Brisbane Broncos

Cobbo has become one of the best young players in the game this season and is attracting plenty of interest from rival clubs. The 19-year-old winger dominated the Bunnies last week and face Manly at Suncorp Stadium tonight.

The winger is considered a long-term fullback at Brisbane and has been compared to a young Greg Inglis.

Cobbo is on $180,000 this season but his stellar form has seen his value skyrocket and he’ll soon earn more than $600,000 per year.

Manly are coming off an impressive win of their own against the Wests Tigers at 4 Pines Park with a dream starting debut for Ben Trbojevic alongside his brothers Tom and Jake. 

Both sides have only played each other once in the past three seasons for a 2-1 split in favour of the Sea Eagles. They pummelled the Broncos 50-6 in the corresponding clash last year with Tom Trbojevic scoring a double.

After missing the round one encounter between both clubs in the season opener, Reynolds made up for lost time against the side he played 231 games for as a Rabbitohs junior across a decade at Redfern.

The former Rabbitohs captain looked in control from the early stages of the Broncos' victory, racking up 16 of the side's 32 points in a happy homecoming in front of his old faithful. 

It was an overall unhappy night for the home side, who couldn't really get out of second gear despite a double to Rabbitohs winger Taane Milne. 

The return of Reynolds to Accor Stadium on Thursday night is sure to put bums on seats after the 31-year-old missed the season opener in March due to COVID-19 protocols.

While all eyes will be on the former premiership-winner's comeback to the hallow turf, both sides are coming off victories in round eight and are four wins and four losses each to start the season.

The move to the Broncos has really freshened him up. It can happen with players. He looks like he’s got a little bit of extra responsibility in Brisbane, a few new surroundings and new players ... it’s all adding up to him elevating his game beyond 2021, when the Rabbitohs made the grand final.

I’ve been watching him closely and he is playing on the ball a lot more than he did at Souths, where he had to share playmaking duties with Cody Walker. He’s almost on the ball nearly every play. That’s rare for teams these days because usually the lock does a lot of the first receiving.

Brisbane Broncos Ambassador and retired player, Darius Boyd when launching the program via zoom from Brisbane, said, “Saving a little bit of money can go a long way if you want to buy things in the future such as stationary, books, even a computer.”

He gave encouragement to the grades four and ten students to save telling them to set goals for themselves and to start saving.

“The Brisbane Broncos would like to thank you for your participation  and hope you will enjoy the BSP Financial Literacy program in Term two and three,” said Boyd.

Brisbane made a statement with their defence and gave the Sharks wrecking ball no time or space, with Adam Reynolds and Te Maire Martin astutely guiding the side around.

Things took a while to get going as both sides made errors on the attack in the opening quarter, before a lovely piece of backyard footy from Matt Moylan opened the scoring in the 21st minute.

Noticing fullback Martin had already committed earlier in the play, Moylan dropped the ball on the toe and won the race to his own kick to put the Sharks up 6-0.

With Nicho Hynes and Matt Moylan on song in the halves and Siosifa Talakai running amok out wide, the Sharks have looked every bit a top-four contender during the opening seven rounds and their tally of 32 tries is the fourth highest in the NRL.

The Sharks have threats across the park and the Broncos will need to stiffen up their defence considerably if they are to pull off an upset.

In Payne Haas, Kotoni Staggs and Adam Reynolds, the Broncos have three proven game-breakers who'll be up for a big one in front of a boisterous home crowd in Brisbane.

After trailing 14-6 with 25 minutes to play the Broncos piled on five tries in 21 minutes to overpower a Canterbury side which showed plenty of fight at the end of a horror week.

A scare for the home side early with forward leader Payne Haas forced from the field with a shoulder problem in the eighth minute but he was able to return midway through the half after treatment and went on to play a starring role.

To say the Broncos and Bulldogs have been disappointing in the opening six rounds would surely be an understatement as they find themselves in 14th and 16th respectively with a paltry three wins between them.

One of those successes for Brisbane was against the Dogs in round two at Accor Stadium and five weeks later they square off again in a must-win clash.

With a passionate Suncorp Stadium crowd behind them the Broncos go in as warm favourites but coach Kevin Walters will be taking nothing for granted.