Payne Haas ripped into the Brisbane Broncos after their 30-26 loss to the Dragons, saying they were “all talk at the moment” after one of the worst performances he has been part of. The prop said Brisbane had no intent and no energy, and that the team kept leaving its football for the last 10 minutes.
That criticism matters now because the Broncos reportedly need to win eight of their next 13 games to make the NRL finals, and this defeat was described as their most embarrassing of the season. Haas, back from injury and on the field for 80 minutes, still ran for more than 250 metres, but said the effort around him never matched the talk inside the club.
“I don't know what to say, we were really poor and it was one of the worst performances I've been a part of,” Haas said. “I felt like it was all of us. We had no intent, no energy. I was pretty disappointed. We save it until the last 10 minutes to play our footy. We are all talk at the moment. We keep on saying we are going to do all these important things on the field, but to be honest we are BS-ing each other.”
The Broncos have had players missing through injury and State of Origin, but that did not soften the message from one of their biggest names. The result leaves Brisbane with a difficult run home and little margin for error, with several of the matches they need to win coming against top-eight sides.
Reece Walsh answered Haas’s remarks by saying they showed the leadership inside the dressing room rather than exposing a split. Walsh said Haas does not leave any stone unturned and tells teammates exactly how it is, adding that the club had been through a similar rollercoaster last year and kept having the same conversations. “I think it just shows the leadership we have at the club,” Walsh said.
Walsh’s own position is also under scrutiny after he said on Wednesday that his form had dipped and that he did not warrant selection for Game 1. He said he knew the standards required to play for Queensland and had not been upholding them, while also admitting the call not to pick him was disappointing. He is still chasing a State of Origin recall for Game 2, but his first task is helping Brisbane turn Haas’s blunt criticism into points before the season slips away.
