Broncos enforcer Payne Haas is hoping a good win against Storm on Thursday will lock his team into a top four finish as they make their charge into in the finals.<\/p>\n
Traditionally their \u2018bogey side\u2019, with Melbourne boasting a 43-14 (with one draw) record, Haas said the side wanted to put in an improved performance leading into the finals, after narrowly beating the Cowboys last round.<\/p>\n
That win saw them move up into the four, but wins for the Sharks and Warriors this round could see either of them claim the coveted spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a great opportunity heading into finals to have a game like this and playing with a finals feel. I am excited for the challenge,” Haas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(A top four finish) is crucial. No team\u2019s won the comp outside of the top four, so we know what’s at stake this week \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll go after our training \u2026 and then when Thursday rolls around; it’s a big game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n 599″, “>809”, “>959″]”
\n data-eqio-prefix=”video-post-screen”
\n ref=”root”
\n ><\/p>\n
\n
\n Up Next
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n \/
\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Replay
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Play Next
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Payne Haas Try<\/p>\n
Although in some doubt before the game in Townsville after battling the flu, Haas didn\u2019t let that affect his personal performance on the night as one of the leading lights in the 38-30 win, with a try, a team-high 35 tackles and 149 run metres.<\/p>\n
Overall however, the team let themselves down in a number of key areas, earning the ire of coach Michael Maguire at halftime, with cameras capturing his \u2018animated\u2019 address to the team. The Broncos finished the game with 17 errors and completion rate of 69 percent, as well as 32 missed tackles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Madge just cares about our team and he knows what’s in us and there was a lot more in us in that first half,\u201d Haas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we let each other down as a team and let down Madge, so I think it was warranted, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren’t playing our best footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows how much he cares for his team and how much he knows what’s in us, so I feel like having someone who cares like that, it’s only good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Samoa-pledged prop will need to be at his best if his side are to upset the Storm, like he was the last time they defeated them in the opening week of the finals in 2023 on their way to featuring in the grand final that year. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Haas said he was counting on the entire forward pack to step up and lay a foundation for the side, who would also be out to improve their defence after playing out a try-for-try battle against North Queensland.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just myself, I feel Patty [Carrigan], Muddy [Corey Jensen], our bench forwards as well \u2026 it’s important for us to lay that platform,\u201d Haas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don’t do that then, it won’t let Walshy [Reece Walsh] shine or Dozer [Ben Hunt], so we’ve got to lay that platform and it’s on us.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Our defence has) been a bit inconsistent and I think last week was a bit frustrating because we don’t want to leak that many points, so obviously we’ll be looking to make amends for that this week against the Storm and have an 80-minute display in attack and defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefence will be our focus and always has all year, so I’ll be going after that this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broncos enforcer Payne Haas is hoping a good win against Storm on Thursday will lock his team into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-111575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}