{"id":185712,"date":"2025-10-02T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:06:08","slug":"broncos-respond-to-storm-star-stefano-utoikamanus-stuck-up-barb-ahead-of-nrl-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185712\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos respond to Storm star Stefano Utoikamanu’s ‘stuck up’ barb ahead of NRL grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane is refusing to enter a pre-NRL grand final sledging match with Stefano Utoikamanu after the Melbourne Storm prop described Broncos players as “stuck up”.<\/p>\n

Utoikamanu lit the fuse for Sunday’s grand final at Stadium Australia earlier this week when he implied members of Brisbane’s squad were arrogant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The usually mild-mannered Storm front-rower also said he could not wait to “run over” Broncos players.<\/p>\n

Storm enforcer puts target on ‘stuck up’ Broncos ahead of NRL grand final<\/a><\/p>\n

Melbourne prop Stefano Utoikamanu lights the fuse for an explosive NRL grand final on Sunday, setting his sights on steamrolling “stuck-up” Brisbane opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It remains unclear who Utoikamanu was referring to with his comments, but the likes of Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam have previously been accused by critics of having a ‘rockstar’ attitude.<\/p>\n

Walsh, Mam and Utoikamanu were booed by supporters at grand-final fan day at Sydney’s Circular Quay on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Brisbane coach Michael Maguire, who worked with Utoikamanu at Wests Tigers, has made a point of defending his players’ character.<\/p>\n

He said Utoikamanu’s comments would largely go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

“My players have got their own motivations,” Maguire told reporters.<\/p>\n

“They’ve been very dialled in for the last couple of months.<\/p>\n

“We’ve really focused a lot more on ourselves and anything that goes on around us.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s one of the reasons why we are where we are. I know that the players will do that and will just work hard together.”<\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

Patrick Carrigan is returning from suspension for the Broncos. (Getty Images: Ian Hitchcock)<\/p>\n

Patrick Carrigan, who has returned to Maguire’s starting side after missing the preliminary-final win over Penrith with suspension<\/a>, said the Broncos took Utoikamanu’s barb with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t really bother me, I think it’s always part of life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“People say and think about you what they want.<\/p>\n

“I just know that I love playing footy with these boys and turning up every day and working hard.<\/p>\n

“We know that we’ve got a job to do and that’s about locking into our role and playing our brand of footy.”<\/p>\n

Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he was “surprised” by Utoikamanu’s comments as he looks to lead the club to their first premiership in the post-Cameron Smith era.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane is refusing to enter a pre-NRL grand final sledging match with Stefano Utoikamanu after the Melbourne Storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,651,5366,8089,11288,4466,6407,158,22329,85,48767,8825],"class_list":{"0":"post-185712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brisbane","11":"tag-broncos","12":"tag-craig-bellamy","13":"tag-grand-final","14":"tag-melbourne-storm","15":"tag-michael-maguire","16":"tag-nrl","17":"tag-patrick-carrigan","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-stefano-utoikamanu","20":"tag-sunday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185712","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=185712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}