Broncos must find a solution fast to slow starts: Haas

Having plunged from fourth to seventh on the back of two heavy defeats, the Broncos know the time has come to put the steel back in their defence or risk missing the finals for a third straight year.

After running in six tries to roll the Eels in Round 19, the Broncos looked to have a top-four spot at their mercy, but losses to Wests Tigers and the Roosters have left them vulnerable as they head into a testing final month of the regular season.

This Saturday’s clash with the Knights has taken on extra significance as the Broncos look to turn their form around ahead of blockbuster home games against the Storm and Eels.

Should the Roosters beat the Cowboys in Saturday's early game and the Broncos lose to Newcastle, Kevin Walters’ men will fall to eighth and could have the Raiders for company if the Green Machine down the Dragons on Sunday.

Rather than being distracted by a host of complex scenarios, the Broncos have narrowed their focus to rectifying the slow starts that have cost them the past two weeks and getting their defence right.

“The last two weeks our first 10 minutes has been pretty poor and I think it’s an attitude thing,” prop Payne Haas told NRL.com.

“Good teams are going to blow us off the park if we start slow and then it’s too late to claw back.

“If we keep on playing like this it’s going to end pretty badly so we have come out full of intent [against the Knights].

“We’ve tried not to talk about finals because we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”

Having missed the finals only four times in the past three decades, the Broncos could be forgiven for letting their minds wander to September, especially given they have already beaten fellow contenders Souths, Cronulla and Parramatta in 2022.

If they are to be part of the play-off action for the first time in three years, the Broncos are well aware they can’t dish up the sort of defensive effort that has seen them miss 94 tackles in their past two matches.

“We’ve had a bit of a wake-up call to show that we are not where we need to be ahead of the finals,” said hooker Billy Walters.

“Our focus is the start of the game, we were down 18-0 pretty quick against the Roosters.

“We have to get our defence right because we an’t be doing that against good teams.

“We’re a lot better team than what we are showing.”