Michael Maguire faces a dilemma with how to get Ben Hunt in his team, while the Bulldogs have a huge call to make on Lachlan Galvin’s ongoing bench role.
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MADGE REVEALS HUNT PLAN AS BRONCOS REFUSE TO RELEASE COBBO
Michael Maguire admitted it will be tough to bring Ben Hunt into a winning side after Brisbane beat the Warriors 26-12 for their third straight victory.
The Broncos are now two wins outside the top four with Hunt expected back from a foot injury potentially as early as Round 18.
“He is managing that and today he had a fairly decent run, so I’m looking forward to be able to have him selected,” Maguire said.
“I’ll keep those things pretty close to myself how I go about that because I have got two players in Billy and Cory and the halves are all playing good footy.
“I’ll talk to my senior players and we will manage that over the next little period, but he’s just got to get himself right.
“It has probably gone a little bit longer than we expected just with what he had to deal with, so he is not 100 per cent this week.
“It will be nice to have him available, so we are working really hard towards that and when that comes about we will make those decisions.”
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With Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds back in form as a halves pairing, Magurie admitted Hunt will vie for a position in the dummyhalf rotation.
“I spoke to Hunty early days when he first came to the club that obviously with the spine we have got and he has played at Origin level and for Australia at No.9 and at club level quite often,” Maguire said.
“He is a very capable player, but under the circumstances he ended up playing a bit more No.6 this year.
“We are looking forward to having him in and around the No.9 jersey when the time is right.”
Meanwhile, Maguire denied Selwyn Cobbo will be given an early release despite the Dolphins releasing Junior Tupou to the Roosters mid-season.
“No he’s a Bronco, look I had a really good conversation with him and he wants to be here and get the opportunity of winning a competition at the Broncos,” Maguire said.
“He has said that since I have been here and he is working hard in the background and he is looking fit, so I’m looking forward to having him back in selection when the time is right.”
That appears to be this week with Maguire reportedly set to recall Cobbo for the clash with the Bulldogs.
‘BRUTAL Hit’ forces Metcalf Off! | 00:41
BENNETT PINPOINTS SOUTHS’ HUGE ISSUE AMID LOSING STREAK
Only two teams failed to win a single game in the month of June – the Tigers and the Rabbitohs.
The Tigers are in the midst of a six-game losing streak while Souths have lost their last five.
There have been some good moments for the Rabbitohs among the unwanted streak, but the fact of the matter is that five straight losses are five straight losses.
Their attack is clunky at times while defence can be non-existent but coach Wayne Bennett can pinpoint what he believes the larger issue at hand for his side is.
“We don’t have enough confidence. That’s our biggest challenge. It’s a bit of a battle and a journey,” a candid Bennett said in South Sydney’s post-match press conference on Saturday night.
“I’m up for it. I know what it is, I’ve just got to get on top of their mindsets.”
As Bennett pointed out, the Rabbitohs may have lost their last five, but in each of those games, they’ve won either the first or second half.
That gives Bennett some hope his group are capable of turning things around.
An attitude adjustment is required though.
“There hasn’t been a game we’ve played where he haven’t won a half. We’ve won a half but we haven’t won a game in the last five weeks,” Bennett said.
“They just don’t believe enough.”
The 2025 season is slipping through the proud club’s with next weekend’s clash against Manly shaping up as a must-win.
‘Probably Not’: Wayne’s QLD Hammer call | 03:03
BULLDOGS URGED TO MAKE A CALL ON SPINE AMID AWKWARD GALVIN ROLE
The Bulldogs were brave in their 8-6 loss to the Panthers, but they may need to make a call on getting Lachlan Galvin into their starting side if they want to win the title.
Galvin was back on the bench against the Panthers and it is obvious bringing him on causes disruption to the rhythm of the side as the spine is reshuffled.
With Toby Sexton moving to hooker and Reed Mahoney coming off, Galvin might be better off starting and Ciraldo making a tough call on Sexton or Mahoney.
Bryan Fletcher believes the Bulldogs lose some defensive starch with Sexton in the middle.
“It just sort of seems to, I feel they lose a little bit defensively in the middle there when Mahoney goes off,” Fletcher said.
Matty Johns believes trying to keep all the players happy might be stopping the Bulldogs from building combinations ahead of the finals.
“It’s a funny one at the moment,” Johns said.
“I agree with you. It’s hard to change a winning side so this might mark the change they’re looking for in some way shape or form.
“They’re just trying to work out what the jigsaw puzzle looks like.”
Nathan Hindmarsh questioned what Sexton brings to the side as a hooker.
“Are they gaining anything putting Sexton at No.9 and taking Mahoney off?” Hindmarsh said.
Johns agreed Sexton is not a dummyhalf.
“Just the way he plays, he (Sexton) is not a No.9,” Johns said.
“I don’t know who is going to be the fall guy.”
Despite the criticism, coach Cameron Ciraldo believes there is no reason to change his formula at the moment.
“I thought it worked pretty well tonight,” Ciraldo said.
“I like how it’s working at the moment. Reed rips in, he got his work done, worked himself to a standstill. Toby did a great job going in there and shoring up the ruck again and providing good service.
“And Lachie comes on and can sort of roll around and ask really good questions, which he did, so very happy with how it’s going at the moment. I don’t see any reason to change it.”
But Ciraldo was noncommittal when pressed if he sees Galvin coming off the bench in the big end of season games in September when the finals roll around.
“A lot of things can happen before Round 27,” Ciraldo said.
“You hope your whole squad’s healthy and all sorts of things. And the good thing is we’ve got good depth. We’ve got asking these questions and got headaches around selection.
