'It's not about that': Des Hasler's frosty reply to touchy question after Titans thrashed by Broncos

Titans coach Des Hasler delivered a frosty reply when asked in his press conference after Saturday night's crushing defeat to the Broncos if he was the man to turn the club around.

The Gold Coast outfit remains anchored to the bottom of the ladder after being dealt a 44-14 loss at Suncorp Stadium.

The club is now 3-9 this season and has won just one of its last nine games.

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Hasler is contracted until the end of 2026, but News Corp reported ahead of round 10 that the premiership-winning coach had two clauses in his deal.

According to News Corp, one clause states Gold Coast can cut him loose at the end of this season if the Titans don't reach the finals, while the other says the club can sack him once the team is mathematically unable to qualify for the finals.

Hasler, sitting next to veteran playmaker Kieran Foran, bristled when asked on Saturday night if he was the man to arrest the team's slide.

"The players turn the club around," the 64-year-old said.

"So it's not about that, it's not about turning anything around; it's about turning up and playing well, and we didn't do that.

"We missed that opportunity tonight ... and that's not good enough and they [the players] know that."

No club has leaked as many points this season as the Titans, who've conceded 382 from 12 games.

Hasler was short when pressed on his side's feeble defence.

"Something we need to work on," he said.

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The Broncos blew the Titans off the park early, piling on 28 unanswered points in the first 28 minutes.

The Titans didn't score their first points of the game until winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira crossed for a try in the 53rd minute.

"It was probably the most disappointing 40 minutes we've played this year," Hasler said of the first half.

"There's a thing in rugby league where if you look gassed, if you don't front-load, if you don't turn up with good energy, you really miss the start. We missed the start, and we just chased and chased again for that first 40 [minutes].

"We were pretty disappointing. We missed the jump, we really did. We should have focused our energy better than what we did.

"I think they might have scored off the first set, and that kind of rocked us a little bit, and it took us a little while to reset, [but] by that stage the game was done."

The Titans will host the Sea Eagles at Cbus Super Stadium next Friday night.