Payne Haas says the Broncos fear no rival as the prop enforcer declared himself injury-free \u2013 and hellbent on exorcising the demons of Brisbane\u2019s grand-final disaster against the Panthers.<\/p>\n
Haas\u2019 stance came as confident Brisbane stars put Penrith on notice, boldly claiming \u201cthey won\u2019t be able to handle us\u201d in Sunday\u2019s preliminary final blockbuster at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n
Haas is under enormous pressure to spearhead Brisbane\u2019s pack without his partner-in-crime Pat Carrigan, who will miss the grand-final qualifier as he serves a one-match suspension for a high shot.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pressure amplified by the painful ghosts of 2023, when Penrith reeled in a 24-8 deficit in the decider to sensationally prevail 26-24, consigning the Broncos to the biggest collapse in NRL grand-final history.<\/p>\n
Rather than live in denial, Broncos stars have confronted, and reconciled, the pain.<\/p>\n
Hooker Billy Walters admits he struggled to sleep for months as he relived the vision in his tortured mind of Nathan Cleary slicing through to score four minutes from time to rip the NRL premiership from Brisbane\u2019s grasp.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 728 days since Penrith broke Brisbane\u2019s hearts. <\/p>\n
Haas is one of nine survivors from the most soul-destroying loss of his career and Brisbane\u2019s No.1 prop says recent lower-back and ankle injuries won\u2019t stop him seeking revenge against the Panthers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am all good,\u201d Haas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the best physios and performance staff here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been looking after me and it\u2019s helped having that extra week off \u2026 I am feeling fresh and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chillingly, the Panthers have won five straight games against Brisbane and nine of the last 10 contests between the sides dating back to 2020.<\/p>\n
But Haas scoffed at suggestions the four-time premiers have a psychological hold over the Broncos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got no fear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the players we\u2019ve got, that gives me lots of confidence in myself and I know it gives confidence to everyone here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Centre teammate Kotoni Staggs added: \u201cI don\u2019t feel intimidated by them at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said it from day dot, when we did lose Ezra (Mam) and \u2018Reyno\u2019 (Adam Reynolds) to injury, I was still confident in this team that we could go all the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have shown that and we will show it again on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
A vivid image from the 2023 decider is the sight of Broncos players placing their arms around Haas, who was almost inconsolable at full-time as he digested the vision of elated Panthers players on a lap of honour.<\/p>\n
One of the fiercest competitors in the league, Haas won\u2019t be satisfied until he has won a premiership. It is his final frontier. He has won Origin series, Test matches and five Paul Morgan Medals as Brisbane\u2019s player of the year, but a premiership ring still eludes him.<\/p>\n
And while he has dealt with the pain of the 2023 grand final loss, the disappointment drives him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty hard to take that one,\u201d Haas says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we learnt a lot as a team and I think last year, it had affected us a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I feel like now we\u2019re such a different team with \u2018Madge\u2019 (Broncos coach Michael Maguire) here. <\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t won a comp yet and obviously that\u2019s something I really want to achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the end goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m just focused on this week and getting my prep right and getting ready for Penrith.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all that matters this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payne Haas says the Broncos fear no rival as the prop enforcer declared himself injury-free \u2013 and hellbent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[112851,112846,18743,5335,64,63,112842,112841,112847,112843,41966,112850,112844,2105,111747,60462,104528,112849,112848,94701,6407,761,762,158,108453,26598,13390,33860,112845,112840,85,11740],"class_list":{"0":"post-173487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-matchidnrl20253002","9":"tag-adam-head","10":"tag-adam-reynolds","11":"tag-ankle-injuries","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-broncos-v-panthers","15":"tag-centre-teammate","16":"tag-day-dot","17":"tag-day-widget","18":"tag-end-goal","19":"tag-final-frontier","20":"tag-finals-winners","21":"tag-getty-images-inc","22":"tag-grand-final-history","23":"tag-grand-final-loss","24":"tag-grand-final-qualifier","25":"tag-grand-final-disaster","26":"tag-hooker-billy-walters","27":"tag-kotoni-staggs","28":"tag-michael-maguire","29":"tag-national-rugby-league","30":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","31":"tag-nrl","32":"tag-panel-breaks","33":"tag-pat-carrigan","34":"tag-payne-haas","35":"tag-peter-badel","36":"tag-preliminary-final-blockbuster","37":"tag-prop-enforcer","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-team-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173487","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=173487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}