Lee the missing piece of puzzle?

Third signing for Titans

The Titans have plucked their third signing of the month and it’s a pick-up that could solve a problem that has haunted the Gold Coast club throughout their 11-year NRL history.

Agile centre Brenko Lee was yesterday announced on a one-year deal after being released by Canterbury.

The 22-year-old showed promising signs for the Bulldogs in 2017 and now has 33 NRL games to his name plus one Tongan Test appearance.

Lee, a Logan Brothers junior, is the latest homegrown product to return to the Coast, following the likes of Michael Gordon and Will Matthews in recent weeks.

“He is returning home to southeast Queensland so we hope him being comfortable at home will help him play his best football,” Titans coach Garth Brennan said.

“We have had a number of changes to the squad and he’ll definitely help us in the outside backs.”

Year after year, the Titans have been desperately short on quality genuine centres. It has resulted in specialist back-rowers being forced to fill gaps out wide.

This year alone, Chris McQueen and Leivaha Pulu were named in the centres at different stages.

All due respect, it spoke volumes that names such as Brett Delaney and Josh Hoffman came into reckoning to be selected in the centres for Gold Coast’s team of the decade.

Now, at last, the Titans have several NRL quality centres headlined by Konrad Hurrell, Dale Copley, Phillip Sami and Lee.

A strike centre has long been a big-ticket item for the Titans.

True, Lee is no superstar of the game at this point in time.

But what he does bring north is a good dose of attacking flair.

In 18 games this year, Lee produced 46 tackle busts, 12 line breaks, eight line break assists, nine try assists and 40 offloads to be the Doggies’ biggest attacking weapon.

He also has a more than handy kicking game.

Lee certainly can spark the Gold Coast attack but one problem he is unlikely to fix is the club’s struggles to stop opposition speedsters in their tracks.

The Titans’ edge defence was nothing short of embarrassing in 2017.

Canterbury’s right flank, including Lee, was often targeted by rivals.

Lee averaged missing 2.4 tackles a game – or in other words, 21 per cent of the tackles he attempted.