Disappointed Brisbane coach Kevin Walters says the Broncos have an attitude problem and the club’s late-season free-fall is ultimately on him.
The Broncos were embarrassed at home for second time in the space of six days with Thursday night’s 53-6 demolition from Parramatta following a 60-12 defeat at the hands of Melbourne last weekend.
After conceding 113 points in their last 160 minutes of football, Brisbane’s finals hopes sit uncomfortably on a knife’s edge with their for-and-against plummeting from plus-21 to minus 26, one point worse than Canberra who play Manly on Saturday.
If the Raiders beat the Sea Eagles, Brisbane will be out of the top eight before Sunday and face a must-win clash with St George Illawarra next Saturday.
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Walters said the performance against the Eels was “terrible” and was made all the worse by the horror injury toll that included captain Adam Reynolds (concussion) in his 250th NRL match, Kobe Hetherington (concussion), Brenko Lee (hamstring) and Tom Flegler (throat) who was taken to hospital after having trouble breathing after copping an elbow in an attempted tackle.
Flegler was also put on report for a shoulder charge in a night to forget for Brisbane.
Match Highlights: Broncos v Eels
After missing 66 tackles against the Storm, Brisbane missed 53 against the Eels who had the game signed, sealed and delivered by halftime.
“It’s just disappointing for everyone. Obviously, we just need to fix our defence more than anything. Our attitude hasn’t been where it needs to be at this time of the year to compete against the good sides,’’ Walters said.
“I’m not going to make any excuses. It (defence) hasn’t been good enough.
We’ve got to fix our attitude more than anything else.’
Broncos coach Kevin Walters
Walters said the buck stopped with him.
“I take full responsibility. Obviously, it’s my job to prepare this team and get them ready to play each week so I take responsibility, I’m not shifting the blame anywhere,’’ he said.
“We want our team to perform well and we are not performing well…we don’t have too many answers at the moment, to be honest, but we just need to fix our attitude…our discipline. It’s a momentum swing and we are struggling to get it back,’’ he said.
“It’s up to us to turn it around. We are aware of what is going on but being aware of it and stopping it are two different things.’’
Walters said Reynolds was feeling as well as could expected after failing a HIA in the first half. He said the Broncos would welcome back Origin stars Patrick Carrigan and Selwyn Cobbo next week with centre Herbie Farnworth an “outside chance” of playing against the Dragons,
“Ever looking for the positive, we are still alive, we’ve got another week against the Dragons,’’ he said.
The Adam Reynolds injury