A Titanic task: Has Hasler been a Des-aster or are there bigger issues?

I have worked under Des Hasler at an NRL club so I know exactly what one of his so called ‘sprays' can be like.

The footage that emerged, of the former Manly and Bulldogs mentor, clearly animated, and seemingly beckoning players out of the showers, has been discussed in depth this week.

What happened, deep in the bowels of Leichardt Oval last Sunday, wasn't a Des Hasler spray.

Don't get me wrong – it looked a bit like one. I have seen it too many times before, him using his upper body to emphasise his gesturing arm movements, then the urgent need to re-arrange his fantastic head-of-hair back into order as a result.

Classic Des.

This particular footage allowed commentators and the keyboard warriors on socials to make their own sweeping statements about what it meant.

They ranged from “Des has lost the dressing room” and “you can't treat employees like that anymore”, to “Good on Des, that's what the players deserve!”

Opinions aside, what we cannot deny is:

1. Des was animated, looked angry and threw at least one expletive in
2. Players left what we have since learned to be, the showers, sharply, as a result.

To add some context, let's go back to late June 2023.

After a lukewarm start to that particular NRL season, the Titans parted ways with Justin Holbrook and, surprisingly to all, announced that dual premiership winner Desmond John Hasler, would take the reins in 2024.

CEO Steve Mitchell said at the time that the Titans didn't know how “the playing group is being brought forward” (under Holbrook), and that “we think we need a winner in place.”

A winner Des Hasler was, but that label is now being questioned after he coached them to 14th in his first full season on the Coast, and now to a likely wooden spoon.

Holbrook had the Titans in 13th in 2022, and 8th and finals the year before that. Des has officially taken them backwards.

But is the current state of affairs all Hasler's fault? Or part of the growing pains that a massively underperforming group of players has to go through?

The media soon speculated that the decision to bring in Hasler was designed to bring a ‘hard edge' to the Titans.

Des always had a hard edge.

Back in the Manly days, his sessions were intense, his approach was extremely thorough and conversations with him were often evidence of a man obsessed with rugby league and always looking for that extra ‘one-percent'.

One current club CEO who has been a long-time friend of mine and Hasler's once described Des as having ‘a bark worse than his bite'. On two occasions, as a (very) young coach at the Sea Eagles, I did things that weren't necessarily in keeping with the image of a coach in a high-ranking position in the community.

Nothing illegal, just loose and silly.

Des always dealt with me fairly, especially if I owned what I'd done, apologized and explained where I was coming from.

He didn't like it when I left Manly to head to Penrith, and made it very clear to me in a telephone conversation that could be heard two blocks away!

But he also listened to my side of the story, and genuinely wished me all the best moving forward.

So, he barked at me, but he never bit. And all players loved him.

Despite his toughness, he always attacked the ‘act' and rarely the ‘actor'. And that's an important distinction.

Fast forward to the start of this year, and I was getting phone calls saying that there was already something of a schism at the Gold Coast Titans.

Some players I have coached in the past have since played for the Titans, or they know ex or current Gold Coast players.

They were all telling me that some of the group were finding life tough under the Hasler regime and the way they were being coached ‘wasn't working for many of them'.

And just like the social media commentators, there were two distinct-camps in those phone calls; those who had nothing but love for the Hasler doctrine, and those who didn't like it at all.

What became apparent to me is that, for Hasler to succeed at the club, he needed time to be able to bring ‘his type' of player in, in order to build a tough, title-challenging squad.

Judging by results, there is a strong case to suggest he has exactly the opposite of that right now.

I have seen Des's attacking and defensive systems at Manly, at Bulldogs and I could see clearly that he was trying to put them in place on the Gold Coast.

You can have the best defensive system in the world but it's not worth a jot if players in that system can't tackle!

Tries scored in the NRL often take three, four or more sets of consistent or relative pressure backed up by solid defence. The best teams are good at building this pressure, have patience in their attack and reliability when defending. When it's their turn to defend, they control the opposition in and around the ruck and they keep the penalties and six-agains to a minimum.

Gold Coast Titans are almost the polar opposite of that.

