Brisbane’s reinforcements have arrived with English international Jack Reed and Queensland forward Corey Parker cleared to return from injury in Canberra against the Raiders on Sunday.
With New Zealand international Josh Hoffman also back from suspension, Brisbane will only be missing strike centre Justin Hodges and winger Jharal Yow Yeh from their top line-up.
Reed returns from a broken leg to left centre allowing the in-form Alex Glenn to shift back into his preferred role in the second-row alongside skipper Sam Thaiday.
Parker (knee) resumes his duties at lock with Josh McGuire dropping to the bench at the expense of Dunamis Lui.
Utility Ben Hunt ran a bit at five-eighth at training on Saturday, suggesting Corey Norman’s groin injury may not be 100 per cent.
Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin said while the late changes would bolster the side they would not guarantee them a win unless the players turned up with the right attitude.
After a week of post mortems, Griffin put his hand up and accepted his share of blame for Brisbane’s last two losses to the Gold Coast and Parramatta, admitting he’d been guilty of losing focus.
“I probably haven’t been at my best either the way we’ve been preparing,” said Griffin.
“Something like that (42-22 loss to Parramatta) on Monday night smacks you in the face and gives you a reason to have a look in the mirror.
“Everyone one of us need to do better.”
Griffin however rejected suggestions anyone one was “under examination” saying Brisbane had experienced a few bad weeks and needed to be better on Sunday.
He said he and the players accepted they had to be accountable for their performances.
“There’s no issue there,” he said.
“When you get a couple of poor losses, everyone is responsible not just three or four players or a few incidents in the game.”
The players have spoken about attitude all week and what they need to do to get back on track but Griffin said the time for talking was over.
“They don’t need to do any more talking. They’re not different people to what they were a month ago when people were kissing them on the backside and telling them how good they were going,” he said.
“We’ve all got to put our best performance on the field (on Sunday), and next week and the week after and that will get us to where we deserve to be.”
Raiders representative forward Dave Shillington said with only five games left beating Brisbane was “a must” if Canberra wanted to contest the finals.
“Brisbane will be looking forward to having Parker and Reed back,” he said.
Shillington will clash with his Origin teammate Petero Civoniceva, aware he is retiring at season’s end.
“We looked at some video of Petro this morning and he’s definitely still the sort of bloke you don’t run straight on at,” he said.
