Brisbane took a gigantic step towards locking in a top eight berth after a Selwyn Cobbo hat trick helped seal a 28-10 win over the Newcastle Knights.
Adam Reynolds was full of praise for his young winger afterwards – one of his tries coming off a pinpoint chip kick from the halfback.
“I just thought I’d throw one over the top for him there and he was good enough to finish it off,” Reynolds said post-match.
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Reynolds and Cobbo have formed a charmed connection, as the former Rabbitohs star has done with plenty of his new teammates.
“He makes me look good,” Cobbo said about his captain.
Reynolds’ addition to the team has done so much, both on the field and off – and now, with this win, they’re all-but-assured of finals football for the first time since 2019 – an eternity in Broncos years.
They were below their best for large parts of tonight’s win at Suncorp Stadium, especially after the break, where they’d walked into the sheds with an 18-0 lead.
“We don’t want to go through those flat patches, we’ve got some big games coming up that will be a better test for us,” Reynolds said afterwards.
“Tonight was a step in the right direction.”
Despite a clear gulf in class, some awful errors and bad decision-making prevented Brisbane from extending their lead, before the Knights pulled two tries back in quick succession to make it an eight point game with 15 minutes left.
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Instead, Cobbo scored his second and third tries of the evening, putting the full time margin back to the same as it was after 40 minutes.
“We just need to be better – there’s periods there where we go error, error, seven tackle set, those sorts of things. We don’t mean to do it, but obviously it’s going to hurt us in the big games,” Reynolds said.
Brisbane still have a bit of work to do to ensure they get a home final this year – and a win next week against the Storm will go a long way to locking that in.
With both the Eels and Roosters only narrowly below them in seventh and eighth, there’s a world where the Broncos need to win all of their games to nab a top six finish, let alone top four.
But with Reynolds’ kicking on song, Wally Lewis Medal winner Patrick Carrigan soon to return and with a backline full of confidence, they’ll be feeling good.
Corey Oates was at his barnstorming best, while returning fullback Te Maire Martin gave them some much-needed stability at the back.
For the Knights, there’s no real danger of getting the wooden spoon, but not much else to play for either – as their performance showed.
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