{"id":711719,"date":"2026-06-03T03:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711719\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:18:12","slug":"nrl-news-2026-brisbane-broncos-players-in-queensland-maroons-state-of-origin-team-vs-dolphins-players-pat-carrigan-injury-sam-thaiday-exclusive-on-form-slump-after-loss-to-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711719\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026, Brisbane Broncos players in Queensland Maroons State of Origin team, vs Dolphins players, Pat Carrigan injury, Sam Thaiday exclusive on form slump after loss to Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Brisbane<\/a>\u2019s dire form in the NRL<\/a> will be highlighted next Tuesday when Billy Slater<\/a> unveils his Queensland<\/a> team for the second State of Origin<\/a> game.<\/p>\n

An injury to gun forward Patrick Carrigan<\/a> means the Broncos face the very real probability of not having a single player represent the Maroons at the MCG on June 17.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/p>\n

Broncos players Adam Reynolds and Patrick Carrigan react during a loss.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Carrigan was the sole Bronco who made it onto the field for Queensland during last week\u2019s 22-20 loss to New South Wales in Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His club teammates Gehemat Shibasaki and Ezra Mam were also named in Slater\u2019s 19-man game day squad, but neither were used during the game.<\/p>\n

Shibasaki was also injured during Sunday\u2019s loss to the Dragons<\/a>, while Mam has been axed by Broncos coach Michael Maguire<\/a> in a brutal statement ahead of this week\u2019s derby against Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

If all three players drop out of the squad and no other Broncos come in to replace them, the proud Red Hill club won\u2019t have a single player enter Maroons camp next week<\/a>. South of the border, Payne Haas and Kotoni Staggs will fly the club\u2019s flag in Blues camp.<\/p>\n

The pill will be made all the more bitter by the number of Dolphins players likely to be picked in Slater\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

Selwyn Cobbo, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Tom Flegler, and Max Plath are all expected to retain their spots, while Dolphins teammate Tom Gilbert could come in as a Carrigan replacement and make it five representatives from the team that only entered the NRL in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a flex by the Dolphins, having more players in that Queensland squad than the Broncos,\u201d Brisbane and Maroons great Sam Thaiday said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 QLDER.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Dolphins CEO) Terry Reader is just sitting back loving it sick at the moment isn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n

What might be a momentous occasion for the Redcliffe club will be a sickening reality for those on the other side of the river city.<\/p>\n

The Broncos have fallen off a cliff for the second time this year and are on a four-game losing streak, tumbling to 11th spot on the competition ladder just eight months after winning the NRL premiership.<\/p>\n

A 30-26 loss to the lowly Dragons at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday elicited a fierce response from coach Maguire<\/a>, both in the sheds after the game and at the selection table on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Thaiday can see exactly what the issue is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dragons ran harder, they rolled down the field… it\u2019s sad to say, but the Broncos at the end of the day, you toss that up and that\u2019s what happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certain areas in the game I\u2019m watching this year that I didn\u2019t see last year, when they were pushing hard and becoming the premiers, we were fighting in every game we were in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start of that game (on Sunday) there was a lack of energy and effort. I\u2019m really struggling to see this season at all where we\u2019ve had an 80-minute effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely have got a great squad there, they can definitely win games, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m not worried. The only thing I\u2019m worried about is can they bring that energy and effort week in, week out when you are the hunted?\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s drop in form has coincided with a brutal injury toll, but also comes after Ben Te\u2019o quit as assistant coach in March following a stoush with Maguire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Te\u2019o was working with the defence and in recent weeks the Broncos are conceding 35 points per game on average.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Te\u2019o is now working with Slater\u2019s Queensland team.<\/p>\n

QLDER host Adam Jackson believes the Te\u2019o departure is behind the team\u2019s form slump, and Thaiday agrees it could be a factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember back in the day when we had Wayne Bennett (coaching us), our magic number was 16. We knew we had 16 points in us and we could always come back (to win), so it didn\u2019t matter if it was 16-0 (against us) at half time,\u201d Thaiday said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really struggled (against the Dragons on Sunday) and there are things the club needs to work on. Are the players tired? Are they coming back early from injury? I have no idea, I\u2019m really unsure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there is still some good football in the Broncos and I hope we see it soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The embattled Broncos face the Titans and Rabbitohs before another bye in round 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Brisbane\u2019s dire form in the NRL will be highlighted next Tuesday when Billy Slater unveils his Queensland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-711719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711719","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=711719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}