Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold has told his players they can’t cast an eye towards the NRL’s finals without first controlling their own destiny against Canterbury.
The Broncos are all but assured of a spot in the top eight, unless they are beaten by the Bulldogs on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium and Wests Tigers and Cronulla draw on Sunday.
The chances of that are particularly remote when considered there has been just one draw in the past 600 regular season games dating back to late 2016.
But Seibold won’t rest on those long odds, determined to make sure the Broncos don’t have to sit through a nervous Sunday before finding out who they will play next week.
“We’re not getting carried away. We can’t be looking ahead. At the end of the day we want to get the business done,” Seibold said.
“We want to go into Sunday without having our destiny in our own hands.
“We’re going down there for a business trip. We’re not going down there for a holiday or to look ahead for two or three weeks’ time.
“It’s a narrow focus for this week.”
If they do win through, Brisbane will suddenly enter the finals as one of the danger teams of the top four.
They have won six of their past nine, and played out the NRL’s lone draw of the year against the Warriors in that run.
It comes after their season looked in despair after 15 rounds, as they sat third from the bottom and on the verge of just the fifth season out of the finals in their history.
“One thing that has helped us is we’ve had a really good opportunity to play some top-eight sides in recent weeks,” Seibold said.
“We had a good contest against South Sydney, Parramatta are sitting sixth, and when we played Penrith a few weeks back they were sitting seventh at the time.
“Our young players have grown. I’m really proud of the fact they’ve done that as the season has gone on.”
Seibold will take no risks on the injury front though, with star forward Joe Ofahengaue given one more week to recover from a calf injury.
The Queensland State of Origin middle man had been named on an extended bench, but will drop off in the hope he can be fit for the finals.
“The medical staff tell me he should be able to train by Tuesday, so that gives us another three or four days (for his recovery),” Seibold said.
STATS THAT MATTER
* Brisbane have won eight of their last 12 against Canterbury.
* Canterbury must score four points to avoid being the first since Western Suburbs in 1999 not to reach 300 in a season.
* Brisbane bust the most tackles per game (30.8), while Bulldogs bust the second fewest (20.4).
* Stats: Fox Sports Stats
