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.
Fraser
Roar Rookie
I'd go back and pick the team that won 7 straight. Obviously missing Herbie and Patty makes a big difference. Turpin can't be anywhere near the term. The Walters/Paix combo works. Paix is playing 80 minutes in Q-Cup. Tyson Gamble has to be in the team somewhere. I'd have him at 6. He's a big body and brings passion and aggression to the team. Ezra is good but a little inexperienced and a bit too small. Ryan James is past it. I like Jensen to start and Flegler off the bench.
Dumbo
Roar Rookie
The Broncos' 6th interchange was at 61 minutes. That was it: last two interchanges unused because there was no-one left on the bench. As you say: "physically and mentally drained". I have a lot of sympathy for them, or any other team that finds itself in the position.
Nat
Roar Guru
Her greatest insult is to call me a panthers player. For her sake I hope she's good looking. Thinking and words are not her friend.
Brett Allen
Guest
Shaun Lane has been doing that to a lot of teams
Brett Allen
Guest
What selection changes would you make ? Aside from injuries & suspensions, last nights team is pretty well their best 17. The truth is they have probably overachieved a bit this season. Seibold would have killed for this kind of season.
Rob
Guest
Cowboy’s made the GF from 8th a couple of years back.
Rob
Guest
Injuries especially during a game make a massive difference. The Eels are also a very good front running team that have a capacity to rattle up points quickly ( they possess plenty of weapons and attacking mindset to create points). The outs for Brisbane put massive pressure on their youngsters especially against a quality attacking team. Reynolds, Farnsworth and Cobbo would add 12 points in attack and along with Carrigan probably defensively 16 points better off. That’s probably a 30 point difference that you just lost. Throw in 13 against 17 and it’s not unreasonable to see what happened. I sometimes wonder about the expectations people have? My only hindsight opinion would be Staggs has big defensive issues, Haas is a cuddly Teddy bear in defence, Maybe Gamble offers a little more grit?
Nat
Roar Guru
Here we go again, always the victim. I would call you a champagne fan but that wouldn't be right. What's the westie version of champagne? Passion pop fan.
Excoach
Roar Rookie
"Problem with anything is, when you set the bar lower, you often fall short of that target". Clearly there's no bottom to your low YOUR bar with this crap..."You didn’t also play against Ricky’s son by chance ?" . Just get on your belly and crawl right under it!
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Super League UK have bounced from top6 to top8 to top4 and back to top6. They also had an interesting concept in the top8 phase, with the highest ranked team with the week off after week 1, got to choose their week 3 opponent from the week 2 winners.
JennyFromPenny
Guest
No, that's not really what I said. I said aspirations should be the moon, knowing that most often people fall short. Aim at the GF, and chances are higher of finishing top 8, yet aim only to make the top 8 from the outset, and then maybe be about where they are now, not quite there.
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Give it heaps, but when the going gets tough, you don't want any back. You didn't also play against Ricky's son by chance ?
Rellum
Roar Guru
This team has completely fallen apart. The defense is just a shambles. So many of the forwards and edge players have not lateral speed in defense. They get beaten so easily so often with a step inside. So many players who are unfit for this time of year. Billy Walters was awful when he came on. He is not a half and is a back up hooker at best at NRL level. He is not his father. Riki is not a NRL player wither at this point in time. Hass is great at hit ups but his defense is so poor so often. To many dropped balls and poor kicks. I still don't know why Ezra didn't pin the ears on that break away. Kevie's selections over the last 6 rounds have been a real issue and we need to start looking at his role going forward. For the team to fall this far this quickly should be setting off alarm bells in the club. Either something has happened or something is very wrong with the setup. I have never seen such a drop in performances before from a sporting team. We need to take a leaf out of Payten's book and do nothing but defense training in the off season. They have to learn to get the ball back so we can attack. I cannot see us getting close to the Dragons next week and even if we do 30 points with out for and against will not be enough
Nat
Roar Guru
That's idealistic not realistic. If you finish close to last in the previous season no coach or board are going to hang their balls and jobs on a 'premiership or it's a failure' target. Set an attainable target, hit it and build upon it next season.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Lane’s talent was obvious when he came into first grade at Canterbury. Reports were that his attitude wasn’t up to scratch and that’s haunted him / followed him since I’ve been harsh on him at times because he’s mostly played well below his capability, but he’s been brilliant over the last six weeks or so. It’s not just the offloading, his hole running has been brilliant and he’s an aerial target too As you say, the Eels have shown over the past couple of years they can beat anyone on their day, the query remains whether they can string four of those performances together in September Their form surge adds another layer of interest to the semis…
The Barry
Roar Guru
I’m sure every team does start with the premiership as at least an aspirational goal, but that doesn’t mean at the end of the season 15 teams assess their seasons as failures because they didn’t win the comp It’s short sighted thinking like that that prevents clubs from growing and building sustainably
Cam
Roar Rookie
The Cowboys could go out in straight sets and the season would still rank as one of their best. To come from 15th in 2021 and then finish a likely 2nd in 2022 is remarkable. Of the top 8, probably only the Panthers would feel they have underachieved if they didn’t win the GF. Of the bottom 8, Manly, Newcastle and the Gold Coast had poor seasons when measured against expectations.
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Problem with anything is, when you set the bar lower, you often fall short of that target. Every teams goal at the start of the year should be the premiership, regardless how bad the previous year was.
Cam
Roar Rookie
I agree that most times 7th or 8th are just making up the numbers, but this year those spots will most likely be filled by a genuine contender. The Roosters or Souths will probably run 8th, but could potentially still make a run all the way to the big dance. Should be a really competitive finals series.
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
To counter that, the team who finishes 9th this year is likely to have a 14-10 win-loss record. It could be as low as 12-12 if Canberra lose both of their next two games, but they're playing the Sea Eagles and Tigers, so highly unlikely.