Jesse Arthars was in hospital receiving treatment for a broken jaw before Friday night’s game was over after a self-inflicted blow in the first half.
It was that kind of night for the Broncos but worse was to come.
Five minutes into the second half, Adam Reynolds was also staring down the barrel of a lengthy stint on the sidelines after suffering a bicep tear.
With Angus Crichton turning back the clock to just a few years ago when he was one of the pre-eminent forwards in the NRL, the Roosters registered a rousing 40-18 win to rub insult into Brisbane’s injury woes.
Former Broncos forward Corey Parker, patrolling the sidelines for Fox League, claimed there was a “considerable hole” in Reynolds’ arm where the bicep attaches to the arm and “it looks like it’s come off the bone”.
Former Wests Tigers playmaker Jock Madden has filled in for Reynolds when he’s been out but he is also in the casualty ward at the moment due to a pectoral injury he suffered last week against his former club.
Kevin Walters has the option of moving Ezra Mam to halfback, recalling the versatile Tristan Sailor in as a playmaker or bringing young gun Blake Mozer into the hooking rotation with Tyson Smoothy and switching Billy Walters to five-eighth.
Whichever option he takes, the Broncos will struggle to go anywhere near the all-round class that Reynolds delivers in directing the team around the park.
“It’s very hard to replace Adam Reynolds with his footy IQ, his kicking game and his experience,” his former halfback foe Cooper Cronk said on Fox League. “They’ll win more than they lose, it’s just whether they can get into the finals in decent enough shape for their halfback to come back and orchestrate a Grand Final assault.”
Heading into the Origin period where they will be hampered by several players being involved, it is a major blow to their hopes of going one better than last year’s dramatic Grand Final loss to Penrith.
“We’ve got considerable depth, I’m more concerned with the way we played tonight than anything else,” Walters said. “We’ve got plenty to work on.
“I think the ownership needs to be spread across the group. They’ll all need to step up when Reyno is not there.”
Reynolds’ deputy as skipper, Patrick Carrigan, bluntly added: “We’ll find out what we’re made of. Such is life with footy, it happens to a lot of teams and next man up.”
Crichton runs amok as Roosters rack up big score
Brisbane started the match as expected by dominating through the middle and cashing in on the edge.
NSW prop Payne Haas skittled defenders close to the posts and the visiting defence never recovered as Jordan Riki rumbled over three passes off the ruck.
The Roosters equalised in the 12th minute when Crichton broke free down the left and they spun the ball wide for Dominic Young to snare a one-handed catch and fling the Steeden back inside to Joey Manu before he was dragged into touch.
Arthars was flattened by his own lack of self preservation after flying at Young but colliding with his opposing winger’s shoulder. It’s a sad mid-season disruption for the former Storm winger who had been having easily his best year at the Broncos.
Walters switched Selwyn Cobbo switched to the left wing and rotated Riki to right centre.
The Roosters went in front when Crichton crossed from close range and took an 18-6 advantage into the break when Reece Walsh capped his worst 40 minutes of the season by fumbling the ball near halfway.
Joseph Suaalii makes a break. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Joseph Suaalii unveiled a superb pass for after Walsh’s error for Crichton to touch down a second time.
“I thought our resilience was really good in the first half,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said. “I really like the balance between the hardness we played with and the freedom.
“(Crichton) is in a purple patch, that’s for sure. It’s pretty simple – he’s worked really hard and he’s really strong and powerful. He was outstanding tonight.”
Moments after Reynolds was replaced, the Broncos burst into life with two tries in the space of three minutes with Ezra Mam setting up Kotoni Staggs and then sprinting around James Tedesco after the centre repaid the favour.
The Roosters regained the momentum midway through the second half after Deine Mariner was sin-binned for a shoulder charge on Tedesco and the veteran fullback shook off the impact to send Terrell May over for a 24-18 lead a few minutes later.
Connor Watson, who started the match deputising for Victor Radley at lock and switched to hooker when Brandon Smith limped off with a calf problem in the first half, twisted his way through a two-man tackle to put the Sydneysiders up by 12 with 15 minutes remaining.
May notched a rare double and in a much more common occurrence, Young plunged over in the corner as the Roosters took advantage of the tiring Brisbane defence.
Despite going into the match without supended prop Spencer Leniu, injured veterans Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Radley and Daniel Tupou, the Roosters have now racked up a combined 100 points in their past two starts after smashing St George Illawarra on Anzac Day.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Tedesco didn't do nothing last SOO series and will be shown up this year even more, need new blood as Tedesco has been doing the same thing for nearly a decade and Qld are up to his dancing resume.
