Wayne Bennett challenges Broncos to prove they have the hunger to win the premiership
WAYNE Bennett has one question for his Broncos players — do you have the hunger to end Brisbane’s title drought?
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WAYNE Bennett has challenged Brisbane’s stars to prove they have the hunger to win the premiership as the Broncos fight to resurrect their teetering campaign against the Cowboys tonight.
The Broncos enter the Queensland derby blockbuster in Townsville under pressure to prove their title bona fides after conceding 52 points in last week’s defensive debacle against the Eels.
Bennett dismissed concerns the Broncos are faltering at the worst possible time but admits his squad has room for improvement and must go to another level to break the club’s 11-year title drought.
The Broncos coach lauded his troops’ efforts in qualifying for the top four but says the job isn’t done yet as Brisbane brace for the month that will make-or-break their premiership dream.
Bennett has a longstanding mantra about his players “paying the price” and it was that philosophy which underpinned Brisbane’s most recent premiership victory in their defeat of Melbourne in the 2006 grand final.
Asked if his class of 2017 were again ready to pay the price, Bennett was unequivocal.
“We’re going to find out,” he said ahead of Thursday’s encounter with their 2015 grand final nemesis.
“The guys paid a price to get here — but there is another month to go after this.
“We’ll answer that question a lot better in the next month.
“We’re as good as anybody else. A lot of teams won’t be playing next week (in the finals).
“A lot of our critics didn’t think we were going to make the top eight, so who knows what we can do from here?”
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Bennett hit out at suggestions the Broncos were feeling the heat after former Brisbane hitman Peter Ryan arrived at training this week to help the squad with some defensive techniques.
Before the Eels clash, Bennett admitted his singular fear was his team not turning up when it mattered.
But Bennett insists the presence of Ryan at Red Hill should not be viewed as a sign Brisbane are losing faith in their structures.
“There is still a lot of upside in this team,” he said.
“I just want to move on from it (the Eels loss). If we were doing it all season, it would be a different matter, but we haven’t been doing it all season ... 21 (good defensive efforts) out of 23 games isn’t too bad.
“To be honest, Peter Ryan was talking about coming for the last couple of weeks. You guys (the media) had a ball with it, but that’s OK, it took a lot of issues away, which was good.
“He worked here as a defensive coach and he is good at what he does. But we have good structures here and we’re not behind in those areas — we just had a bad day.
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“I can’t ask any more of the guys, but there will be another competition starting next week.”
Broncos veteran Benji Marshall said Brisbane players are determined to hit back after their Eels reality check.
“I really enjoyed having Peter Ryan here,” he said.
“He mainly spoke about technique and mindset stuff. That’s what it is. The Parramatta game ... our mindset was in a different place and we were expecting it to be easier than it was going to be. But we will turn it around this week.”
Originally published as Wayne Bennett challenges Broncos to prove they have the hunger to win the premiership
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