A desperate tackle by inspirational prop Payne Haas has convinced coach Anthony Seibold that Brisbane are up for the fight to nail an NRL top eight finish.
The Broncos appeared to butcher a golden chance to stay in the finals hunt when they could only manage a rare 18-all draw with the Warriors at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
When the dust settled on the first NRL draw since round 21 2016, Brisbane were three points outside the top eight after round 17.
Yet Seibold was confident Brisbane would be in the finals mix if they followed the example of ex-NSW prop Haas who ran 30m to pull off a miraculous tackle on a try-bound Chanel Harris-Tavita to shut down a break from electric Warriors No.1 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
“I said to the boys there was no better example than Payne Haas running down Harris-Tavita at the back end of the game – that was a special tackle,” Seibold said.
“That’s what I just said to the guys that we take away the effort part of our game.
“If we keep turning up and put in an effort like that every weekend then we are heading in the right direction – there is a lot of passion there.”
Seibold said Brisbane weren’t satisfied with the draw despite fighting back from a 16-6 halftime deficit.
However, he believed they had shown they wouldn’t die wondering this season thanks to Haas’ heroics, despite slumping to a 6-9-1 (win-loss-draw) record.
“He’s a special player. That tackle at the death probably showed that – he ran down a half,” Seibold said of Haas.
“And the boys are really disappointed which I think is a good thing, you can’t be happy with getting one point.
“But there were some areas I really liked, particularly our effort areas.”
Seibold confirmed he would also persevere with Anthony Milford at fullback and skipper Darius Boyd at pivot as they zeroed in on a top eight finish.
“I thought Milly was really good at the back there. With his kick returns he looked dangerous,” he said.
“He probably has to tidy a bit up with good ball but then again we didn’t get a lot.
“And Darbs I thought he did a really good job, he got involved – I liked what I saw from both those guys.”
Milford looked dangerous but did have some regrets after spraying two field goal attempts wide in golden point.
He wasn’t alone – overall a total of six field goal attempts from both sides went awry in the 10 minute extra-time period.
“I wish I took my time a little bit more on that second one. I thought I was getting rushed a little bit more when I executed,” Milford said.
Meanwhile, Seibold confirmed Queensland players Matt Gillett (groin) and winger Corey Oates (leg) would return for Thursday’s clash with Canterbury.