As a club, they have turned a coach like Hasler into someone who is trying to prevent a wooden spoon. As recently as 2021, he guided Manly to a top-four berth and was regarded as one of the best coaches in their long and illustrious history.

Even with a roster that had some ‘gaps' (to put it politely), that Sea Eagles team was reminiscent and had characteristics of successful days of yore.

Yet Halser's Titans look like a team that at times, doesn't have a defensive plan. They make poor individual decisions, particularly on the edges. They defend as individuals, not a group.

Some of the players tackle really poorly or at times, not at all.

When the Titans lose some defensive rucks, they can lose them spectacularly or give away penalties. It seems all you have to do against the Titans is put them under a small amount of pressure and you will be able to run at some individuals trying to do their own repair work, away from a defensive plan.

You only need to witness how much better they are when Tino Fa'asuamaleauai is on the field, and how much they drop when he is off it, to see how constitutionally weak the team is.

There is no way on earth that Des Hasler has lost all his coaching powers since 2021. A little ‘old-school'? Maybe. A little loud at times? Absolutely. Lost all ability to coach a football team? I highly doubt it.

So, an observer like me then looks at the players, the recruitment and the ‘culture'.

There are obviously a few players in that team who aren't mentally tough when it comes to hanging in when it comes to defending the footy.

The Titans defence has been a problem for as long as I can remember. Even when they were winning more games!

There are patterns on the field, regardless of what the scoreboard might say. Winning a game by a small margin and conceding 20 or more points at the same time simply serves to mask some problems much of the time.

Back at the turn of this decade, as Holbrook took over, the Titans had a defence that leaked about 30 points-per-game on average. It's still around that figure right now.

When I think back to my time at Brookvale, it was obvious there were quite a few tough characters in the Sea Eagles first-grade team that went on to win two premierships in four years.

The kind of ‘tough characters' we are talking about were uncompromising on the field. They didn't mind defending for set after set if they had to. They were also the kind of blokes you'd introduce, with confidence, to your children or your mother. Imagine Jake Trbojevic, duplicated about ten-times.

In training and in their character in general, that kind of player doesn't take short cuts, they always look to be better.

They take their preparation seriously and they take harsh feedback from their coach with humility and a workmanlike attitude.

When we think of the Melbourne Storm for the period memorable to most of us, we can easily imagine, or we have read or heard, tales very similar to what has just been said of the Sea Eagles during the premiership years.

Craig Bellamy's video review sessions are the stuff of legend and apparently not for the faint hearted. Players like Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk, as well as being exceptional, got better and better with age.

And then there is the Melbourne Storm recruitment. How many times have Melbourne signed a player and you've thought “why?” Only for that player to flourish under Bellyache and his coaching regime.

I could tell you a few first-hand tales about the Storm recruitment. Their scouts have called me about players I coached three, four and five years prior. And they have called all the coaches who've been involved in that player's development since then, prior to calling me. The first question they ask is “what was he like at school?”

They are the only NRL club I have ever dealt with who go into such detail. Storm carry out a full, coordinated check on all their potential recruits and have done for years.

Both Hasler back at Manly and as Bellamy still does at Storm, recruit or pick players with the ability, mental toughness and cajones to defend for long periods.

They may hide one or two weaker defenders in their defensive line, but that is offset by the rest of the team being equivalent to defensive dogs of war.

The Titans have not had that kind of squad, arguably, ever. They definitely haven't had that kind of squad for the last decade.
They might show Des the door, and claim he's the problem. But is he really?

Or is an attack focused and hap-hazard recruitment over the years a big contributor?

A very astute judge who is close to Des, told me before a ball was kicked this year that “The Titans will either finish in the finals or get the wooden spoon.”

It looks like he is right on one count!

The fact that this was said before the season tells you much of what you need to know about the reliability, consistency and resilience of this Gold Coast Titans squad.

Removing Des alone will not fix this issue.

Lee Addison is a former club coach at Sea Eagles and Panthers and the founder of rugbyleaguecoach.com.au. His recently published book ‘Rugby League Coach' is available now on Amazon and www.rugbyleaguecoach.com.au