“We are just individually trying to guess at what we should be doing and we’re getting it horribly wrong.
“It can be hard when you’re having great attack and it’s all happening well and all going good and then the minute you’ve got the ball you forget you have to defend.”
Titans fans will be looking for a strong performance against the Wests Tigers in round nine, but can take confidence that Brimson is returning to his best.
