Seibold looking at Broncos shake-up as Joey lashes struggling stars

Disappointed Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold concedes he is considering changes to his game-day roster after the side's fourth straight loss since the round three competition resumption.

Halves Anthony Milford and Brodie Croft struggled for cohesion and impact in Thursday night's 27-6 loss to Newcastle while the pack was convincingly outmuscled by the Knights.

Immortal halfback Andrew Johns is one of many commentators who are calling for young gun half Tom Dearden and budding fullback Tesi Niu to earn more game time.

"Maybe I need to look at making some changes," Seibold said.

"I did it last year, I'll have to look at it again. There are guys sitting behind our 17 at the moment who don't get to play footy on the weekend."

That lack of match fitness would make it particularly tough on someone like 19-year-old Dearden, who has just five caps and hasn't played since round 13 last year due to injury.

"We'll have a look at that, it's a challenge at the moment for young Tom, he's a super player but he's only played one full game of footy since last May," Seibold said.

"He's an NRL player of future, he did a good job for us last year but we've got to try and protect him too."

Johns in Channel Nine commentary after the game said the team looked "clueless" in attack and their defence was not much better.

" I think he [Milford] needs to be dropped, I'd be putting young Dearden in and giving him a shot," he said.

"The halves just aren't playing together. They need to blow their attack up [Seibold] needs some new ideas, because they are legless."

Johns was adamant Jamayne Isaako was not suited to fullback while fellow commentator Peter Sterling questioned Tevita Pangai jnr's effort, warning him that he would be known as a "fairweather" player if he did not aim up more when the going got tough.

A likely scrimmage match for the Broncos fringe players against the Titans reserve players next Saturday could provide a boost to the conditioning of those players pushing for a chance, Seibold added.

Despite the margin of the loss, Seibold said his team's effort was mostly good.

"But we're giving to many garbage penalties away and not completing our sets at different times – good teams make you pay," he said.

"It comes down to individuals taking responsibility … last week it was a 7-0 penalty count in the second half. It comes down to individuals at different times not doing their jobs and Newcastle made us pay."

Knights coach Adam O'Brien praised the effort of his forward pack, led by the Saifiti twins and David Klemmer.

"They've got themselves in really good physical condition," O'Brien said.

The fact the Knights pack was not rated by most experts at the start of the year was something they took personally, he said.

"It's early days we need them to continue to lay the platform they are," he added.

Of the decision to rest centre Enari Tuala in favour of Gehamat Shibasaki, O'Brien said there were several factors including Tuala's heavy workload over the previous three games and the chance for Shibasaki to play his former club.

"Enari has been leading the GPS across the board for every game he's played so there were two trains of thought," O'Brien said.

"We've got four centres going hard at it, it's a long season. I didn't want to be too cute but I don't want to get six weeks in then if something does happen we're bringing in a guy that hasn't played all year.

"It's a reward for effort but also reward for Enari who's been redlining for four weeks."

O'Brien said Mitchell Pearce had pulled up well despite appearing to suffer a whiplash courtesy of a late shot that left Pat Carrigan on report.