Miracle Titans comeback eases some pressure on Hasler
Gold Coast have pulled off a remarkable comeback in Newcastle, coming from 20 points down to beat the Knights 24-20 and alleviate some pressure on coach Des Hasler.
Days after it emerged a clause in Hasler's contract could leave him axed if the Titans missed the finals, Gold Coast were all heart on Friday night.
Staring down the barrel of a sixth straight loss, the Titans looked set for another thrashing when they fell 20-0 down inside 27 minutes.
But captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui stood tall and Phillip Sami and AJ Brimson bagged doubles to claim a most unlikely victory.
Brimson completes the comeback! 🤯#NRLKnightsTitans pic.twitter.com/3mZXqmhSOm
— NRL (@NRL) May 9, 2025
The only concern for the Titans will be a cloud now hanging over Fa'asuamaleaui, which has the potential to leave him banned for State of Origin I.
Fa'asuamaleaui was placed on report for dangerous contact in the first minute of the match, after a head clash with Knights prop Leo Thompson.
If the Queensland forward incurs a grade-two charge or worse, unless he beats it at the judiciary he would miss the Origin series opener.
That incident aside, Fa'asuamaleaui is virtually carrying his club.
The Titans captain got through 70 minutes on Friday night, totalled 241 metres, made 39 tackles while breaking four, and threw five offloads.
And most crucially, he produced the key play that swung the match for the Titans.
With Gold Coast going nowhere, the lock threw an offload to allow Jayden Campbell to put the Titans on the front foot.
On the next play Fa'asuamaleaui again got his hands on the ball and Campbell touched it twice before throwing a long cut-out ball for Sami to score.
What a pass from Khan-Pereira! 👏#NRLKnightsTitans Telstra Moment of the Match pic.twitter.com/HWvZpj78GW
— NRL (@NRL) May 9, 2025
Sami reduced the margin to 20-12 early in the second half when Jaylan De Groot put a long cut out ball on his chest for the winger to nab his second.
It was back to 20-18 with 13 minutes left when Alofiana Khan-Pereira did superbly well to offload back for Brimson's first try.
And with time ticking down, Brimson was ruled to be marginally onside when he chased down an on-the-run grubber from Khan-Pererira to give the Titans the lead with two minutes to play.
Gold Coast's win left them equal on points with Newcastle, whose left edge fired early on Friday night before the second-half collapse.
While five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe bagged a double to go with last week's hat-trick, poor handling meant the Knights had no good ball in the second half.
They made eight errors after the break, didn't have a play-the-ball on the Titans' line, and eventually ran out of puff in the home-ground capitulation.
Adding to the woes will be a knee injury suffered by strike winger Greg Marzhew, with Newcastle having now also dropped six of their past seven games.
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