Brisbane are on high alert ahead of their NRL showdown with St George Illawarra as they look to combat the Dragons underrated front row and their own disturbing slow starts on Friday night.
The last clash between the two teams at Suncorp Stadium was Darren Lockyer’s final NRL game for the Broncos, with a Lockyer field goal in golden point sealing a Brisbane win.
With three wins and a last-minute loss to the Cowboys, Brisbane have shown they are still a quality side even without Lockyer’s composure and match-winning ability.
Coach Anthony Griffin was always confident Brisbane would adjust to life after Lockyer, whose retirement was a major concern to fans.
Reminded after training on Thursday that Lockyer had been the difference last game he said with a smile: “he can’t be this time”.
But after watching his team fall behind 12-0 against South Sydney last weekend, Griffin is more concerned by the slow starts than he is about who takes over the field goal responsibilities.
“If there was one area last week we didn’t get right it was our first 15 minutes and there’s no excuse for that,” said Griffin.
Another concern is the Dragons impressive front-row rotation which includes fringe NSW props Trent Merrin and Michael Weyman and Country Origin representative Dan Hunt.
That trio will be busting to test themselves against Brisbane’s representative group of Petero Civoniceva, Ben Hannant and Sam Thaiday.
“Weyman, Hunt and Merrin are three quality front-rowers who are probably underrated in general,” Griffin said.
“We have a hell of an amount of respect for them and they’re going to be very hard to stop.”
Dragons halves Jamie Soward and Ben Hornby like to take on the line, putting the defence in two minds which they did well against Manly last weekend.
“Those two have been together for a long time,” said Griffin.
“They’ve won grand finals together. Soward is a State of Origin halfback and with no disrespect to the teams we’ve played, we played Newcastle without (Kurt) Gidley and Souths who were getting into their own rhythm.
“We know we’re playing a real seasoned football side (on Friday) night that are relatively unchanged for the last few years so it’s a huge job for us.”
Griffin was confident Dale Copley would do a good job marking up on robust Dragons winger Jason Nightingale who has played 15 Tests for New Zealand.
“He is a quality player Nightingale, whether he is running or chasing down kicks and he’s a rugged defender,” he said.
“Dale played our three finals for us and produce some very strong footy for us as the back end of last year.
“It will be a good battle between those two.”
