{"id":842046,"date":"2026-08-03T15:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842046\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T15:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:04:12","slug":"nrl-news-2026-brisbane-broncos-potential-team-changes-billy-slater-comments-with-finals-out-of-equation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842046\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Brisbane Broncos potential team changes, Billy Slater comments with finals out of equation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a> has cautioned the Broncos<\/a> against blooding young players with an eye towards the future, claiming it could \u201cdevalue\u201d the famous jersey.<\/p>\n

The reigning premiers officially had their NRL top-eight hopes ended on Saturday night in a humbling loss at home against the Knights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/p>\n

Adam Reynolds will retire at season\u2019s end. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Brisbane have gone from a grand final victory to sitting in the bottom-four on the ladder with five rounds to go, while their opponents from last year\u2019s decider, the Melbourne Storm<\/a>, are also set to miss out on the post-season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a stunning fall from grace for the Broncos, who have dealt with a horror injury toll but have also failed to perform when their big guns are on the park.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine\u2019s The Billy Slater Podcast<\/a>, the champion fullback said there were two sides to Brisbane\u2019s slide down the table and their dire title defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have success, a lot of things have gotta happen,\u201d Slater said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe uncontrollables, in terms of injuries and things going your way –\u00a0 but the controllables have gotta go your way as well, you\u2019ve gotta train hard and be fit and be committed to playing a style of football that allows you to be successful. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, there were a few uncontrollables that didn\u2019t go their way, some injuries throughout the season, but they didn\u2019t get the controllable things right either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that right from the start. A lot of their players would have went away for representative duties at the end of last year, that means they come back to pre-season late. What state did they individually come back in? Were they ready to go? Were they fit and professional through that off-season? <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they started their campaign with the World Club Challenge<\/a> and the start of their season, there were huge question marks \u2026 that was right from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater pinpointed the Broncos\u2019 defensive woes compared to last season and claims the desperation shown on their own line, which became a staple under former assistant coach Ben Te\u2019o<\/a> last year, had \u201cdrifted out of their game\u201d in 2026.<\/p>\n

The debate around Red Hill with their finals chances out the window will now shift to whether coach Michael Maguire should make wholesale changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adam Reynolds will be out at least for round 23 due to concussion and will likely be replaced by Tom Duffy, but there could be other young guns in the mix.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Maguire is under mounting pressure.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

However, according to Slater, the club needs to be cautious with that approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ve always thought, and this has probably been a reflection of Craig Bellamy<\/a>, is you don\u2019t wanna start giving away jerseys when they haven\u2019t deserved it and haven\u2019t earned it and that\u2019s what you have to be careful about,\u201d Slater said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you pick your best team. I just feel that you don\u2019t want to devalue that jersey by just playing a whole heap of young guys. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get your opportunity when you\u2019ve earned it \u2026 the Broncos will wanna finish as high as they can on the ladder and as positive as they can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a whole heap of fresh faces coming into the organisation next year – it\u2019s gonna be a different looking footy team, but you\u2019re still in this season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Slater has cautioned the Broncos against blooding young players with an eye towards the future, claiming it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-842046","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\/842046","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=842046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}