Michael Ennis believes the “emotional drain” of the Origin period may have “taken its toll” as he and fellow Fox League expert James Graham tried to make sense of Brisbane’s stunning fall from grace.
Once a top-four hope, the Broncos have lost four of their past five games to tumble out of the eight and leave coach Kevin Walters desperately scrambling for answers.
Walters has made one significant change this week, recalling Tyson Gamble in place of Ezra Mam, although it is questionable whether that addresses the root of Brisbane’s issues.
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Speaking on ‘NRL 360’ on Tuesday night, Ennis described Brisbane’s performances in the past fortnight as “pretty embarrassing”, conceding 50 points in consecutive games for the first time in club history.
Everyone has their opinion on what has gone wrong at Red Hill and for Ennis, he pointed towards the relative youth of the squad and its inability to deal with the post-Origin period.
“You just look at their squad,” he said.
“Whilst Reynolds and Capewell are there, they’re still so young and there was so much hype around their mid-season run when they won seven in a row. It all became individual, chasing rep jerseys and that takes its toll.
“At the backend of the season it’s really critical, not those two or three weeks after Origin, it’s the emotional drain of Origin that hits you around Round 18 or 19. While they were able to maintain that a number of weeks after Origin because the Queensland blokes were on such a high and the youth in them, it’s caught up with them.
“I’m not sure whether it’s fatigue or attitude, but one way or another, 50 or 60 points in the last two weeks is pretty embarrassing.”
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Walters seemed to suggest an attitude problem was at the heart of Brisbane’s woes when speaking to reporters in the aftermath of its heavy defeat to Parramatta.
“It’s just disappointing for everyone. Obviously, we just need to fix our defence more than anything,” he said at the time.
“Our attitude hasn’t been where it needs to be at this time of the year to compete against the good sides. I’m not going to make any excuses. It (defence) hasn’t been good enough.”
Ennis though leaned towards “fatigue” being a bigger problem.
“We saw Selwyn Cobbo go to the club and say he needed a spell the other day,” he said.
“The fact they can’t find those gears anymore suggests maybe they haven’t [dealt with the grind of the season well].”
There has been plenty of drama at Red Hill this week amid reports two players took exception with Walters’ spray at the playing group after the loss to Parramatta.
Returning forward Patrick Carrigan was certainly not one of them though, calling Walters’ comments “fair and honest” on Monday.
“It was warranted. Not only as players but as fans we are a little bit disappointed in the club’s performances over the last couple of weeks,” he added.
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Graham said that while Broncos fans will be disappointed to miss the finals, a ninth-placed finish may better reflect where the side is at right now.
“Maybe this is actually where they are at and we all sort of fell in love with them,” he said.
“They didn’t start the season particularly well. Yes, they went on a bit of a run but perhaps they fell in love with themselves, believed their own press and instead of focusing on what they had done to get there, they started think we’re just naturally a top-four team.
“Perhaps that could be the answer.”
What was most concerning for Graham though was the fact Brisbane did not fire a shot after its embarrassing defeat to Melbourne the week prior.
“That’s the concern,” he added.
“You can understand the Melbourne Storm will put the cleaners through you but what we want to see is a response and there was absolutely zero response against the Parramatta Eels.”
The Broncos have to beat the Dragons this week to keep their top-eight hopes alive and will likely be relying on the Raiders losing to the Tigers, unless they run up a significant score.
