Brisbane coach Kevin Walters has an important decision to make: whether to give impressive hooker Blake Mozer another chance and field all of his State of Origin stars in the away game against Newcastle next week.
A loss to the Knights on Saturday night would all but end the Broncos’ finals hopes, and they are already despondent following Brisbane’s 30-26 home defeat to St George Illawarra, their sixth consecutive loss.
The Broncos are four points behind the top eight with 18 points and need to win six of their last seven games to reach the final.
The representative quartet of Selwyn Cobbo, Reece Walsh, Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan, who did not play against the Dragons, could be used as replacements in Newcastle three days after Wednesday night’s Origin decider in Brisbane.
Walters decided not to field his Origin representatives in the second game, a Saturday afternoon loss to the Warriors in Auckland. That would have required an international flight to a different time zone and he was playing it safe.
Now the club’s season is at stake, but Walters said he would not make a decision on their availability until Thursday.
“I’ll just wait and see how the game goes on Wednesday night and then we’ll make a scientific decision based on facts and figures … and we’ll talk to the players,” Walters said.
“Of course they all want to play, but there’s no point if they play, get injured and then miss the whole year.”
Mozer, 20, came off the bench against the Dragons when the Broncos were trailing 28-6 and played 31 good minutes, making two breakthroughs, scoring a smart try at dummy-half and demonstrating a smooth passing game.
Walters agreed that Mozer was already impressive in his third NRL game and was asked if he would give him more regular playing time.
“We will look into it,” he said.
“Blake is just a player. We have to get the team in order. That was pleasing for him and I’m really pleased for him because he waited for an opportunity and took it really well… so congratulations to him.
“We don’t have anyone to replace. The guys still have to get through an Origin, but there’s no one coming back next week who wasn’t here this week.”
Walters said he has not given up hope of making the playoffs.
“I believe we can do it, but it’s about these guys. For that to happen, things have to change. If we keep going like this, we have no chance of it happening,” he said.
“If we change our mentality and habits according to our skill level, there will be a big change, but that’s how it’s been for a long time.”
Three errors by the Broncos led to three tries for the Dragons. In addition, they were regularly penalised for offsides, allowing the Dragons to march up the field.
“We scored 26 points and that’s enough to win a game. Mistakes and defense let us down,” Walters said.