Brisbane Broncos star Anthony Milford facing axe after horror performance
The highest paid player in Brisbane’s 32-year history could find himself on the bench - or worse - next week following another unacceptable performance at five-eighth.
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Immortal Andrew Johns has labelled the Broncos’ attack “clueless” and urged coach Anthony Seibold to find some new ideas and axe star five-eighth Anthony Milford.
The Broncos slumped to a shocking fourth straight defeat in a nightmare 27-6 loss to Newcastle at Central Coast Stadium.
The Broncos have completely lost their way since the NRL season rebooted and Seibold is under mounting pressure to get Brisbane back on track.
The Broncos could be in the bottom four of the NRL ladder by the end of the round and Seibold must find a way to spark a form revival at Red Hill.
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Now six games into a reduced 20-round season, time is running out for Seibold to get the Broncos firing and he must make bold moves to salvage Brisbane’s 2020 campaign.
That may come in the form of dropping one of his playmakers.
While Brisbane’s misfiring forwards have given them little momentum to work with, Milford and halfback Brodie Croft have delivered nothing in four games since the season resumed.
Milford is the highest paid player in Brisbane’s 32-year history and his output has been deplorable.
“I think Milford needs to be dropped - I’d be putting young (Tom) Dearden in and giving him a shot,” Johns told Channel 9.
“The halves just aren’t playing together. With that middle field attack the halves are split and can’t play together.
“They have to absolutely blow their attack up. Anthony Seibold needs to get some new ideas.
“At the moment they are legless. They scored a try tonight off an intercept. They are just clueless in attack.”
At halftime the Broncos were trailing 13-6 and deservedly so.
They bumbled their way to a 60 per cent completion rate on the back of making seven errors and conceded five set restarts with sloppy play in the ruck.
The Broncos’ only points came courtesy of winger Xavier Coates snatching an intercept and running 95m to score.
Props Matt Lodge and Payne Haas have had no potency in their runs and Brisbane’s bench may as well not turn up.
Milford made one run in the first half and finished the game with four runs for a measly 9m.
Seibold has teenage dynamo Dearden waiting for a second crack at the NRL and it is time he pulled the trigger on Milford or Croft.
Croft, in his first season at the Broncos, at least seems to be trying despite not possessing the natural talent of Milford.
When a team isn’t clicking with the ball coaches want to at least see some defensive intent and desire.
That just wasn’t the case for the Broncos and nothing summed up their plight more than when Knights prop Daniel Saifiti strolled over the tryline three minutes into the second half.
With three Broncos defenders hanging off him Saifiti simply showed more intent than his rivals to score a crucial try and extend Newcastle’s lead to 19-6.
The game was as good as over from that moment.
What followed was some of the most embarrassing football in Brisbane’s recent history, which seems to be the norm of late.
The icing on a poorly baked cake for the Broncos was lock Pat Carrigan’s brain snap.
Carrigan, the golden child of the Broncos, was sin-binned for a disgusting late hit on Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce which Immortal Andrew Johns slammed as “dangerous and cheap”.
The Broncos are facing a critical moment in their history and the onus is on Seibold to guide them out of it.