Improving discipline is set to be a focus for the Titans ahead of this weekend's Magic Round clash after it was revealed they are the most penalised team for high tackles to start the 2025 season.
A tally on Monday night's edition of Fox League's NRL 360 showed Gold Coast on top with 18 infringements for high contact; followed by the Roosters (17), Wests Tigers (16), Broncos (16) and Sea Eagles (15) to round out the top five highest offenders - Des Hasler's side having had four players sin-binned and five charged since the enforced edict in Round 5.
Whilst the Titans mentor disputed the published figures in his weekly press conference; playmaker AJ Brimson believes the revelation shows his side needs to be better at conceding errors and penalties to help snap a four-game losing streak, no matter what the final number of penalties should be.
"Discipline is definitely something we need to work on," he said.
"After seeing that, I didn't realise we would be number one in the comp. We need things to go our way at the moment and that's not helping us in the slightest.
"I feel some of those (penalties) you can't really control, especially when people are falling and they're hit low; but it's something to definitely address and keep an eye on."
The emphasis comes after the Titans were forced to defend with 12 men twice against the Cowboys on Saturday - the round featuring the most sin bins ever in the NRL era with 18 players sat down across the eight games.
Although aware they need to minimise their high contact with the mandate that has been enforced, the 119-gamer joined a number of players across the game to share the belief the NRL needs to reduce the use of the sin-bin for accidental collisions, given how much of an impact it has on the game.
"I'm massive on head and brain safety. I think it's the number one thing after footy," Brimson explained.
"You want to live a long, happy life but accidents do happen and when people are slipping and you genuinely can't control it, to go down to 12 men for 20 minutes like we did in the second half on the weekend makes life very hard to win a game of footy.
"I'm all for player safety, but it's frustrating when people are just making a tackle and [the attacker] runs at your shoulder. I don't know if any of [those situations] you can avoid.
"I think ones with malice or intent, I'm definitely happy to see them given 10, but complete accidents or ones that aren't even careless and you are just making a tackle head-on and they just hit your shoulder... losing someone for 10 minutes is pretty heavy."
Match: Titans v Bulldogs
Round 9 -
home Team
Titans
16th Position
away Team
Bulldogs
1st Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
A must-win Magic Round game against the Bulldogs who are missing a number of their key players including Matt Burton, Josh Curran and Sitili Tupouniua; Brimson feels his side have the star-power to strike a blow against the ladder-leaders if they can play for the full 80 minutes.
"It's been disappointing," he said when asked about the past month.
"Being up 16-0 against Raiders and 18-6 against the Cowboys, it's frustrating and it's almost worse [than being beaten from the start] because we're so good against teams early.
"People are saying Canberra are a potential top four side but yet I felt like we were completely in control and then it kind of flipped.
"Sometimes it's worse when you know you should've won those games.
"We're a confident team still and we've been showing that in patches, but we're not holding on for 80 and to lose the way we did on the weekend, it's upsetting."
