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Brisbane Broncos coach Kevin Walters believes his team’s defence will be good for Round 1 after a second-half shellacking against North Queensland in their pre-season trial.
The woes of the Broncos defence were put in the spotlight again, after they gave up 28 unanswered points in their 34-18 defeat on Saturday.
Brisbane were last in tries conceded in 2020 at 5.46 per game and copped a whopping 624 points against them in 20 games.
But Walters remains positive with his players, saying this was a chance to see where they are before the season starts on March 11.
“We all got something out of it, we had to start somewhere and I said yesterday we’ve got to draw a line in the sand to find out where we are – so we found out where we are,” Walters said.
“That first 40 minutes, the way we controlled the game and our defence was especially very good.”
“It was a terrific first 40 and a not-so-good second 40. Plenty to work on but I’m walking away tonight confident that the Broncos are going to have a good season.”
The Broncos were the more polished side in the opening stanza of Friday’s pre-season trial against the Cowboys in Redcliffe and Walters sees it as something to build off.
“We got through our sets and our goal-line defence in the first half was very good. We’ve got to build on that as a club and we’ll do that.
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“We’ve got some time now to sort that out and get into Round 1 with some confidence.
“We didn’t have a bad player in the first half … we’ve just got to get that 40 minutes to 80 minutes and we will be a very good side.”
Jamayne Isaako was a clear stand-out for the home side with some electric runs at fullback, while halfback Brodie Croft played his part in the right edge attack.
The pair combined to set up Tesi Niu for the club’s opening try and Isaako later assisted David Mead to score.
Walters also confirmed injuries to Jesse Arthas (ankle) and Tom Flegler (shoulder).
