Despite being elevated to the Brisbane captaincy after Darren Lockyer retires, Sam Thaiday admits feeling the heat just to hang on to his place in the Broncos' talented starting pack.

Thaiday, Corey Parker and young Kiwi Test hopeful Alex Glenn have formed a potent back-row combination for the Broncos during their run of five wins on the trot but, with back-ups in Matt Gillett, Ben Te'o and Dane Carlaw, the Australian international remains wary.

"It's a very hard spot to keep down at the moment with so many players breathing down the back of your neck," Thaiday said.

"Corey leads by example every week and Alex gets better with every game. I'm just doing my best on the right side looking after Locky.

"You've got Ben Te'o who played in the centres last weekend who is a second-rower and you've got Matt Gillett (NRL 2010 rookie of the year) on the bench so there's a lot of great players on the bench who want that position.

"It's working great for us at the moment. We've got a good rotation system where blokes are getting rested if they need to be rested."

Brisbane were below par in the first half of their 22-10 win over South Sydney last weekend.

Thaiday put it down to the heat and from forcing a few things in attack.

"I think we got carried away. We wanted to do a lot more with the ball and we were flicking offloads out and a few passes that would usually hit the mark didn't," he said.

"We were a little rusty in that area but we were still very good defensively keeping Souths out in the second half when, in previous weeks, they'd scored a lot of points in the second 40 minutes and stunned a few teams with their comebacks."

Thaiday said Manly would be aggressive no matter who took the field once the dust settled on their judiciary brawling dramas.

"They have some big boppers but our boys have put us in a great position to give it (the premiership) a fair crack," he said.

Thaiday expects players to adopt a similar mindset to when they lifted to give Lockyer a memorable win in his record-breaking 350th NRL game in Townsville this month.

"There'll be a lot of media and a massive crowd on Sunday which adds to the hype and I'm sure all the boys will be prepared to lift and do whatever it takes," he said.

"Locky never says anything but all the players know how important this is to him and what he's done for the club.

"They'll do whatever they can to repay that on Sunday."

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