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Kevin Walters has issued a stark warning to his Brisbane side, telling them they have 10 days to save their season after copping a brutal 53-6 battering at the hands of Parramatta.
“We’ve got ten days now until next Saturday when we play the Dragons to fix it, to get it right,” said the coach. “I don’t have too many answers at the moment, but we need to fix our attitude.
“It hasn’t been where it needs to be at this time of year to compete against good sides. I’m not sure what it is. I’m not going to make excuses, it hasn’t been good enough.”
On a nightmare evening for the Broncos, Adam Reynolds and Kobe Hetherington suffered concussions, Thomas Flegler was taken to hospital with a throat injury and Brenko Lee left the game with a hamstring complaint, leaving Brisbane with just 13 fit players for the last 20 minutes.
Reynolds faces a race against time to be fit for their crunch trip to St George Illawarra next week, where they will have to win to be safe in the top eight. Flegler is a serious doubt, but Pat Carrigan and Selwyn Cobbo will be back and Herbie Farnworth, missing for two months, is an outside chance.
Selwyn Cobbo. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
After shipping 60 to Melbourne last week, Brisbane’s defence was barely any better this time around. They have now conceded 113 points in two games.
The margin grew in the second half as the Broncos were starved of the football and forced to defend with no substitutes. Though it would be harsh to call them out for a gutsy second-half showing amid considerable adversity, the die was cast in the first half.
“It’s terrible,” said Walters. “We didn’t start well and we finished poorly. I think we had 38 per cent of the ball tonight.
“It’s about lack of discipline, seven-tackle sets, kicks that don’t need to be kicked. All the things that we weren’t doing a month ago, we seem to be doing now.
“It’s a momentum swing and it’s sometimes hard to get back. We’re struggling with it at the moment.”
For Parramatta, Shaun Lane was the star. The rangy backrower had a major hand in three of the five tries that put the game to bed early, with his line-running and offloading to the fore.
Junior Paulo was also superb, using his ball-playing skills to great effect, while Clint Gutherson was at his punchy best, scoring twice and providing three for teammates.
“I was really happy with the defence,” said Brad Arthur. “We got a bit loose with the ball, but it’s hard in those situations. Credit to the boys, on the back of a five-day turnaround they started with great physicality and were hard to handle. Our intensity in defence was excellent.”
Parra now face Melbourne next week for a potential shot at the top four. The Eels kept up their side of the bargain tonight, but will need a favour from the Sydney Roosters tomorrow if they are to be able to leapfrog the Storm.
It took a while for the Eels to gain supremacy, but once they did, they never let up. The pattern was set for the first try, with Paulo ball-playing and Lane acting as creator.
The prop engaged the line, found his backrower, who returned the ball via an offload and allowed Paulo to find Maika Sivo at the corner. The Fijian then turned creator himself, kicking inside for Tom Opacic after Lane’s long pass had set him free along the left.
The Broncos sent the kick-off out on the full and, from the resultant field position, Isaiah Papali’i proved just as good on the right edge, dumping out of a tackle to put Gutherson in for his first.
The next was a pet play of the Eels. Reed Mahoney spotted the short side play on the last, Mitchell Moses fired a long ball to Waqa Blake and then supported on the inside for the return pass.
Lee did grab one back, but the half ended ignominiously for Brisbane as Lane got another assist for Gutherson and Moses added a mocking field goal on the siren.
The Broncos lost Hetherington to a HIA – which he failed – and then Lee departed with a hamstring injury that saw the bench exhausted completely.
Parramatta managed a run of six sets on the Brisbane line before they scored, and predictably given the amount of tackling required, when the try came, it was a simple matter of fatigue as Papali’i pushed through defence that had simply had too much to do.
Will Penisini got another moments later and Gutherson rounded out the night with two more assists: the first a smart kick for Opacic’s second, then a superb long pass that got Blake on the board.