OK, so let’s address the elephant in the room. It’s Origin time, and 12 months ago, Madge Maguire pulled off an unexpected turnaround for the Blues with a series decider at Suncorp. Madge is 1 from 1 in Origin and has made way for Laurie Daly, maintaining the perfect record.
Now the Broncos season has got a bit rocky of late. Madge is under pressure. The new discipline which had the Broncos off to the races until a few weeks ago has given way to giving up good leads and, frankly, not looking as consistently dangerous in attack.
The game stats against the Rabbits look great on the surface. The Broncos, having 9 line breaks and 29 tackle breaks, but most of that was the first half where they dominated.
The crime last week was letting the Rabbits back into the game and not scoring in the second half. Getting Latrelled was an uncontrollable.
Is this a temporary blip or a virus slowly spreading at Red Hill?
The Dragons will be a good litmus test for whether the Broncos are genuine contenders this year. Losing their nailbiter to the Warriors last week suggests that they are competitive. Warriors are now 2nd on the ladder though the Dragons in 13th spot makes this a must win for the Broncos.
Ezra Mam returns to the Broncos side, a forced early recall to replace Ben Hunt, who’s hamstring injury rules him out at a crucial time for the Broncos. The former Ambrose Treacy College student has been slaughtered on social media for his off-the-field troubles but the Suncorp faithful will forgive everything if he can deliver on Sunday afternoon.
Xavier Willison will start. His tackle breaks are becoming valuable. Now, he just needs to learn how to offload like Kitione Kautoga of the Eels (what an offload to Inongi against the Dolphins for Dylan Brown’s try last week!).
Toby Couchman is replaced by Jack de Belin in the Dragons starting side. Blake Lawrie comes into the Interchange.
The game at Suncorp on Sunday, 18 May, kicks off at 2:00 p.m. If you can’t get there Kayo and Foxtel will broadcast the game live.
