'Never beaten like that before': Unwanted Titans history beckons

Nathan Peats has played through a broken neck and been shown the door to ease the fallout from a salary cap scandal.

But the sting of Sunday's 58-6 loss to the Roosters is unlike anything the Titans rake has encountered in his nine years of first grade.

"I've never been beaten like that before," a shattered Peats said.

"Never in my whole career. So I've got to take a good hard look at myself, the whole squad will do that.

"I'm lost for words, to be honest. They're not a 58-point better team than us but they obviously were today.

"I'm rattled, I don't know what to say about it.

"The performance is nowhere near good enough. Rolling your sleeves up and defending for one set after an error or a kick-off, it just wasn't there.

"It's fundamental things from senior players to the younger guys.

"There will be a mistake and heads will go down, we'll make a bad defensive read and they'll score just too easily.

"It's a domino effect when all we have to do is defend one set and we get the ball back. It's just not good enough."

Not only are the Gold Coast staring down a wooden spoon, but they'll need three wins from their final five games against the Dragons (twice), Melbourne, Parramatta and Newcastle to move past their worst season on record.

I'm rattled, I don't know what to say about it. The performance is nowhere near good enough

Titans hooker Nathan Peats

A last-place finish in 2011 yielded six wins, while just the four victories this season saw Garth Brennan axed and Justin Holbrook installed on a two-year deal from 2020.

Peats has seen plenty in his time, once playing through a fracture in his C6 vertebrae at Parramatta before being moved onto the Gold Coast as part of the Eels' salary cap punishment in 2016.

Tuesday's video review session looms as a particularly unpleasant exercise for the ex-NSW Origin hooker leading into Saturday's clash with St George Illawarra.

The record loss to the Roosters is particularly galling given the Titans training since Brennan's sacking has seen "the best three weeks of the season" and a "real step-up in intensity".

"We go back to the drawing board and have video on Tuesday," Peats said.

"That's going to be hard to watch honestly. But we're going to have to sit there and watch every error, every try we let in.

"We'll have to cop that, then go and train Wednesday with a short turnaround."

The Titans will at least have Queensland Origin star Jai Arrow back on deck, with his return from an ankle injury offsetting the likely loss of veteran Michael Gordon.

The Gold Coast No.1 failed to finish against the Roosters with a hamstring issue he took into the game, but will return before hanging up his boots at season's end.