Brisbane NRL star Justin Hodges has backed halves pair Peter Wallace and Corey Norman to respond to criticism of their recent form by former player Andrew Gee.
Premiership-winning forward Gee, who’s now the club’s football operations manager, described the form of Brisbane’s halves as “terrible” following the loss to Gold Coast last weekend – their third defeat in five games.
Early-season statistics support Gee’s opinion that the halves are not performing as well as they were earlier in the year when the Broncos were on top of the NRL ladder.
Norman especially is struggling with his running and kicking and is also battling a groin injury.
In his past four games, he has managed just two tackle breaks against Gold Coast and Cronulla and a single off-load against South Sydney.
In four early-round matches against St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers, Canberra and the Titans, Norman was outstanding, collecting 22 tackle breaks, six line breaks, two try assists and seven off-loads as he locked down former star Darren Lockyer’s No.6 jumper.
“Wal and Corey have lost the zip they had earlier in the year,” Gee said after Brisbane failed to back up a tough win a week earlier against the Warriors.
“Their form has been terrible for a month or so now. They played too laterally against the Gold Coast.”
Hodges had no doubt Gee’s comments would hit the target.
“He has been here since day one and he’s got a lot of pride and passion for the club like a lot of the older players do,” said Hodges.
“He came out and said what he had to say.
“There was no intent to put anyone down. He was just trying to motivate our blokes to step up and play the way they were in the first part of the year.
“They’ll do that.
“Everyone has a bad patch or an off patch and I have confidence in our halves to get back to that form.
“I wouldn’t trade them for anyone.”
Hodges, who has targeted the round-23 clash with Canterbury to return from hamstring and ankle injuries, said it wasn’t fair just to blame the halves.
“The players around them have to lift to make them better,” he said.
“They’re only little guys so our forwards have to go forward and our backs have to perform as well.”