{"id":176591,"date":"2025-09-29T03:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T03:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/176591\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T03:02:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T03:02:06","slug":"storm-star-trains-sights-on-stuck-up-broncos-as-grand-final-contenders-eye-vacant-nrl-throne-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/176591\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm star trains sights on \u2018stuck up\u2019 Broncos as grand final contenders eye vacant NRL throne | NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The morning after the Panthers dynasty finally crumbled<\/a>, the contenders for the NRL\u2019s vacant throne were already jostling as Storm forward Stefano Utoikamanu described Broncos players as \u201ca bit stuck up\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brisbane\u2019s stunning 16-14 defeat of Penrith on Sunday set up a grand final clash between the Broncos and Melbourne, the losing grand finalists from the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu joined the Storm from the Tigers in the off-season and helped the 2024 losing grand finalists beat Brisbane 22-2 in round 23. But he was rested for the round 27 match, which the Broncos won 30-14 to secure a place in the top four.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old said he wanted to take the first carry on Sunday to \u201crun someone over\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to make sure I set up this week to get that first kick of the game. There are going to be a lot of people I want to run at, a lot of people I don\u2019t like on this team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to name names. There are a lot of people I think are a bit stuck up. I\u2019m pretty keen just to run out and do a job for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brisbane are searching for their first premiership in almost two decades, after falling just short in 2023. Ezra Mam scored a hat-trick for Brisbane in that decider but it wasn\u2019t enough to prevent the Panthers winning their third straight premiership in a nail-biter 26-24 result.<\/p>\n

Mam on Monday said that match still haunts him. \u201cFor me it was a bit of a shock because that year everything was going pretty good for us and we were like a bee\u2019s \u2026 away from winning that premiership and obviously it got taken away from us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely was a good learning experience for myself, and at least we know now for this week coming that we\u2019ve just got to play the full 80 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Broncos team is led by the flashy fullback Reece Walsh, and was the subject of much of the discussion at Storm\u2019s media day at AAMI Park on Monday.<\/p>\n

Halfback Jahrome Hughes, who returned from a fractured arm in Friday\u2019s 22-14 victory over Cronulla, said he recognised the threat of the Broncos but his side was focused on themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to see how they play and minimise their strike because they\u2019ve got strike across the whole park. But yeah, we think if we can focus on ourselves and get ourselves in the best stead, we can give it a really good shake on Sunday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Five-eighth Cameron Munster was described as a \u201cbig game player\u201d this week by the player agent and broadcaster Braith Anasta who said Munster was suited to the NRL\u2019s grandest stage. Munster laughed off those comments on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s my manager, so he\u2019s probably just trying to pump my ties up, trying to get my money ready for Perth [Bears joining the competition],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see it as this easy game. Sometimes we delve right into it and think, \u2018oh, it\u2019s a pressure game\u2019. Sometimes I just feel like I\u2019m playing in the backyard. I know it sounds silly, but we all put this emphasis and pressure on \u2018it\u2019s a grand final\u2019, which it is, it\u2019s high stakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the more you think about it during the week, the more you play the game in your head and you forget why you play the game. It\u2019s some nice words from Braith, but at the same time he\u2019s my manager, so he\u2019s probably just blowing wind up my ass.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The morning after the Panthers dynasty finally crumbled, the contenders for the NRL\u2019s vacant throne were already jostling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-176591","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\/176591","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=176591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}