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SYDNEY - Brisbane captain Darren Lockyer concedes the Broncos are mired in one of their biggest pre-State of Origin holes after the defending National Rugby League premiers slumped to their sixth loss of the season last night.
Despite storming out of the gates with two tries in the
opening 10 minutes, the Broncos were steamrolled by a far more committed Cronulla side in going down 8-16 at Toyota Park.
The Broncos are still to record consecutive wins in 2007 and will now have to rely on the club's promising array of junior talent to keep their fading premiership hopes alive through the busy Origin period.
"It's probably the worst position the Broncos have been in for a long time heading into the Origin series, but we can't do much about it now," said Lockyer, who was confident a recurrence of an ankle injury would not rule him out of the opening Origin match.
"I think we're in a pattern at the moment where we win a game and we lose one.
"After a loss we think we've got to pick up our act and when we have a win we slip back into the comfort zone. We have to learn to be switched on every week.
"We cruised the first 10 minutes (against Cronulla), got into the comfort zone and we took our foot off the pedal.
"We thought it was going to be an easy night."
The Sharks found plenty of holes in the Broncos defensive line and had the visitors on the back foot for much of the second half.
Brisbane's goalline defence proved resolute but Lockyer conceded that Cronulla found it way too easy to get down into his side's 20m zone.
"A lot of the times you score your points off the back of good defence but last night at times I think our attitude on defence was pretty ordinary," Lockyer said.
"The only way we can fix that is as a team ourselves, not worry about what anybody else is saying or thinking."
Despite their precarious state, Broncos coach Wayne Bennett said there was no need for alarm.
The most successful coach in premiership history claimed his squad looked lethargic but was confident he would get a chance to rest some of his representative stars through the State of Origin period.
"It's always tough, it's not going to be any different to what it's been in the past," Bennett said of battling through Origin.
"I think the way it's (the draw) going to work out we'll be alright there ... there's some opportunities there (to give the players a rest).
"The Origin guys, we'll be able to give them a week off with our scheduling -- we've got a Monday night game (in round 15) after a Friday night game so we're a lot better than we thought we would."
Cronulla skipper Brett Kimmorley said it was too early to dismiss Brisbane's bid for back to back titles despite the upcoming burden of representative football.
"The luxury of that is they've done it every year, they've got the experience of knowing how to do it," Kimmorley said.
"They seem to always have some great kids they can pluck from the local comp up there or from somewhere to get through."
- AAP