Round 19 vs. St George Illawarra Dragons Discussion

[Big Pete]

Brisbane Broncos vs. St George Illawarra Dragons
Suncorp Stadium, Saturday 12 July 2024
Kick Off: 7:35pm

1. Tristan Sailor 2. Corey Oates 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Deine Mariner 5. Jesse Arthars 6. Ezra Mam 7. Joshua Rogers 8. Corey Jensen 9. Billy Walters 10. Xavier Willison 11. Brendan Piakura 12. Jordan Riki 13. Tyson Smoothy

14. Blake Mozer 15. Kobe Hetherington 16. Josiah Karapani 17. Martin Taupau

18. Vaa Semu 19. Cory Paix 20. Israel Leota

1. Tyrell Sloan 2. Christian Tuipulotu 3. Moses Suli 4. Max Feagai 5. Mikaele Ravalawa 6. Kyle Flanagan 7. Jesse Marschke 8. Francis Molo 9. Jacob Liddle 10. Jack de Belin 11. Raymond Faitala-Mariner 12. Jaydn Su'A 13. Tom Eisenhuth

14. Hame Sele 15. Luciano Leilua 16. Toby Couchman 17. Ben Murdoch-Masila

18. Jack Bird 19. Savelio Tamale 20. Fa'amanu Brown 21. Ryan Couchman 22. Michael Molo​

 

[Big Pete]

After suffering five straight losses on the trot, the Broncos are holding on by a thread and desperately need a win without their Origin players.

They welcome back Kotoni Staggs and Jordan Riki who will have to be at their absolute best if they hope to beat the Dragons.

The Dragons themselves are missing two Origin players but they were able to topple Penrith without them in their first Origin affected contest so they should fancy their chances.

The Broncos depth has well and truly been tested here. Such is their injury toll, they couldn't name a full squad of 22 NRL players. Coach Walters has controversially overlooked his affiliate clubs and will be relying exclusively on NRL contracted players.

One of whom is Va'a Semu of the Souths Logan Magpies. Semu isn't listed on any of the official sources, but a story emerged a few months ago that he'd signed a deal with the club. As you can see from the images, he's a big body prop forward and he's been getting his reps in at the Magpies.

Speaking of recent signings, Josh Rogers recently re-signed with the club till the end of 2026. It's a curious signing with Mam, Madden and Black on the books and while Rogers could prove to be a valuable back-up option, you have to question whether the Broncos have got the squad balance right. As we've seen in the dummy half situation, they're over-stocked in one position, while their backrow is in complete tatters.

Regardless, hopefully Josh plays well in his third game. Hopefully he can assert himself in the halves and combine well with Riki and Staggs.

The other player I'm excited to see is Mozer. I have grave doubts over the Broncos ability to compete for a premiership, so I think it's important they get some value out of the back-end of the season. That means getting reps into their prospects and I'd be interested to see how Mozer responds.

 

[gUt]

Blake Mozer turned the game back towards us but Kevvie still prefers his plodding son.

 

[League guru]

Blake Mozer turned the game back towards us but Kevvie still prefers his plodding son.

Exactly what you would expect from the next "Cam Smith". And it's not like the Broncos to overrate any of their players when it's not due.