Hasler to retire? He must stand down now

Corey Parker has called for Des Hasler to step down as Gold Coast Titans coach if rumours of his looming retirement prove to be true.

With 10 defeats in 14 games, the Titans’ season is well and truly off the rails, and they sit firmly at the bottom of the NRL ladder.

Hasler was brought into the club at the start of the 2024 season, charged with turning their fortunes around and developing the playing group into a competitive force.

In his first season the team finished 14th - they had been ninth under former coach Justin Holbrook.

Parker said now is the time to cut things loose.

“There has been some talk about Des Hasler and that he is potentially going to retire at the end of the season,” he said on SENQ Breakfast. “If that is true, then Dessie needs to go now.

“If he is going to retire, he needs to go now.

“Only Des and management will know if he is going to go and they bring in someone with the credentials to take over or Jim Lenihan. There is no upside if he is going to go.”

A 30-point loss to the Broncos and 16-point defeat at the hands of the Eels marked their eighth and ninth defeat in 10 weeks and left Hasler to explain why he should remain in charge.

Asked if there is truth to his job being under threat, the 64-year-old said: “No, they’re just whispers, mate. It’s just rumour and innuendo.

“I don’t know if there’s speculation that’s been reported, but obviously, sitting in last position that we don’t want to be in.

“We thought coming in like it’s very tight there at the bottom. In those sides, it’s pretty congested.”

Echoing Parker’s thoughts was Courier Mail NRL journalist Travis Meyn who joined the former Broncos star and Ian Healy on the breakfast show.

“Maybe they should just cut ties,” he said. “The noise is getting louder and louder. If they’re planning to move him out at the end of the year just cut him out, it’s another failed experiment.

“There’s a soft underbelly at the club, Des was meant to fix that but it takes more than a coach to fix that.”

__Breakfast with Corey Parker & Ian Healy – Monday to Friday from 6am-9am – LIVE on Brisbane’s SENQ 693am and the SEN app __ __Sacking whispers about Des should be drums - Parker June 23 __

Let’s try and boil this down. I like Des Hasler, I do, but I'm sorry, the experiment is not working.

Justin Holbrook was sacked and he was sitting ninth in the competition at that point in time with a host of wins under his belt and a tight comp.

The Gold Coast Titans at the moment are a basket case and that is being nice.

Last week they play the Manly Sea Eagles. DCE gets dropped, Tom Trbojevic is back in the side and you sort of think, ‘oh, boy Manly are going to get a victory here’.

The Titans come out and dust them.

(So) You go into this game (against the Eels) with a bit of confidence.

They get their Origin players back – six Origin players and a Test player.

Now the Origin players; AJ Brimson played Origin before, Reagan Campbell-Gillard played Origin before, Fermor is current Origin, Tino, current Origin player, Moeaki Fotuaika current Origin player, Phillip Sami played Origin before and Kieran Foran - Test player.

Now that's seven all up in terms of their quality. Yes, they lost their halfback but they go down there and they take on Parramatta Eels who are without their halfback, Mitch Moses, and they do not even look like it.

One of the great throwaway lines from a coach's point of view is when they go, ‘oh, you know, he's had far too many handling errors, and, you know, really cost us’.

I'll buy that if it's true, but for me the handling errors - they completed at 84% that's exceptional in the modern day.

So in the first half they had two errors, in the second half they had three errors. They're very, very good with their error rate.

So here's a team that play east west and they throw the ball around from coast to coast, etc. They are miles off at the moment and they are anchored to the bottom of the table.

They sit 17th in the competition they’ve had two byes.

Des was brought to the club to change what has been one of their downfalls - that being the resilience and their ability to stay in the fight and compete for long periods of time.

The question here is, Des has been asked, is he hearing whispers? Oh boy, it’s drums.

We heard from the board just not so long ago saying his job's safe and normally when that happens, you're under enormous amounts of pressure, and you're out the door.

The roster could probably do a little overhaul from different points., there could be a few different things that are unfolding there, but at the minute, they are in a world of hurt.