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Brisbane Broncos nightmare plunges to new depths in 26-16 loss to the New Zealand Warriors

The Brisbane Broncos’ season went from bad to downright disastrous on Saturday night with star players left in tears post-game.

Andrew McMurtryAndrew McMurtry
@AndrewMcMurtry
3 min read
July 5, 2020 - 6:54AM
Payne Haas reacts to the Broncos’ latest loss.
Payne Haas reacts to the Broncos’ latest loss.

The Brisbane Broncos nightmare has reached yet another new low with the New Zealand Warriors claiming a stunning 26-16 come-from-behind win.

After a brutal aftermath following the loss to the Gold Coast Titans last week, the Broncos were looking for some good news with a win.

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By halftime it was looking good with the Broncos well on top of their opponents and looking like they were set to snap a five-game losing-streak.

But playing a team full of players who are homesick, have played the entire season away, have dealt with a coach being sacked, players actively looking to head home and superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck out suspended, it should have been smooth sailing for the Broncos.

But when the full-time siren went, the side were once again on the wrong side of the scoreline.

There was no laughing this week, with players including captain Alex Glenn and halfback Brodie Croft visibly upset after the side’s sixth straight loss, the first time since 2012 the side have reached the mark.

“You look at these scenes, I’ve never seen this from Brisbane,” Michael Ennis said on Fox League. “They’ve got some players out there, some of the key players emotional. Alex Glenn in tears, Brodie Croft in tears, a horrible night for Brisbane, another horror night.

In the press conference, Broncos coach Anthony Seibold said he was “disappointed” and ”sad for the group”.

“It makes me sad,” Seibold said. ”We‘ve obviously been heavily criticised and in some ways rightly so for not winning some footy games but it means a lot to the group.

“We work and invest a lot of time in it, we‘re just not getting our jobs done at the moment and the pain you saw in the guys’ faces is how we’re all feeling at the moment. We don’t like getting kicked in the guts and until we start winning games, we’re going to be. But how Brodie and Alex are feeling, that’s how we’re all feeling. It’s really disappointing to see the results when I just know what we’ve got in the change rooms and how hard we’ve worked. I really feel for them.”

Glenn fronted the media post match and the Broncos skipper explained why his burst out.

“It hurts, I just got overwhelmed out there - sometimes we cry and we get upset,” the Broncos skipper said. ”It‘s been a tough couple of weeks and it just hurts because I know the effort we’ve been putting into training every week and it’s just little areas in the game where we’re lacking discipline. I just care for the club and care for this team so much that the emotions just come out and I’m not shying away from it. Sometimes you shed tears.”

Brisbane showed some flair for the first try, going wide to Xavier Coates to cross in the corner, but were turned away time and time again.

Uninspired attack was rejected by the Warriors, with the only other score coming from 90m dash from a Coates intercept – hardly a boost for the club‘s under fire halves combination of Anthony Milford and Croft.

The Warriors could have even snatched the lead with a last pass play going to ground before the side crossed on the halftime siren to make it 10-6 at the break.

The Warriors then started the second well and hit the lead through Agnatius Paasi, with the prop crashing over from close range in what was a rather soft try to snatch the lead 12-10 early in the second half.

“What looked like a comfortable first half for the Broncos at 10-0 has turned ugly for them now,” Greg Alexander said after their second try.

The Broncos then pounced on one of the flukiest tries in memory with a Milford bomb allowed to bounce with an ugly bounce going over the head of Ken Maumalo and into the hands of Herbie Farnworth to take back the lead.

Fox League commentator Dan Ginnane called it a “catastrophe at the back” and “as fluky as it gets” while Greg Alexander said Maumalo “couldn’t have got a worse bounce”.

The New Zealand Warriors have pulled off their third win of the season.
The New Zealand Warriors have pulled off their third win of the season.

The Broncos then pulled off one of the great captain’s challenge under the new rule to deny the Warriors and everything seemed to be going their way.

But the Warriors hit back, scoring three tries in the final 20 minutes to romp over the top of the Broncos to claim the victory.

When Isaiah Papali’i scored with 90 seconds remaining, it was the Warriors’ third win of the season and Alexander called it “one of the more stunning wins of the season”.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/brisbane-broncos-nightmare-plunges-to-new-depths-in-2616-loss-to-the-new-zealand-warriors/news-story/8edd5c91183acf61a0b1d208ed1bad66