Making the four was huge, but now the rubber hits the road for Madge Maguire and the Brisbane Broncos.
The win at Suncorp against the Storm 30-14, means that Melbourne hobble into the playoffs themselves, much weakened by both their recent form and the injuries they carry.
“Hunty and Billy did a great job in the halves, Jessi was able to come in and do a great job,” said Madge.
Paddy Carrigan spoke about the defensive resilience around training their goal-line defence.
“We have a group of leaders that are aligned with what we want to achieve.”
“The crowd were unbelievable, you can’t thank them enough. The flair in the attack made the crowd come alive.”
Madge is quietly confident his boys can blow the post-season apart.
Two players who have made a massive contribution to the Raiders Minor Premiership are Jamal Fogarty and Joseph Tapine.
Strong second halves have been one trend, presumably a higher level of fitness. Conversion from repeat sets is another trend that the Raiders have ridden this season, as well as defending repeat sets and causing fewer errors than their opponents consistently.
One of their biggest strengths is post-contact metres, which have been superior virtually all season against their opponents.
Josh Papalii is doubtful for the game on Sunday. Adam Reynolds is confident he will be fit to lead the Broncos at Canberra Stadium.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST BRONCOS GAME IN CANBERRA?
- The Raiders got up 32-22 on March 15 at Gio Stadium.
- Jesse Arthurs had three tries for the Broncos and Matty Nicholson had 2 for the Raiders
- Deine Mariner had a solid game with two line breaks, running for 227 metres in the game.
- Sebastien Kris for the Raiders had two line breaks, running a total of 162 metres.
- The Raiders as a team had 647 post-contact metres to 565 for the Broncos.
- Payne Haas had 76 post-contact metres, Deine Mariner 64 and Selwyn Cobbo 62.
- For the Raiders, Hudson Young had 68 post-contact metres, Sebastian Kris had 63.
- Raiders had seven line breaks to four for the Broncos, and 44 Raider tackle breaks to 35 for the Broncos.
- The Broncos did win the offload battle 13-7.
A win for the Broncos will put them into a Preliminary Final at Suncorp, a loss would place them into a knock-out semi-final at Suncorp against the Sharks or the Roosters.
Published 9-Sept-2025
