Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin says his forwards are starting to play the brand of football needed to beat the best teams in the NRL.
He believes the willingness of his forwards to get their hands dirty in tough wins over Queensland rivals Gold Coast and North Queensland in their last two games is a good sign.
The Broncos will need more of it, with a confrontation with South Sydney’s giant pack looming after Saturday night’s battle with a desperate Wests Tigers.
“If I have to be pinned down to one thing, I think our forwards are getting us into a real tough grind of football which we want to play,” said Griffin on Friday.
“As with any team you are your best when your forwards are leading the way.
“Our forwards have been good the last couple of weeks. I thought they did a great job against the Cowboys pack.”
Griffin wasn’t interested in recent compliments coming Brisbane’s way as they took their season record to 3-3.
“Like I said when you (media) were all bagging the crap out of us, we don’t listen too much,” he said. “We’re not interested in the feedback.
“If we start sitting on our hands now thinking everything is going alright the results will start to go against us.”
The Tigers have shuffled their side around with exciting young prospect James Tedesco moving from wing to fullback to allow the creative Tim Moltzen to team with teenager Curtis Sironen in the halves.
Griffin expected Sironen to bring a different style to the game than injured star Benji Marshall usually offers and he felt Tedesco was also a player to watch.
“He’s a quality player. He brings a different dynamic to them at five-eighth,” said Griffin.
“He’s a big strong kid, a real runner of the football and direct like another forward.
“I’m sure they’ll play a lot straighter with him there. He’s not a ball player like Benji Marshall.
“He’s certainly a handful in defence.”
Tedesco has only played a handful of NRL games but Griffin noted his potential had won him a representative call up last weekend.
Broncos prop Josh McGuire trained strongly on Friday morning and will take on the Tigers on a limited preparation.
“Josh hasn’t played much footy this year,” said Griffin.
“He came off the bench against the Dragons and only lasted five or 10 minutes so he’s really only played one game in the last five or six weeks.
Griffin was wary of the wounded Tigers.
“They haven’t been far away the last few games,” he said.
“They probably beat themselves against Melbourne then they did a lot of things wrong and only went down by a point to St George Illawarra.
“They’re ready to beat someone. We just have to get down there and make sure it is not us.”
