The premiership defence wasn’t meant to begin like this. If St Helens broke the aura around Penrith Stadium, the Broncos smashed straight through it with a gutsy, committed 13-12 win inspired by two Herbie Farnworth tries and a whole heap of superb tackling.
The story will inevitably turn to the Panthers and their defeat, but Brisbane were excellent and fought for every inch of their win.
With around half an hour to go, Michael Ennis on the Fox League commentary speculated that they couldn’t hold out and win on 12 points.
He was right, and they needed the late field goal from Adam Reynolds to give themselves a big enough margin to make it, but the wider point was true too. 13 points should not be enough to win at Bluebet Stadium, but it was.
The Panthers were far from their best, but that was because Brisbane made them look rubbish through defensive organisation.
When the Broncos were good last year, it was based on their ability to turn leads into wins, even when the other side threw everything at them.
No team was so efficient, in that they turned games that they lost on almost every metric into real wins. On multiple occasions, they took a lead and held on through force of defensive will, just like tonight. They lost the metre count, the possession count and the territory, but held firm for the win.
Their scramble was excellent, and in keeping Penrith so quiet tonight, they proved that that willingness to put themselves about is still there. Doing it over 27 rounds might be the bigger question, but anyone who doubted their ability to arc up for their coach should be in no doubt now.
This was a combination of smart tactics – shutting down the Panthers left, more on which later – but also pure application and, when the time came, execution. Brisbane created two chances to score and scored both of them, then repelled multiple attacks when Penrith would have thought they were in.
Penrith’s lethal left edge already looks dulled by the absence of Viliame Kikau. It goes without saying that his are big boots to fill, but the loss of him and the injured Taylan May at the same time has taken away one of the greatest weapons in the Panthers’ arsenal.
Luke Garner was solid if unspectacular, and while he might work out long-term, Kikau was both solid and frequently spectacular. These things take time. Sunia Turuva is the same, a potentially great player, but one who is in the same boat that May was this time last year as a relative newcomer.
Where teams once acted in fear of the left edge, Brisbane aimed up at them and proved very successful at shutting down. There was some early-season rustiness, but that was exacerbated by the Broncos’ linespeed and ability to stop the flow. Save for one fluent move to the right in the first half, Penrith proved incapable of creating.
Jarome Luai, in particular, struggled with the constant attention from Kotoni Staggs, who clearly thought there was hay to be made by jamming onto the five eighth. Luai was worth six runs for 40m at half time, which shows how quickly he was shut down.
Herbie Farnworth was excellent last year, and yet somehow still flew under the radar. His bicep injury midway through the season ended his campaign on 12 tries from 14 games, a stunning return from a centre, which he backed up with excellent performances in the World Cup for England.
It’s been clear to everyone from day dot that Farnworth had all the physical attributes needed, but there were deficiences too, especially in defence. That seemed largely solved last year before his injury and, without that question mark, all his best instincts came to the fore.
There’s the pace and the strength, but also the guile and an intangible knack of being in the right place to score.
His first tonight was the former, darting back against the line, and his second was the latter, a desire to get the footy and score the try. Expect big things this year from Herbie.
The dynamic late last year was working perfectly: Mitch Kenny began the game, took all the punishment and paved the way for Api Koroisau to come in and dominate from about the 20th minutes on.
Many expected Ivan Cleary to continue the same trend with new personnel: the mercurial Soni Luke coming in where Koroisau was to offer a huge attacking upside. Yet, as the clock ticked around, the Tongan international was nowhere to be seen.
Kenny is a perfectly serviceable 9, but his talents are generally more in the ‘honest toiler’ mode, which the Broncos proved more than capable of dealing with.
It took until the 55th minute for him to enter, and his impact was instant with a sharp dart that caused panic in the defence. His try, late in the game, had been on for a long time before he actually pulled it off. One wonders why he wasn’t introduced earlier.
Outrageous from the Broncos skipper on 'a wooden leg!'
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