Des Hasler’s ‘tactic’ in sheds catches Cooper Cronk’s eye

Titans coach Des Hasler faced his players after being thumped by the Dragons and Cooper Cronk spotted something intriguing.

Des Hasler speaks to the Titans players.

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui did not hide his disappointment after the Gold Coast’s 28-4 opening season loss to the Dragons, describing the Titans’ performance as “quite embarrassing”.

But as much as it looks like little has changed since their 14th place finish last year, the sight of Des Hasler calmly addressing the playing group in the sheds after fulltime may suggest otherwise.

With that in mind, premiership-winning halfback Cooper Cronk says it will be “interesting” to see how the Gold Coast’s young squad responds to the veteran coach’s new approach.

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Titans fans got an early glimpse of that approach on Saturday night as Hasler left the players to reflect on the 24-point loss for a few minutes before giving his thoughts on the game.

It was a subtle touch but one that caught the attention of Cronk, who was coached by two of the brightest minds in the game in Craig Bellamy and Trent Robinson during his career.

“I’ve never been coached by Des but that little tactic there where he just allowed the players to sit there for five minutes by themselves and he’s sitting there reading stats, which I’m guessing they might be, and now he sits there with his arms folded and eyeballs each and everyone of them in the room,” Cronk said on Fox League.

Des Hasler speaks to the Titans players.

“It’s interesting for this young Titans team who probably haven’t experienced a coach like Des Hasler before. He has a great rapport with his players historically and he’s a defence-minded coach. I thought they did a decent job in the first 40 minutes but their attack let them down.”

The Titans actually had a high completion rate (84 per cent) but missed 42 tackles in the defeat while also converting 52 tackles in the Dragons’ 20 into just one try.

The calming presence of experienced playmaker Kieran Foran was sorely missed, with the 33-year-old sidelined by what the Titans described as a “minor lower limb injury”.

“You think about if there’s a lieutenant of Des Hasler it’s been Kieran for a long time,” Cronk added.

“He would have been able to walk through the inexperienced spine with all that attacking football and set them up. Kini has got a little bit of sharp to him, I think he’s someone you can build on and I thought Sam Verrills did an OK job when he came on.

“But I think those two young halves needed Kieran Foran to guide them around.”

Fa’asuamaleaui, meanwhile, continues to prove himself one of the league’s best young captains as the 24-year-old refused to make excuses in a damning assessment of Saturday’s performance.

“It’s disappointing that we’ve started the year like that,” Fa’asuamaleaui told Fox League.

“It’s quite embarrassing, to be honest. I was backing the boys, I was backing our defence. But then we had a few penalties and a few errors, and it just grew and grew and we couldn’t stop it.

“It’s very tough, you work so hard during the pre-season, and I know it’s only round one, but you expect to win and you expect to show good defence, and we just didn’t do that.

“It’s very frustrating.”

Hasler, meanwhile, stressed that it was “only the first game” in his press conference but conceded it was a “disappointing” first hit-out for the season.

“It wasn’t the start we wanted,” Hasler said.

“It was a game where the two halves were played on huge swings of possession. It was disappointing.

“They came up with some big defensive plays and try-savers. We made too many errors.”

Originally published as Des Hasler’s ‘tactic’ in sheds catches Cooper Cronk’s eye