Hasler gives halves his blessing as Titans eye better start in '25
Des Hasler is confident his new-look halves pairing will go a long way to helping the Titans return to finals football in 2025, expecting the switch to compliment the modern game.
Ahead of the club's first clash of the year against the Bulldogs in Belmore, the experienced mentor has anointed running duo AJ Brimson and Jayden Campbell as the pivotal playmaking partnership to start the new campaign, which he believes will suit the new rules that have been in full effect since 2020.
The duo were instrumental in piling on the points against the Dolphins almost three weeks ago in the Titans' major trial at Redcliffe, putting the rest of the competition on notice and Hasler believes that will continue after what he has seen over the summer months.
"They're ready for it. They've worked pretty hard in the off-season," he said.
"The rules and how much the game has changed with the six-agains and the appetite for attack and repeat attack... you never know when that's going to happen.
"When you've got three people like Keano (Kini), AJ and JC, it should be interesting."
'We're thinking positive': Hasler
Gold Coast will go into their season opener will a near-full strength 17 after an injury-riddled start to last season saw them begin zero from six, but with X-factor trio Campbell, David Fifita and Tino Fa'asuamaleaui available from the opening whistle alongside another pre-season under his guidance, the Titans coach believes they're much better placed to ensure it will be a different beginning in 2025.
"You remember the start last year? It wasn't great," Hasler said.
"Some of the things at the start, you can't always control. We started without Tino (Fa'asuamaleaui), JC, Dave Fifita and Kieran (Foran) [in 2024].
"Those players are back, they've trained well and they've had another 12 months under their belt.
"We're thinking positive... there's been enough negativity over the last five days."
Match: Bulldogs v Titans
Round 2 -
home Team
Bulldogs
3rd Position
away Team
Titans
12th Position
Venue: Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney
Travelling to Sydney on Tuesday to continue preparations after the club's Parkwood facilities felt the full brunt of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, Hasler is confident the early trip south won't hamper their campaign, especially when put in perspective to what the rest of the Gold Coast and South East Queensland regions have endured over the past week.
"No doubt it's been a tough couple of days for a lot of people with nearly a quarter of a million [affected] across the greater South East Queensland. At Parkwood, more than half of our facilities are underwater, so we've had to make other plans and escape to Sydney early," he said.
"Our welfare team in Jen Cross and Tommy Vieyra have been very good in checking in on all the families to make sure they're safe and well and I think at this stage, we're past the extreme parts of it.
"The inconvenience isn't going to be too much compared to nearly a quarter of a million other people who in the last five days have suffered loss of property or damage to their property, being forced to leave their homes, affecting people's livelihoods and causing a loss of income and loss of work.
"[Putting that into perspective], it won't be that much of an inconvenience for us to head down south."
