Brisbane Broncos captain Adam Reynolds has revealed the club's starts and defence have been key areas for improvement to kick-off the 2025 NRL season.
A disastrous 2024 season which ultimately saw Michael Maguire replace Kevin Walters in the coaching chair led to a far tougher pre-season for the Broncos, and a handful of changes to come with it to the 17, with Cory Paix, Jack Gosiewski and Gehamat Shibasaki the big winners.
That has all led to a three wins from four matches start for the Broncos, and Reynolds said resillience being a theme of the off-season has led to an improved defensive attitude at the start of games, with that being evident again during a hard-fought win over the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium on Friday evening.
"We have touched on our starts, it's certainly an area that we need to be better," Reynolds said during the post-match press conference.
"It's just the resillience I think. The coaching staff have done a fantastic job in preparing us for facing a bit of adversity.
"We do a lot of training around our defence, continually turning up for one another, the hungrier we are as a team the better we are going to be defensively.
"It's an area we need to be better at, but obviously proud of the way we keep turning up for one another."
Michael Maguire said he is proud of the way the side have fought with their backs to the wall, and the way his playing group have committed to improvement in difficult areas.
"I've definitely been proud of those moments [our defence with backs to the wall] for the players, but when I first arrived, the players got together and talked about what they want to work hard at," Maguire said.
"They are the ones that have to do the work, they have obviously done that, but they know there is plenty more in what they are as well. We will just take it game by game now, plenty to take from that one, but I'm just pleased with the way the players are working for each other."
The 20 points to 12 win over the Dolphins follows another tough, grinding win over the North Queensland Cowboys last weekend.
Their Round 1 victory over the Sydney Roosters was full of flash in a 50 points to 14 beatdown, while their only loss of the season came away from home against the Canberra Raiders in Round 2.
The Broncos host the impressive Wests Tigers next weekend at home before gearing up to play the Sydney Roosters again in Round 6.