“But I thought it worked really well tonight. I thought it worked really well the other week. So I don’t see any point in changing at the moment.”
Tracey’s TRY-SAVER of the year – Twice! | 01:14
HONEST BENJI’S ‘DAMNING’ ADMISSION AS TIGERS COME UP SHORT
Just watching the Wests Tigers this season, you can tell that they are on the verge of turning the corner.
But the brutal reality is that the improvement on the field isn’t translating to movement up the ladder, with the Tigers sitting with a 5-10 record and still at risk of collecting another wooden spoon.
Like Parramatta, the Tigers are another example of trusting the process over results and hoping that when he has all his troops healthy, Benji Marshall will be able to turn it around.
But as easy as it would be for Marshall to make excuses given the level of talent missing in Friday’s loss to Manly, the Tigers coach was quite matter of fact in his post-game press conference.
In fact, he went as far as to call it a “step backwards” from his team.
“It’s a bit disappointing. Obviously we were left in a bit of a scramble with Jarome pulling out this morning, and I just thought we didn’t have enough experience in those positions today to get it done,” he said.
“We got dominated in field position. They scored four tries on last play, we piggybacked them out of their half.
“I thought the last few weeks have been really good. Today was I reckon a step backwards.”
The Tigers have now lost six games in a row but outside of the 64-0 hiding at the hands of Melbourne and 28-10 loss to Manly on the weekend, they have been in the fight in the other four.
Two of them, meanwhile, came against premiership threats in Penrith and Canberra.
The Tigers conceded just 34 points in those games, a vast improvement on the poor defensive efforts that defined their 2024 campaign, so with that in mind it would be easy for Marshall to find positives even if the results aren’t necessarily there.
But an honest Marshall admitted that the results speak for themselves.
“If I am looking at it performance wise, yeah, sure we’ve improved. But the results are damning a bit,” the Tigers coach said.
“We’ve improved. But while a lot of people probably expected us to still be at the bottom of the table, we expected a lot more from ourselves.
“A couple of results here or there that maybe could have gone our way, we’re still learning how to win those.”
‘Left scrambling with Luai pulling out’ | 06:10
CATALYST BEHIND PANTHERS’ RECENT FORM
Captain Nathan Cleary said he’s noticed an improvement in the Panthers’ effort in recent weeks, which has been the catalyst for the club’s turnaround.
The four-time premiers have come charging back into premiership contention, winning four games in a row, with their 8-6 victory over the Bulldogs regarded as one of the games of the season.
Penrith now sit in sixth spot on the ladder.
Cleary added the Panthers’ success has been as a result of their effort, which was absent earlier in the season, but has since returned to their game.
“I think there’s definitely that feel of confidence in what we’re capable of, which probably wasn’t there at the start of the year,” he said after the win over Canterbury at CommBank Stadium.
“In terms of that, it’s those effort things.
“Over this four or five year period, I don’t think we’ve ever been the silkiest team, but we’ve definitely been a team that works hard, and that’s probably been the change.
“There’s been games at the start of the year that we could have easily won but there was just moments in the game where we let each other down, we didn’t scramble to save tries, and I think that’s been the difference.
“You definitely feel the confidence building but I think an important part of that is we’ve sort of let go of looking too far ahead.
“I think there were definitely times at the start of the year where you start looking at the ladder and you start thinking, ‘oh, can we make the top eight?’
“But now, it’s like, all right, let’s just focus on each week and just try and build that confidence, build that momentum, and see where it take us.”
The Panthers will enjoy a bye in Round 18 before taking on the Eels in Round 19.
Panthers hold on despite late To’o scare | 01:22
TURBO MOVE ‘NOT A FOREVER THING’… BUT SHOULD IT BE?
Anthony Seibold said Tom Trbojevic’s move to the centres is “not a forever thing”, but if the first-choice fullback continues to impress in his new position maybe the Manly coach won’t have a choice.
Trbojevic was relatively quiet in an uninspiring first half from both teams on Friday night before setting up Jason Saab for the opening try.
He then popped up at five-eighth early in the second half to create extra numbers as Reuben Garrick added to the lead.
It was just a precursor of what was to come from Trbojevic, who was given a licence to roam playing a similar role to the one he did in the Origin arena when in the centres.
Trbojevic finished the night with 125 run metres, seven tackle busts, a try assist and linebreak assist, although the Manly centre — always his biggest critic — admitted to being “pretty disappointed with a few defensive reads”.
But putting that aside, Fox League’s James Graham was adamant the Sea Eagles were a “much better” side with Trbojevic in the centres.
“That (moving Trbojevic around the field) was the catalyst for a number of linebreaks and a number of opportunities instead of hugging that right-hand side of the field,” Graham said.
“Tommy just came in and also played a five-eighth or second fullback role and that really inspired the Manly attack. It created an extra number on that left side of the field.”
Graham also suggested not playing fullback may have kept Trbojevic fresh given he didn’t have to cover as much ground, which allowed him to use more energy getting over to the left edge and offering an extra option in attack, as was the case in the Garrick try.
Seibold confirmed after Friday’s game that Manly would stick with Trbojevic in the centres next week against the Rabbitohs before “taking a breath” and reassessing the move after the Round 19 bye.
While he had an immediate impact in his new role against the Tigers, premiership-winning halfback Cooper Cronk said Trbojevic would be in the fullback jumper come finals football “for sure” if Manly qualify.
“I think it’s a good move for tonight and maybe another week but I don’t think Manly can win a big finals match in September with Tom in the centres,” he said.
Seibold addresses Turbo’s move to centre | 10:18
