Gold Coast Titans reveal bizarre Des Hasler punishment for players in NRL training

Titans winger Jojo Fifita believes some tough love in training by Des Hasler has helped him establish himself in the NRL. The 21-year-old has been a revelation in recent weeks and was paramount in Gold Coast's 20-18 win over North Queensland on Sunday, where he ran for 156m, scored a try and showed safe hands under numerous high bombs.

The Titans have won two of their past five games and lost the others by four points or less to sit just four points outside the top eight ahead of Saturday's clash with Newcastle. And Fifita places most of the credit for his recent confidence boost and the club's uptick in success to an unorthodox Hasler training method.

"He's been bringing out the pool noodles and hitting us when we are jumping up for the high balls at training. Training is a bit different but it is good for a change," Fifita said. "He will go for your head, go for your body and go for your bum. It is anywhere. It is pretty good.

"He is pretty much swinging a baseball bat when he is trying to hit us. He is trying to hurt us but it is definitely a good change."

Fifita was left out of the NRL side for the opening rounds of the 2024 season but upon reflection said it was a fair call by Hasler. "It was a bit hard at the start in those first couple of weeks but (Hasler) told me that I was on the edge and that if I kept working on what I needed my time would come," Fifita said.

"Des has done really well and helped me with my defence which was the main target I needed to fix. He said my carries were good but I just needed to read the plays a bit better, but that just comes with experience at times.

"He can be specific or pretty broad on how he wants you to fix it. When you play around with it at training and he likes it then you know you are on the right track."

Kieran Foran believes Titans can win a premiership in near future

Kieran Foran believes that the Titans are heading in the right direction and have been improving at a rapid rate. As rumours swirled that David Fifita may be headed out the door in a bid to win an NRL title, Foran said there is no reason he can't win one on the Gold Coast.

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"I don't agree with that," Foran said last week. "People are entitled to their opinion and rightly so. Penrith have been a wonderful club for a long time.

"We're also building here. It'd be naive to think we haven't improved dramatically. I know the results don't show that yet, but if you know your footy you can see we're heading in the right direction and sooner or later it's going to click. When it does, we're in for a few exciting years ahead."

On Wednesday, Fifita backflipped on his decision to leave the Titans to join the Roosters. Last week Fifita agreed to join the Roosters from next season, signing a four-year deal worth around $3.3million and turning down a rival offer from Penrith in the process.

However, the highly sought-after star has since had second thoughts and dropped a bomb on the Tricolours by pulling the pin on the deal during his ten-day cooling-off period. Fifita has also activated a two-year option at the Titans, keeping him at the club until at least the end of 2026.

with AAP