Thaiday not blaming Origin
August 04, 2012 11:13:20 UK
Brisbane's poor run of form is nothing to do with any hangover from State of Origin, insists captain Sam Thaiday.
Much has been made in the media of the effects of Queensland's winning campaign on some of their players, and calls have been made for the showpiece to be moved to standalone weekends.
We've gone back to basics this week in training, done some hard work and hopefully we can all bring it together.
Sam Thaiday
But Thaiday says despite Brisbane's slip from the top four, Origin has had no noticeable effects on the Broncos players.
The veteran forward said attitude was the reason for the slump which has seen the Broncos lose five of its nine games since Origin I.
"It's like playing three grand finals in the middle of the year. But that's no excuse for us," Thaiday said. "We can't say that's the reason why we're playing the way we're playing. It's an attitude thing for us at the moment.
"If we don't go down (to Canberra this weekend) with the right attitude we'll end up getting smacked again.
"This time of the year, everyone's sore, everyone's got niggling injuries and players out.
"It was so long ago now and it's a hard part of the season for everyone."
The Broncos need to bounce back from Monday night's shock 42-22 loss to rock bottom Parramatta, and Thaiday says he hopes hard work will be the key.
"There was a lot of little things that kind of snowballed into last weekend. But that's behind us now," he said. "We've regrouped and come back and hit the reset button, and we're going to go again.
"We've gone back to basics this week in training, done some hard work and hopefully we can all bring it together.
"We can't change last week. We've just got to concentrate on Canberra."
The Broncos are 1.66 to beat the Raiders, who are available at 2.20.
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