Press conference: Mitchell Pearce on Round 5
While the Brisbane Broncos are a couple of places above the nib Newcastle Knights on the NRL ladder, both sides have recorded two wins and two losses for the 2018 season so far.
Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce admits both teams are desperate to get back that winning feeling and knows it won’t be easy against a side stacked with experience.
“A great side, a lot of experienced players across the board and they’ve been like that for 30 years,” he explained.
“They don’t seem to put together too many bad performances back to back so they’re going to turn up here and Wayne Bennett will have them ready to go.
“They’ve got a big forward pack, plenty of rep players in there and big bodies with big offloads, so they’ve got strike all across the board and as much as we need to respect them, we’ve been focused on ourselves.
“It’s a good challenge for us and we know what we need to work on.”
Pearce maintains there’s a list of things the playing group wants to improve on in their 80 minutes of football.
“We spoke about a lot of areas that we feel we need to improve on... it is only early in the season with a new group so the best thing is no one is running away from what we need to improve on,” Pearce added.
“Especially in defence, everyone is really keen to get that worked on individually and with the coaches.
“It’s a really good vibe around the place, everyone wants to win and it’s a good opportunity to do it against a quality team.”
Pearce also made comment about the Broncos young halves combination in Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima, and said they’ll be an important part to their game on Saturday.
“They are obviously great little players... they score plenty of tries and make plenty of breaks from show and goes and line breaks,” he said.
“It’s no secret how good they are with the ball, they’ve got strike all across the park, but as much as we’re respecting the Broncos, we’ve got to worry about our own backyard and get our stuff sorted.
“We’re not finding a win purely because of ill-discipline, and defensively we’ve got to tidy up some stuff.
“While we’re working really hard and we want to improve, it’s going to take time and effort and discipline from the team need to get everything right."
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