The Broncos and Michael Maguire has been handed a hammer blow with a trio of stars going down with hamstring injuries which Brisbane’s coach described as “really strange”.
Adam Reynolds was the first to depart, with the 35-year-old limping over the sideline after a longwinded play that ended with a Xavier Coates break.
The veteran playmaker was chasing the Storm winger and stopped in his tracks in a moment that showed he was “clearly gone” according to commentator Andrew Voss.
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But if losing their star No.7 wasn’t enough, Mam followed him after injuring himself in the same play and struggled to walk down the tunnel with a hamstring blow of his own.
Then to close out the contest, Selwyn Cobbo grabbed at his leg and left the field with only minutes left in the contest to round out what was a nightmare night.
“I just spoke to the three of them, we have to go and get our scans and got through the process, the severity of them,” Maguire said post-match.
“But they are all three hamstrings, which is quite strange because the boys are pretty measured about what they do with the players throughout the week.
Adam Reynolds, Michael Maguire and Ezra Mam.Source: FOX SPORTS
“There’s no real evidence of why… but we will dig in and have a look. But I have to say I am really proud of the way the players performed.
“I though the players fought right to the death, I’ve never been apart of a game where you lose your two halfbacks.
“Then the chopping and changing of players and we were still in the game in some way towards the back end, so that says a lot about the character of this team.”
Regardless of the severity of the trio of blows, Maguire was confident he has the depth to cover their losses.
Off-season recruit Ben Hunt, as he did during the game, will make a move into the halves and could partner Billy Walters, Jock Madden or Coby Black.
Meanwhile, the vacant hooker spot could be taken by Walters, Cory Paix or Tyson Smoothy while Jesse Arthars and Josiah Karapani will fight it out for Cobbo’s wing position.
“We will be alright, we have people in the background,” Maguire said.
“Thats part of the progression, we’ve been able to bring a few people in and change around a little bit. So we will work that out during the week.”
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Maguire was then asked what the emotions were like in the coaches box having to deal with both his halfback and five-eighth leaving the field.
“It was crazy to be honest, I’ve never experienced that,” he said.
“To the player’s credit, I thought they handled it really well. They were fighting in that game… it just showed what I feel is the character of what the boys have been building.
“The fight that’s in them, they played tough because they had to.”
Meanwhile, Ben Hunt shared a similar experience on the field.
“Yeah, the next couple of sets after that were pretty chaotic. Kotoni and I swapped sides a couple of times,” Hunt said.
“Like Madge said, we fought hard but we just didn’t really give ourselves a chance. Our end of sets weren’t great, turned over a lot of ball.
“Got to half time, we still felt like we were in it if we could get our act together a bitt.”