Brisbane Broncos assistant coach Matt Ballin has opened up on the coaching staff’s prioritises to tighten up the club’s Achilles heel, defence.
The Broncos’ dramatic fall from grace last year exposed a massive hole in the side’s defensive structure and tactics.
Conceding the seventh most points in the NRL last year was understated by the Broncos’ shocking defensive end to the season where they allowed 135 points in the final three games of the season.
Ballin, a dual-premiership player, stressed the importance of defence and how hard the Broncos have been working on improving that side of their game in preseason.
“It’s (defence) the main priority this whole offseason it has been and leading into this game it’s our main focus,” Ballin said on SENQ Breakfast.
“We’ve got a really fit, young, strong group of players, so there’s no reason why we can’t be one of the best defensive teams in the comp and that’s the focus for this game especially and the rest of the 2023 season.
“You’ve got to score points these days, that’s what it’s geared towards, attacking football so it’s hard to defend but you have to score.”
Ballin opened up on the difficulties of coaching the Broncos’ attacking strategy and how he thinks they can be successful in front of the try line.
“There’s a lot too it (coaching attack), when you get a scrum or a tap, a set restart you can probably put a few more layers of structure to things,” Ballin said.
“But when it’s in that fatigue, that backwards and forwards arm wrestle style, you probably just have a bit of a power-running base, power-running with lots of support around the ball and that’s when the game opens up a fair bit.
“You see with the six-again rule these days it’s probably geared towards fatiguing players and trying to let the smaller guys and the faster attackers bring them back into the game.
“It’s a really tricky one to get the balance between that attacking flare and getting your defence right but we’re working really hard on that at the moment.”
The Broncos will look to bounce back from its 24-all draw with the Titans last weekend when it travels up to the Sunshine Coast to the face the North Queensland Cowboys.
