‘Believe it or not’: Madge’s crazy halftime assessment as Broncos delivered unthinkable comeback

Broncos captain Adam Reynolds has revealed how his team pulled off a remarkable comeback to beat the Bulldogs at Accor Stadium in Round 18 on Friday night.

Brisbane didn’t trouble the scorers for the first 60 minutes, and trailed 18-0 with a quarter of the game to go.

But then the Broncos executed the most unlikely of comeback victories, with Josiah Karapani, Delouise Hoeter, Billy Walters and Brendan Piakura scoring tries in the space of just 13 minutes to give Brisbane a stunning 22-18 lead, which they held onto for the remainder of the game.

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Reynolds said the Broncos abandoned the idea of trying to beat the Bulldogs up the middle.

“There was plenty of belief at halftime that we could turn it around,” Reynolds said in the post-game press conference.

“We saw glimpses in the way that we changed up the game plan a little bit there.

“Started targeting their four ins a bit more rather than trying to go through the middle of them.

“Started getting a little bit of joy and a bit of momentum through the ruck and when we’ve got that, we’ve got a dangerous football team.”

Five-eighth Ezra Mam played a huge part in the Broncos’ astonishing fightback, with three try assists.

Reynolds was glowing in his praise of his halves partner.

“Slight adjustment at halftime in the way we wanted to play and it’s my job to get (Mam) as much space as I can and watch him do his magic off the back of that and I thought he was fantastic,” Reynolds added.

It was the Broncos’ second comeback victory in recent times. In Round 16, they recovered from being 28-12 down to beat the Sharks 34-28 at Suncorp Stadium.

Coach Michael Maguire was asked whether he believed the Broncos could come back and beat Canterbury.

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“Believe it or not, I actually did (believe the Broncos could win),” Maguire said.

“I’ve seen that in the group, especially growing over the last sort of month.

“In the way the boys have gone about things.

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“I knew it was going to be a challenge but the players at halftime spoke really well amongst each other and they went out and delivered exactly what they said, so that was really pleasing.

“They needed to stick to their plan and they did that so really happy for them.”

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