The Brisbane Broncos have suffered a double setback ahead of Friday night’s must-win clash against South Sydney, with Payne Haas and Brendan Piakura both ruled out of the game. The Courier Mail’s Peter Badel reported on Thursday that Haas had been struck down with an infection and was ‘grave doubt’ for the round 22 clash against the Rabbitohs at Suncorp Stadium.
Brisbane had until an hour before the game kicks off at 8pm on Friday night to make a final call on the 25-year-old wrecking ball. But on Friday afternoon he was officially ruled out, in a massive blow to the sixth-placed Broncos’ hopes of finishing the regular season inside the top-four.
The powerhouse prop reportedly started feeling unwell during the Broncos captain’s run at Red Hill on Thursday morning. It’s understood he was placed on an IV drip after suffering a skin infection but has not recovered in time to take his place in Brisbane’s 17. Coach Michael Maguire was understandably willing to give Haas until the 11th hour to prove his fitness but the 25-year-old’s hopes of playing have been dashed.
Haas had already been battling a number of injury niggles, but Brisbane’s medical team revealed this week that his workload was being managed and insisted he would keep playing. The NSW prop has been dealing with an ongoing lower back issue that troubled him during the Blues’ Origin series defeat. And he was also seen limping at the end of Brisbane’s shock loss to Parramatta last week after a knock to the ankle, which fortunately wasn’t serious enough to require scans.
But the Broncos’ head of football Troy Thomson – who was also the high performance manager for the Kangaroos and the premiership-winning Rabbitohs side in 2014 – explained that it is more beneficial for Haas to continue training and playing with Brisbane. And the club rejected suggestions that it would be more beneficial to rest him.
“If Payne can’t play a game of footy of course we are going to give him a rest, but this whole notion that giving him a rest is going to fix him is not how the human body works,” Thomson told AAP. “Movement helps recovery. If you don’t move, you get sorer.
“We are managing Payne’s loads, like we do all of the players on an individual basis to ensure they are fresh enough but also have sufficient fitness, strength, flexibility and range of motion to play week-in and week-out NRL. It is about ensuring they have the right stimulus … and volume and intensity of load as well.”
Brendan Piakura ruled out for Broncos after head knock
The Haas news comes as a double blow for the Broncos’ and their forward pack after Piakura was also a late scratching for the Rabbitohs game. The Brisbane edge forward reportedly suffered a head knock at training, meaning he will undergo a mandatory 11-day stand down which is also set to rule Piakura out of next Thursday night’s blockbuster against premiership favourites, Melbourne.
Veteran back-rower Jack Gosiewski has come into Brisbane’s starting side to replace Piakura for the Souths game, with front-row recruit Ben Talty added to the bench. Haas’ absence means Xavier Willison has been promoted to a starting prop role alongside Corey Jensen, with utility forward Tyson Smoothy coming into the 17 after initially being named in Brisbane’s extended squad.
