Switch is working: Seibold

BRISBANE coach Anthony Seibold has defended his controversial switch of Darius Boyd and Anthony Milford as the Broncos sweat on the return of their Origin big guns for Thursday night’s clash against the Bulldogs.

Seibold expects Matt Gillett and Corey Oates to be cleared to face Canterbury at Suncorp Stadium after the Queensland Origin duo missed Saturday night’s 18-all draw with the Warriors due to injury.

But of equal concern is whether Brisbane’s reconstructed spine, with Boyd’s shift to five-eighth forcing Milford to fullback, can find sufficient rhythm to propel the Broncos from 12th place to a finals berth.

Seibold spruiked the effort of his side against the Warriors but the reality is the Broncos will be finals fodder if they can’t beat an erratic New Zealand outfit that completed at a woeful 63 per cent.

The jury remains out on the Milford-boyd combination, which remains winless after two games – a 26-12 loss to Newcastle in Round 15 followed by the Warriors Suncorp stalemate.

Boyd was superb in defence against the Warriors, making a career-high 36 tackles including a first-half trysaver, but he lacks the tactical kicking of Milford, who ran with vigour but failed to make a line-break.

Seibold, however, is determined to persist with his new positional plan.

“I liked what I saw from both those guys,” Seibold said of the Boyd-milford alliance.

“I thought ‘Milly’ was really good at the back, his kick returns looked dangerous and I thought out of yardage, he got to dummy-half on quick playthe-balls and he asked a lot of questions of the markers.

“He has to tidy some things up when we get good ball but we didn’t get a lot of that.

“We took most opportunities and Darius’s (try in the 46th minute) was one of them.

“I thought he (Boyd) did a good job (at five-eighth), he got involved.”