Brisbane Broncos coach Michael Maguire has declared the Broncos are “still well and truly alive” in the wake of their 42-point belting at the hands of South Sydney on Thursday night.
The Rabbitohs effectively had the match won at half-time with a 30-point lead, as the reigning NRL premiers slumped to a sixth straight defeat.
Brisbane’s losing run began against top eight sides Sydney, New Zealand and Manly, but defeats by a winless St George Illawarra, two-win Gold Coast and now South Sydney has put the Broncos in a massive hole.
Sitting with a record of 5-9, Brisbane will end round 15 six points adrift of the top eight.
Asked on Thursday on the status of Brisbane’s title defence, Maguire was adamant his squad was still in the premiership fight.
“We’re still well and truly alive, and people will probably think I’m mad,” he said.
“I’ve got a number of guys that are not on the field at this present moment.
“We’re not going to use that as any sort of excuse or anything like that. But they’ll all come back, and there’s a lot of quality there.”
The Broncos were without key players Reece Walsh, Payne Haas and Kotoni Staggs due to State of Origin duty on Thursday, while starters Pat Carrigan, Gehamat Shibasaki, Deine Mariner and Corey Jensen are all injured.
The Broncos were in a hole last year with a record of 5-7 before winning 10 of their final 12 matches to finish fourth on the ladder, then defeating Canberra, Penrith and Melbourne in the grand final to win the club’s first premiership in 19 years.
Over the past three seasons since the NRL expanded to 17 teams, eighth on the ladder has twice needed to win 13 matches (Canberra 2023, Sydney 2025), while the Newcastle Knights got into the top eight with 12 wins in 2024.
Brisbane will need to win eight of their remaining 10 matches to achieve a record of 13-11, a task Maguire still believes can be achieved with the return of absent stars.
“We’re probably in a bit of a tough hole at the moment … We’ll get those boys back at some stage,” he said.
“We all know what the team’s capable of doing.
“So once they get back, and we’ve got to get through this little period now, which is tough for all of us.
“We don’t like going through it, but it can also be the making of us.”
Brisbane has a bye next week, followed by crucial home matches against Sydney and Cronulla.
Captain Adam Reynolds said the team would take the chance to take some time to refresh before making its charge to the finals.
“It’s never nice when you’re losing games, but that’s where you find out about each other and the character of the team,” he said on Thursday.
“We’ve got a lot of spirit and fight within the group.
“We’ll have a little break, get away, and look to go again and reignite our season.”
Six of Brisbane’s next seven matches are against sides who were in the top eight at the beginning of this weekend. The team not in the top eight is the North Queensland Cowboys, who were ninth.
No defending premier has missed finals since Wests Tigers failed to qualify for the 2006 play-offs, following the joint-venture’s only premiership win in 2005.
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