Written by Megan Taylor, sports reporter covering international sports since 2020
Michael Maguire Brisbane Broncos confidence has not faded, with the coach insisting the defending premiers are still in the National Rugby League title race despite a 48-6 defeat to the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Accor Stadium on Thursday night.
The loss was Brisbane Broncos’ sixth in a row and left them in the bottom four entering next week’s bye, with injuries to Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam adding to a worrying night.
The result followed South Sydney Rabbitohs Brisbane Broncos Rout Leaves Premiers in Deep Trouble, as pressure continues to build on Brisbane Broncos’ premiership defence. Fans can follow official updates through the National Rugby League website.
Maguire Refuses to Give Up on Finals Push
“We’re still well and truly alive,” the Broncos coach said.
“People would probably think I’m mad. But one thing I do know (is) I’ve got a number of guys that are not on the field at this present moment.
“As a group we say we’re not going to use that as any sort of excuse or anything like that. But they’ll all come back and there’s a lot of quality there that I know can come back into the team.
“We’re in a bit of a tough situation at the moment. We’ll get those boys back at some stage and we all know what the team’s capable of doing.
“So once they get back and we’ve got to get through this little period now, which is tough for all of us. We don’t like going through it but it can also be the making of us.”
Brisbane Broncos Face Injury Concerns
Reynolds said his hamstring issue was only tightness and expected to be available after the bye against the Sydney Roosters.
Maguire said Mam had an AC joint issue, but the club needed more medical clarity.
“We’ve got a lot of great players in our team. (We’re) just not executing at the moment, but when we do, we know what we’re capable of,” Reynolds said.
“I know we’ve got a lot of spirit and fight within the group. We’ll have a little break, get away and look to go again and reignite our season.”
Maguire admitted Brisbane Broncos had hurt themselves with errors and poor possession.
“We didn’t help ourselves,” Maguire admitted.
“It’s pretty simple. We had possession go against us and that comes from ourselves in many occasions. So we need to just need to be better.”