With two home finals now secured, Broncos coach Kevin Walters has made the call to rest the majority of his frontline players against bogey side Melbourne despite this year’s minor premiership being on the line.
Brisbane’s poor record includes not beating them at Suncorp Stadium since 2009, but with Melbourne also resting a host of stars, Walters had faith in his team’s fortunes changing.
“We’re all aware of it here at the Broncos, the dominance that the Storm have had over the club,” Walters said. “The only way to fix that is to play well and that's what we intend to do tomorrow.
“The minor premiership is important, acknowledging that you are the best team – and I feel, without being arrogant – we have been the best team, the most consistent team all season and I expect that to happen again tomorrow, regardless of who's playing.”
Match: Broncos v Storm
Round 27 -
home Team
Broncos
2nd Position
away Team
Storm
3rd Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
With niggles sidelining captain Adam Reynolds and Pat Carrigan and with Kotoni Staggs suspended, Brisbane were already without three key performers, but Walters has also opted to rest Reece Walsh, Payne Haas, Herbie Farnworth, Ezra Mam and Billy Walters, with Kurt Capewell, Selwyn Cobbo and Kobe Hetherington named as reserves.
“We only made the decision after we beat the Raiders … we secured two home finals for us and then it was a decision and some questions around who to rest,” Walters said.
“What it also does is it opens up an opportunity for those guys like Delouise Hoeter and these sort of guys that have been playing and training hard all season without the opportunity to play NRL.
“The other thing is taking a step back and having a look at the bigger picture of where we want to get to as a team and as a club.
“That bigger picture is next week, finals week one, with full-strength.”
Tomorrow’s match – where Thomas Flegler will lead out the team – will also see two debuts, with five-eighth Josh Rogers and hooker Blake Mozer, who were preparing to face each other in a Hostplus Cup elimination final, now getting ready to step out at Suncorp Stadium.
“Josh has been one of the leading performers in Cup all season out at Wynnum Manly, he's a very calm sort of player, he thinks about the game a lot and he's a goal kicker, he kicks the ball well, he passes well,” Walters said.
“I'm encouraging Josh with his running game tomorrow; he's a bigger body style of six, he needs to get the ball and run and just make the tackles, kick the goals and he'll have a good evening.”
With three hookers currently named with Tyson Smoothy starting and Mozer and Cory Paix on the bench, Walters said he was keen to give Mozer plenty of minutes in his first game.
“It's an opportunity time to give him some time in the middle … he passes the ball nicely; if he just does that and makes his tackles, that's a good start for what we believe will be a long NRL career,” Walters said.
“Our performance staff have tried is to put a bit more weight on him to handle the rigors of the NRL … he's been playing some good footy at Souths and one of his best assets is his passing game. His defence has been an area where he's had to work really hard.
“We’re starting the game with Tyson, but he'll be the next one on, so he'll get some good game time and it's a good opportunity for him to get a bit of a taste of the NRL because it's pretty exciting.”