Cam
Roar Rookie
Souths playing the long game lol
Boss man
Roar Rookie
Don’t watch much footy I see . He’s had one ordinary game all year when he came back too early after getting knocked out . Edwards is a solid predictable player who like almost all of his other Penrith mates gets found out at Origin level .
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Yes 100%. Has to learn to be in position
Robbo
Roar Rookie
It's line ball isn't it? He has played some amazing games for Broncos but they have also won plenty without him. What percentage of games has he missed through injury in his time at the Broncos?
steveng
Roar Rookie
For me Reece Walsh needs to be reined in and given some guidance as he is out of position at FB too often, in last nights game he allowed at least 2 tries to be scored without what a FB should cover, also, he is allowed far too much freedom to interfere in every play (similar to Trell at Souths) and like going to dummy half or being out of position at FB. Yes Reece Walsh has terrific potential but the way that he is allowed to roam and be in every play is not how the Broncos should be playing him. Reece Walsh needs to be regimented and reprogrammed by Kevie to his strengths, as and if he is not, the Broncos will end up losing more games than winning with Walshe's brilliance like last night.
steveng
Roar Rookie
An injury prone Reyno is 100% better than what Souths have got now and what influence Reyno would have had on Ilias if Reyno would have been at Souths and would have gotten an injury like he did last night. Souths have a long way to go to be on par with the Broncos and/or the Roosters, as subpar recruiting whatever Mark Ellison has been shown up as abysmal by just comparing Souths to these two sides in the last 3 years and how far the Broncs and the Roosters have come.
Lucky22
Roar Rookie
Not sure you watch too many Roosters games. Radley has been one of our best this season, and has had no issues with discipline whatsoever. Jared also had a very strong game last week. I agree that it'll be tricky to not have Watson playing big minutes, and to be honest, Sandon Smith has looked fantastic in his games as well. A few good players will be missing out if we get to full strength.
dogs
Roar Rookie
Lot's of good players for the Roosters. Thought Walker was involved in a lot of tackles, handled the workload well, good to see he is not all flash. And Watson at 13 was really effective before he had to switch to 9. One thing I thought was funny. The Walsh-Rikki mixup in the first half, where Walshe passed to nobody because he wanted Rikki (playing at centre) to cut back inside. Then in the second half Walsh and Staggs show exactly how it is meant to work to set up the Mam try. Also, I remember years ago one of the Brisbane people on here (maybe Nat?) talked about Ezra Mam in Queensland cup and how he was going to be something special. Couldn't have been more correct.
steveng
Roar Rookie
If being back means having two good games in 9 in 2024 then go for it, but imo Edwards has had 9 out of 9 faultless games this season and Madge would be mad if he didn't pick Edwards as his SOO FB. Tadesco last night was allowed far too much room for his one trick pony dancing moves and his usual circled runs by the Broncos. Edwards imo is a far more in form player than a one trick pony Tedesco, I hope that Madge won't get conned into the Freddy way of picking the Blues teams.
Dutski
Roar Guru
Yeah. I get it.
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
I get that we abbreviate and generalise, and dropping off the brachii is consistent with that, but dropping one letter from the end of a word doesn’t seem intentional. It’s kind of like if people started talking about the ‘len’ of one eye.
Griffo 09
Roar Rookie
I'm happy to go as far as you want :laughing:
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
Taller and heavier than Toovey & Langer, taller than Brooks, same height as DCE. I still recon Seibold was a Gould secret agent, infiltrated the Broncos and destroyed from within, like a termite.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Partly because Siebold told him he was too small to be a half, and had to transition into a fullback
coastal
Roar Rookie
I think Penrith will make a play for Chrichton. The JFH money will go towards it. If they can get the best out of Smith and Henry that will go a long way to filling the JFH void. It would be a very formidable forward pack. Crichton would be a great fit. Chin Chin.
Albo
Roar Rookie
So South’s were right all along ?? :silly:
andrew
Roar Rookie
Not sure, only know there was talk a while back of him switching to Rugby.
Dutski
Roar Guru
Ease up tiger. Everyone knows what’s meant. If we’re getting pedantic then calling it biceps is insufficient because there’s more than one biceps muscle in the human body. In this case it’s his biceps brachii. How far are we going in terms of anatomical and literary precision here?
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
I'd be happy with either of them tbh. Both in great form. Really depends how the coach wants the team to play. They are both great, but very different styles.