NRL 2023 grand final: All the Brisbane Broncos team and training news
Kevin Walters has provided an update on star centre Herbie Farnworth who failed to finish Brisbane’s first training ahead of the grand final . Get the latest news Broncos from training!
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The Broncos have received a huge boost with star backline duo Herbie Farnworth and Reece Walsh cleared to play in Sunday night’s grand final against Penrith.
Brisbane’s grand final preparations suffered a major scare on Tuesday when British Test flyer Farnworth failed to finish the Broncos’ first hitout of the week at Suncorp Stadium.
Meanwhile, fullback Walsh, skipper Adam Reynolds and superstar prop Payne Haas all appeared to be carrying varying degrees of ailments ahead of the Broncos-Panthers blockbuster at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
But Walters has moved to scupper fears of a Broncos injury crisis. Contacted by this masthead after Brisbane’s Suncorp session, Walters confirmed Farnworth had tightness in his left quad and thigh, but insists he is in no danger of missing the grand final.
Just hours earlier, Farnworth walked off the field an hour into Tuesday morning’s session after having his left leg assessed by Broncos medical staff.
The in-form centre took off his training shirt and had his upper leg strapped before watching the end of the session.
Young centre Deine Mariner replaced Farnworth at left centre for the final few minutes of the hitout.
A British World Cup representative, Farnworth scored two tries and ran for 200m in Brisbane’s 42-12 preliminary final thrashing of the Warriors last Saturday.
The Broncos desperately need the strapping 103kg centre at full fitness for his centre duel with Penrith rival Izack Tago and Brisbane teammates are confident Farnworth will be on deck for his grand-final debut.
“He’ll be right, I spoke to him before,” Broncos forward Kobe Hetherington said when asked about Farnworth.
“He just said ‘I’ll be right’ in his accent (English).
“He’s a tough bugger and will be right to go.”
Kotoni Staggs said he hoped his centre partner would be fit for the decider.
“I didn’t even see what happened. I saw he wasn’t in the last drill but I couldn’t tell you,” he said.
“He showed everyone last week what he could do. He’s one of the best centres in the comp at the moment and deserves all the credit he gets.
“We’ve got to get our training sessions right. We’ve only got a couple of days to prepare and today was pretty good.”
Earlier, Walsh, Reynolds and Haas had tongues wagging as the Broncos hit the training paddock for their first proper hit-out in their mission to smash a 17-year premiership drought on Sunday night.
Queensland Origin custodian Walsh appeared to be the biggest concern after having his left leg worked on extensively during the warm-up drills.
Walsh was attended to by Broncos medical staff for several minutes, who worked on what looked like a hamstring-glute complaint.
Walsh re-joined his teammates shortly after but continued stretching and clutching at his leg.
The Broncos didn’t hit 100 per cent intensity throughout the session so Walsh did not have to test the leg with his explosive speed.
Captain and halfback Reynolds was limping briefly after copping a knock to his left knee during an opposed drill against Brisbane’s reserves.
Reynolds went to ground briefly then gingerly jogged back into Brisbane’s defensive line. When play stopped, medical staff inspected his knee before he re-joined the session.
Haas wore a red bib throughout the session which usually signals “no contact”, however he was involved in opposed drills – albeit far from full intensity.
The towering prop had his hand looked at by Broncos medical staff but didn’t appear to be inconvenienced throughout the hit-out.
The Broncos will travel to Sydney on Wednesday for the Dally M Awards before training in Wests Tigers’ territory at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday.
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