Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold says he never considered handing back the reins to dumped skipper Darius Boyd after new captain Alex Glenn failed to prove his fitness ahead of Friday’s NRL season opener against North Queensland.
And while Seibold admitted it was “unusual” for Brodie Croft to be making his club debut as co-captain with 19-game forward Pat Carrigan, he backed the 22-year-old pair to stand tall against the Cowboys.
Seibold raised eyebrows when he overlooked 318-game veteran Boyd and opted for Croft and Carrigan – who boast a combined 58 matches of NRL experience – to lead the Broncos after Glenn succumbed to a hamstring complaint.
As a result, lock Carrigan will become the NRL’s most inexperienced captain while ex-Melbourne half Croft is yet to play a game for the Broncos.
Boyd – set to retire at season’s end – has been named at centre for the Cowboys clash but will not have the ‘c’ back against his name.
Seibold insisted he was not tempted to give Boyd another shot after stripping the former Test fullback from the captaincy in the wake of the Broncos’ disappointing 2019 season which culminated in a record 58-0 finals loss to Parramatta.
“Not really. Darius has had his time as captain, he will lead in any case,” the coach said.
“He is part of our leadership group, he doesn’t need the ‘c’ beside his name.”
New signing Croft struggled to establish himself in the Storm’s best side, playing 39 games in four seasons at Melbourne, but was rushed into the Broncos’ leadership group following his off-season arrival at the Queensland club.
Now he finds himself as co-captain alongside Carrigan, who will make just his third NRL start on Friday.
Seibold does not believe he is heaping too much pressure on the pair by asking them to lead a young Broncos in a much-hyped season opener at the Cowboys’ new Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville.
“What I want to do is grow leadership within the group and build it over a period of time,” he said.
“Yes it’s unusual for Brodie to be a co-captain in his first game. But we need him to lead us around the park … so give him a voice, put the ‘c’ beside his name.
“(And) Patty has a long history at under-age level, even in school (level) he was a captain, so he has shown leadership skills for a long period of time.
“A couple of our key leaders in (Matt) Lodge (knee) and Alex are out. We want to develop and grow our squad and have a couple of young leaders have their turn at captaincy.”
