Broncos too nice: Hodges

No more Mr Nice Guy.

Brisbane captain Justin Hodges admits his team needs a major attitude adjustment after being “too nice” in their NRL season-opening loss.

Hodges challenged his team to get down and dirty for Friday night’s away clash with bruisers Cronulla after all but playing gracious hosts in their 36-6 loss to South Sydney last week.

Hodges said their unexpected polite nature ensured they did not “test” the new ruck interpretation, allowing the South Sydney juggernaut to rumble along.

“We probably didn’t test them out, we were being too nice in tackles and getting off,” he said of the new ruck interpretation designed to speed up the game.

“Other sides did it well. We are still being nice but we will need to fix that up.”

Hodges said there was no sign at training of what was to come in last Thursday night’s disastrous season start.

“It was a hard lesson learnt. We made some stupid mistakes,” he said.

“Leading up to the game there were no signs of a bad performance.

“It’s all attitude. We know we shot ourselves in the foot.

“We have to come out with a bit of attitude on Friday night and do the things that most players don’t want to do, starting with me.”

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett criticised ex-skipper Sam Thaiday for giving away three key penalties against the Rabbitohs and hinted that the veteran backrower would be benched against Cronulla.

But Hodges tried to play down the public spray.

“He sets his standards high and Sam is one of our leaders but everyone makes mistakes,” he said.

“He is more critical of us because he knows how well we trained all pre-season.

“Sammy will come back better. That’s the type of player he is.

“And it’s only round one.”

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