Photo: Fiona Goodall
Suncorp Stadium is known as rugby league's greatest stage, but Warriors coach Andrew Webster stressed that his side isn't daunted by the prospect of playing there. The famous park holds 50,000 and the majority will be cheering on the Broncos in Saturday night's NRL preliminary final, although a large contingent of New Zealanders are expected to be making their presence felt.
"Daunted is you're scared of it, and we're not daunted at all," Webster said to media at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium.
"The biggest thing for us is that we respect whoever we play…we know (the Broncos) are a good side but we don't fear them. If you fear them then you're beaten before you even get there."
The Broncos certainly deserve that respect, finishing second in the 2023 NRL regular season, racking up 18 wins and six losses.
"So many players love playing there because it's a fast track, great facilities and they know it's going to be well supported. Players love great atmospheres, their fans aren't going to make it easy for us. I'm not going to say it's not intimidating, but I think if you ask the boys if they're looking forward to it, they'll say yeah."
The last time the sides met was at McLean Park in Napier, in a game that finished 26-22 to the Broncos and infamously featured a number of pitch invaders.
Webster said that little could be read into that result, as it was during the Origin period and the Broncos would be completely overhauled.
"The night we played them wasn't the pack we played, the edges were pretty similar barring Selwyn Cobbo. We're really excited by the challenge, I think they've improved and we've improved a lot."
One player who has tasted the glory of winning a grand final is Warriors utility Dylan Walker, who lifted the Provan-Summons trophy in 2014 with the Rabbitohs.
"It's all about effort," he said.
"We're going to be doing that again this weekend. When we played against Penrith (a 30-6 loss in the first week of the finals), we had the effort there but we were a bit loose and using too much energy. On the weekend (against Newcastle) I felt like we did it together, our tackling and line speed. We weren't flying out of the line trying to hurt anyone, but just getting up as a line, catching them and trying to rush them back. It was a big blueprint for our game going into this weekend."
While Webster did joke about Leichhardt Oval being a more intimidating venue, it didn't mask the fact that this is the Warriors' most important game in a very long time. A win would mean a place in the grand final for the first time since 2011, but the Broncos will be doing everything they can to prevent that outcome.
"You want a challenge against a good side," he said.
"They've earned the right to be where they are and we've got to go there and get it done."
