AJ Brimson will play his 100th NRL game this weekend, but the game will mark only the second time he will feature in the centres for the Gold Coast Titans.
Beginning his career in the halves in 2018, he slowly transitioned into becoming the club's primary fullback before continually switching between the two positions.
Now, playing under a new coach, Brimson will begin the season in the centres for the second time in his career, where he is expected to spend most of the season - the first time being in Round 27 last year.
While he may prefer being able to play in the spine, his move to the centres allows new coach Des Hasler to play Brimson, Jayden Campbell and Kieran Foran in the same line-up.
This week, Keano Kini will wear the number one jersey, but it will fall back into the hands of Campbell after he makes a successful recovery from injury.
"It's been a long off-season, long pre-season, so it's getting around to the business now, so I'm excited and looking forward to it," Brimson toldย Zero Tackle.
"It's going well. I've been there in the centres now since day one of pre-season, so I've had a fair bit of time to learn it
"I've played their one half of Origin, and I played their one game last year.
"I think Des just wanted to see some players play in those positions, so it's completely new.
"In a way, I don't feel too much pressure but also in a way I do feel pressure but I'm excited to take it one and hopefully it'll be a good story."
Ahead of playing his second game in the centres and the first of the 2024 season, Brimson revealed that he had been learning from the likes of Brian Kelly and Aaron Schoupp, who were the club's first-choice centre pairing last year.
The positional move may see him play a new role in the team, but the connection will remain the same with his teammates as all the backs train together.
"We are pretty close back five there, and obviously, me coming off playing fullback and halves, I've got a good connection with all of them," he added.
"I've been asking as many questions as I can, but I'm pretty confident going into this season that I've done a good amount of work."
Eager to do well at club level, Brimson is hoping that the move will correlate to him having a breakout year in the centres as he tries to edge out Valentine Holmes and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to be selected for Queensland in State of Origin.
A four-time Origin representative, Brimson appeared in Game 3 of the series last year but was selected to replace Reece Walsh in the fullback role.
A proud Queenslander, Brimson spoke about what it meant to don the Maroons jersey against New South Wales and that in an ideal world, he would wear it three more times in 2024.
"Yeah, I love it. It's something that I aspire to do every year. Growing up a proud Queenslander, I never really thought I'd be able to play in the NRL, let alone Origin," he said.
"To put it on a handful of times, I feel pretty lucky.
"In a perfect world, I get to put it on three times this year."
