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Reece Walsh has produced another masterclass as Brisbane underlined their credentials as one of the favourites for the Premiership with a 36-20 win over an error-ridden South Sydney.
In his return after a three game suspension, the fullback produced the one moment of true quality in the first half to get Selwyn Cobbo, before slicing the Bunnies open to give the Broncos the lead in the second.
He later put Kotoni Staggs, who also scored twice, through a hole late on to ice the game, with the centre feeding Adam Reynolds for the final score.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” said Kevin Walters of his fullback. “It’s great to have him in our side. I thought he was going to be a bit underdone tonight having missed three weeks of footy, but he’s lightening quick. I don’t think he’s played his best footy for us yet.
“The message this week was to play with his great assets. That’s his running game, and then to look to pass after that. But he managed to find both of them on a couple of occasions.”
South Sydney had thrashed the Broncos at Suncorp in late April, but the favour was returned with interest on the Sunshine Coast. One suspects that there will be a third meeting between these two, but with far more on the line.
Though the Bunnies were second best, they might well wonder about what might have been had referee Ashley Klein been a little more assertive with the whistle in the first half in an incident that saw Martin Taupau binned.
The Broncos prop came flying in off the back fence, but as he approached contact, lifted his leg into Campbell Graham, earning himself a ten minute sit down as well as, in all likelihood, a significant ban from the Match Review Panel. It probably should have been more.
“We’ve got to get that out of his game,” said Walter. “He got a warning letter through the week from the NRL, which Marty was aware of, it’s just one of those things. He’s not a dirty player.”
They will also sweat on Jesse Arthars, who was binned for a late high tackle.
Souths coach Jason Demetriou questioned whether it might have been a send off, but said that his side had plenty of chances to win and underperformed.
Patrick Carrigan. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“I don’t know what a send off is these days, if you have to fracture someone’s skull before we take it seriously,” said the coach.
“We played 20 minutes against 12 men and the Broncos kept turning up for each other. I’ve got no complaints about the way the game was refereed. It’s on us to own that.”
With a man extra, the Souths could only add two points from a penalty goal and were eventually punished. Their attack went from adventurous but sloppy to downright dreadful as the game went on.
Demetriou tends to treat the Bunnies’ error rate as the cost of doing business with their expansive style of play, but it was their undoing tonight. Brisbane weren’t much better at times, but made more of their moments.
“It was pretty embarrassing by the end,” said the Souths boss. “That’s attitude, tonight our attitude was poor. There were times where we wanted to fight and blokes like Jai Arrow were just absolutely ripping in there and giving everything for his teammates but we had too many blokes that weren’t good teammates tonight.
“There was too many that weren’t even close to rating what’s an acceptable rate at NRL.”
There have been a few sniffs about the Broncos this year. Though there have been statement moments, they have also struggled against the best of the best, losing to Souths, Melbourne and splitting the difference with the Panthers.
There’ll be no more of that. They are right among the favourites to win this competition.
The aspects of their game that looked lacking against the very best, notably their ability to breach the best defences, seem to have been improved significantly.
In their previous games against the other three major contenders, Brisbane managed 13, 6, 4 and 16. This time, they got 36 – and without feeling like they were close to their best with the ball.
At the heart of it was Adam Reynolds, who pulls all the strings, with Walsh the livewire at the back. His ability to inject speed into the backline is unmatched in the NRL, and as the cliche goes, there’s no substitute for pace.
Walsh’s combination of raw speed with ball-playing is doubly dangerous, and he’s lucky to have Cobbo, equally as rapid, outside of him to finish the moves.
Souths had issues with it, as many have, and didn’t have their own answer. On another day, with Latrell out the back, they might be able to fight fire with fire a little better, but today they were a comfortable second best.
Two of the best teams in the comp, with a lot on the line, plenty of feeling in the game, the lead changing hands multiple times. This sounds a lot like a good game.
Yet this was really quite bad for a long, long time. Reece Walsh’s pass for Selwyn Cobbo’s try aside, it was a litany of errors where even the points came because someone else did something wrong.
Taupau carrying like it was the can can was the spark for it all, sparking thirty minutes of pure chaos, with neither team able to hold the ball for any length of time, interspersed with a mountain of set restarts and penalties.
It was hard to think that two teams so stacked with talent could play so badly. Kotoni Staggs seemed to be running his own personal competition, with a try and several great tackles to deny Alex Johnston, but also a series of errors and a dead miss on the same man for the opening try.
Rugby league is a strange old beast. Even when it’s rubbish it can often be great, and nobody who watched the first half could have said it wasn’t entertaining. Well, perhaps the coaches.
Completion rates are total bunkum, but with both sides south of 70% before the break, it was hard to not to comment on the madness that was unfurling.
Neither side were able to complete sets, but then, they weren’t really trying to. There were offloads, shift plays, forced passes and, yes, several shockers.
Souths were racing their errors and line breaks, whereas the Broncos were constantly freeing the arm and gaining second phase.
Eventually it was Brisbane who improved their efficiency and Souths who slipped, continuing to make mistakes but increasingly in yardage rather than attack.
The pressure built and you know the rest.