Hookers need to be more creative: Griffin
Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin has challenged young hookers Andrew McCullough and Ben Hunt to find some much-need creativity against Canberra on Saturday to take the heat off skipper Darren Lockyer.
While Brisbane's biggest challenge will come from the Raiders' physically imposing pack, led by giant Origin forwards Dave Shillington and Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Griffin wants more input from his two dummy halves.
McCullough played 38 minutes and made 12 tackles starting last week's loss to North Queensland before Griffin replaced him with Hunt after about 25 minutes.
Hunt made 28 tackles in 42 minutes but missed five tackles in the ruck.
Neither youngster stamped their mark on the game, something Griffin needs them to do to make life easier on his halves.
Canberra hooker Glenn Buttriss opened the season playing 75 minutes and finishing with 34 tackles, two line breaks and two off-loads in their big win over the Sharks.
With the possibility of former Manly No.7 Matt Orford making his Raiders debut, Brisbane need to be physically good in the middle and have some spark in the ruck, rather than simply throwing the ball to Lockyer.
Orford will line up against the Broncos provided he gets through the Raiders' final training session late on Thursday.
The word is stylish fullback Josh Dugan will miss another week with a calf injury.
"Yeah they do (need to be more creative)," admitted Griffin when asked about the efforts of his two hookers in the 16-14 loss to Cowboys.
"That's one thing we've spoken about this week ... those guys stepping up to the challenge.
"They're in the team, we throw them a jersey every week so they have to play their part and take the game on a bit more."
Brisbane have trained with a view Orford and possibly Dugan will play.
"He (Orford) is obviously their main half with (Terry) Campese out," said Griffin.
"I'm sure they'll have a lot of confidence with him coming in."
Brisbane will need to have a number of facets of their game in place to pull off their first win at Canberra Stadium since 2005.
They'll need to be physical against one of the biggest packs in the NRL, have some creativity in the ruck and show considerably more patience with the football than they did against the Cowboys.
"They've got a big forward pack that is maturing and some great young backs," conceded Griffin.
"We've got to be better in the middle and ready to physically get into the game with our opposition.
"Our completion rate was nowhere near where it needs to be to win a football game, if it was, we would have won the game.
"We've worked hard at that at training.
"We just have to understand we're not going to compete with anyone, particularly Canberra, if we're handing them the football with the size of their pack."
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