‘I want to be the best centre in the comp’: AJ Brimson sets lofty goals for 2024, Titans look to Des Hasler to fix defensive issues

The Titans weren’t one of the four teams in Las Vegas, but Gold Coast star AJ Brimson has vowed to go all in with his move to the centres, with the selection gamble set to pay off in a big way if new coach Des Hasler can get his key players to click.

Brimson concedes he’d prefer to play in the spine, but he’ll start the new season on the right edge with Keano Kini keeping the fullback jersey warm until Jayden Campbell returns from injury.

It’s a role Brimson has played just once in the NRL, but it worked well with the former Queensland representative scoring a try in the win over Canterbury.

“At the moment it’s going well. It’s probably something I have to reassess halfway through the season,” he said.

“I’m training really hard and doing everything I can, and as the games begin, we’ll see how it’s panning out.

“My preference is definitely in the spine. When I said ‘reassess’ earlier, it’s not like I’m trialling in the centre – I want to be the best centre in the comp this year.

“I’m not one foot in and one foot out when it comes to this.”

While new roles presents certain challenges to individuals, 2024 shapes as a defining one for the Titans under Hasler whose main priority is fixing their leaky defence and ensuring they don’t cough up big leads.

The Titans showed they have the talent to match it with the top teams with wins over Melbourne and Brisbane last year, but they finished down in 14th and with the fourth-worst defence.

They should have finished much higher, but they blew seven halftime leads and infamously lost despite leading the Dolphins 26-0, which played a part in why Justin Holbrook was sacked.

It’s why Hasler could be their most important signing, with the premiership-winning coach renowned for his defence.

“He’s got all the respect from the boys who all believe in him, and he’s got a good balance between understanding footy players and when we need to work and when we can let our hair down a bit,” Brimson said.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that we’ve been a good attacking team – I think our average points per game is comfortably in the top eight – but then I think we leak the top four in terms of tries per game.

“Des is a good defensive coach and we’ve got other defensive staff helping us, and that’s been the main priority.

“I think a big thing has been our ball handling, which has put us in bad positions, and then we’ve done that repeatedly in 20-minute blocks. We haven’t handled that well.

“If you look at how many tackles it takes inside our 20 to score tries, there are teams that were a lot better than us and they finished a lot higher.

“That’s because they didn’t make those errors which put us under a lot of pressure and eventually teams crack.”