There ares no thoughts of impressing future coach Wayne Bennett as a wounded Brisbane attempt to revive their flatlining NRL season next weekend.
Veteran Broncos prop Ben Hannant insists the focus will be fixing continual big-moment mistakes against Newcastle and won’t be affected by Bennett’s shadow on Suncorp Stadium.
Although requiring three wins from the final three rounds to merely be in the hunt for a finals spot, Hannant says Brisbane aren’t throwing in the towel following their 42-16 hammering by South Sydney.
Asked whether there was a double incentive against the Knights, to impress their 2015 mentor as well as win on Sunday week, the former Test forward said: “No, not at all.
“We have a job this year.
“This team has been together for a couple of years now so we know what we need to do.
“We just have to make sure we compete for the 80 minutes and have pride in that jersey we put on every week.
“Our season is not over yet.”
Undone by critical errors at crucial times against the red-hot Rabbitohs, Hannant stressed the Broncos would not brush over mistakes that had become habitual this year under Anthony Griffin.
A prime example was winger Daniel Vidot botching a certain second-half try – that would have put them back in the game at 24-16 and a conversion to come – by dropping the ball cold on Thursday night.
They have also lost five games this season when leading in the final 10 minutes.
“Not singling (Vidot) out, but there’s times in the game where we’ve done things like that which good teams don’t do, but we continually do,” a tough-talking Hannant told AAP.
“We do have a great team but it’s just disappointing that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.
“We won’t bury our heads in the sand. We’re going to get back to work and train hard.”
Even with winnable home games against Newcastle and St George Illawarra to come in the next fortnight, Brisbane’s destiny might be out of their own hands when they travel to Melbourne to play the Storm in the final round.
“We’re definitely in a tough spot and we have no one to blame but ourselves,” Hannant said.
“(Souths) just shows the level we’ve got to get to to be competitive in this competition and they were red hot.”
