An electric performance from fullback Reece Walsh has guided the Brisbane Broncos to their first win of 2024, downing an inconsistent South Sydney side by 28-18.
The game had a scrappy feel to it early with both sides keen on handing over possession to the other in the opening 15 minutes. Brisbane conceded two penalties whilst in possession in the red-zone going downtown and for a sheppard. Fortunately for the Broncos, the South Sydney attack was struggling to connect and walked away from their early raid empty-handed.
Brisbane capitalised early on some chip kicks in behind Alex Johnston by Adam Reynolds and it paid off early as the Rabbitohs winger was bundled into touch. That proved critical as the Rabbitohs burnt their challenge on the same play. Off that ensuing possession, Reynolds worked his magic with a clever grubber fooling the Souths edge and a flying Deine Mariner won the race to the ball to cross for the opening try of the contest. Reynolds missed the conversion.
Souths seemed to try to match Brisbane's pace in attack and it wasn't successful with mistakes in the middle of the park gifting Brisbane with possession. A Siliva Havili error gave Brisbane the ball and the game's most explosive player made them pay. After receiving the ball from almost a standing start, Reece Walsh carved Souths open and beat a good 5 defenders including Latrell Mitchell all ends up for a great individual try. Reynolds added it from in front for a 10-0 lead.
The Rabbitohs were made to pay further when Mitchell failed to defuse a kick which allowed Reynolds to pick it up and was taken down metres short of the line. Damien Cook was judged to deliberately slow down play, and he was gone for sin-binned. Reynolds added a penalty goal for a 12-0 advantage. Brisbane struggled to execute whilst being down to 12 with several chances going to waste leaving the margin at 12 going into the half.
After gifting possession away in the first half like it was a closing-down sale. Souths passed the error code to Brisbane and Jesse Arthars was the poor soul to put the ball down. South Sydney capitalised and crashed over first to start the second half with a determined effort by Havili beating several defenders to the line. Mitchell added the extras and the deficit was cut in half.
Off the back of a flop in the ruck from Billy Walters. Havili turned provider this time with a lovely short pass to Davvy Moale who crashed over next to the posts three minutes later. Mitchell locked the scores up at 12-12. After the initial Rabbitoh resistance, Brisbane fully capitalised on some possession down the Rabbitohs' end of the field. Walsh created some lovely second phase out to the left and Arthars finished off in the corner to retake the lead and a 4 point advantage.
Despite Souths' best efforts, their attack was being met with every answer and with just under 20 to go, the Broncos eventually were going to strike with their speed in the backs. Walsh ran it on the last down the left finding Cobbo who found Arthars before kicking back in field. Mitchell mistimed getting to the footy and Walsh was there to pick it up and cross for his second of the contest. The conversion was successful for a vital 10 point cushion. Mariner put the icing on the cake with a Phil Blake-esque chip and chase over the top of Alex Johnston to cross for the Broncos to put the exclamation point on a dominant second half. Latrell Mitchell finished off the match with a great individual try, which also capped his 100th try at the NRL level to reduce the pain on the scoreboard a little.
There was a blow to Brisbane's win with Adam Reynolds failing to finish with a lower leg injury and being replaced with 10 minutes to go. South Sydney started poor, it got a little better in the second half but they fell in a heap late. They desperately need Wighton back to provide some X Factor in attack out wide.