Battling Bronco Brodie Croft under microscope at Leichhardt Oval as future reaches crossroads
Brodie Croft’s future is squarely on the line at Leichhardt Oval against Wests Tigers, particularly if he wants to take on Melbourne Storm — which called time on him — next week, writes Robert Craddock.
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Will Brodie Croft next week get the chance to play the team who sacked him because they did not think he could take them to a premiership?
That’s the Melbourne Storm outfit who cut him loose because they felt they could not back him to take the right option under white-hot pressure when the game was on the line.
Surely the match against the Storm was the first one Croft looked at when the draw was handed down for this truncated season.
But he’s not there yet.
Croft’s future is squarely on the line at Leichhardt Oval on Friday night against Wests Tigers when he plays against Benji Marshall and his former Brisbane Easts teammate Billy Walters. These two know each other inside out so there will be no secrets and no excuses.
Nine matches into his first grade career for the Broncos, Croft is yet to fully define himself.
There’s no doubt he has a crack. He tackles well and runs with occasional sting when the mood takes him.
He has some nice moments but the problem is occasional niceness is not enough for a team in crisis.
Someone called him the guy who does everything and nothing. A bit harsh but we get it.
He’s in the thick of everything, hustling and bustling and full of effort, yet without taking true control.
Game management-wise, he is yet to answer for Brisbane the questions which Melbourne felt he did not answer for them.
Can he run a team? Does he know when you run and when to pass? Can he organise? Can he inspire?
Coach Anthony Seibold wants Croft to run more.
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Significantly, Croft was originally chosen this season as co-captain with Pat Carrigan when Alex Glenn was out injured. With Glenn gone again for two months, Carrigan alone will captain the side against the Tigers.
Seibold said Croft had been left to focus on his own game.
He said a key part of that game was building partnerships and constant change has not helped.
That’s true.
In its past 22 games (including 13 before Croft landed), Brisbane has fielded four fullbacks, four hookers and four halfbacks.
And yet it does not change the fact that the swirling mist around him only counts for so much.
There has been times over the past four or five years when Daly Cherry-Evans has been playing in Manly teams so devastated by injury it’s as if they have been recruited from a hospital ward.
Yet he still looks in charge. And he finds a way to shine and inspire.
It can be done.
Nothing will come easily at Leichhardt Oval.
Rain is tipped. The temperature will be no more than 14C. Wests are down and desperate and dangerous.
A rugged night beckons — the perfect time for a player under threat to rise and shine.
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Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold is wary of Benji Marshall and has challenged Broncos halfback Brodie Croft to fight fire with fire with his Wests Tigers rival in the crucial clash in Sydney.
Croft was signed by Seibold to give the Broncos some offensive structure but the Brisbane coach has urged the former Storm halfback to outpoint Marshall by running the ball at every opportunity.
Marshall plays his 314th NRL game against his former Broncos club and will be confident his 17 years of NRL experience will see him outsmart Brisbane halves Anthony Milford and Croft at Leichhardt Oval.
For Croft, a scrumbase showdown with Marshall represents one of the biggest tests of his 48-game career and Seibold urged the Broncos halfback to straighten the attack against the Tigers.
Croft, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on Tuesday, scored one of the finest solo tries of the season in Round 3 against the Eels, dummying through the line and racing 40m to score.
“I don’t want Crofty thinking, ‘just shift the footy’,” Seibold said.
“We want him taking the line on and playing really direct. That is when he plays his best.
“He has scored some really good tries with the Storm and we saw him score a cracker against Parramatta when he took the line on.
“That is what we want him doing more of and when he does that, he adds not only more of a threat to his own game but also to our team as well.
“We encourage both our halves to run. When Milly (Milford) and Crofty take the line on, they are dangerous.”
It was Marshall’s 12-month stint at the Broncos in 2017 that helped resurrect his spluttering NRL career, providing the rejuvenation that has enabled the 35-year-old to embark on a second coming at the Tigers.
With the Tigers to deploy rookie Billy Walters at five-eighth, Marshall will dictate proceedings and Seibold warned Broncos players not to let him run riot.
“Benji has played some really good footy coming off the bench and did a reasonable job last weekend when they made a change and he played in the halves,” he said.
“Benji is a really good player. Billy Walters is another who has played there and I thought he did a really good job at nine.
“Benji brings a fair bit of threat but every team we play has a decent half.
“We will have to make sure we are defensively strong and play on our terms rather than let them (Marshall and Walters) go to the line.”
The Broncos suffered another injury blow with rookie centre Herbie Farnworth (cork) ruled out, joining a swelling casualty ward containing Alex Glenn, Matt Lodge, Jake Turpin, Kotoni Staggs and David Fifita.
Seibold backed Farnworth‘s replacement Richie Kennar to step up in the centres.
“Richie has played first grade before at South Sydney and also Melbourne Storm so he is a good replacement for Herbie,” he said.