Qld Teams - Lockyer's Final Show

Regardless of the result, Saturday night’s elimination semi final against the Dragons will be Darren Lockyer’s final match at Suncorp Stadium.

Fresh off a 40-10 thumping of the Warriors last week, the Broncos now face the defending premiers for the right to play Manly in Sydney in the Grand Final Qualifier.

Saturday will be the last stop in the Queensland leg of Lockyer’s season-long farewell tour with the loser of the match eliminated from the Telstra Premiership race.

In a fitting finale, Lockyer comes up against perhaps the single most influential man in his career – St George-Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett.

It was Bennett who introduced Lockyer to the world with the Broncos club when he was a teenager and moulded him into one of the best fullbacks to have played the game.

Then Bennett switched Lockyer into the halves where he was eventually to become one of the best five-eighths to have played the game.

Now Bennett will comprise a game plan to nullify Lockyer and effectively end his NRL career.

The Broncos are anticipating a near capacity 50,000 strong crowd at Suncorp Stadium for their
biggest game of the season.

In the corresponding match two years ago, a Greg Inglis try in the dying seconds won the match for Melbourne and ended Brisbane’s season.

Coach Anthony Griffin has named an unchanged side from last week to tackle the Dragons.

In their only other meeting this season, immediately following Origin II, the Broncos prevailed 21-14 at Suncorp Stadium.

Justin Hodges left training early today but is not expected to be any doubt for his personal battle with the Dragons’ Matt Cooper.

The Broncos will get captain-in-waiting Sam Thaiday back for next week’s match should they defeat the Dragons.

Saturday’s game kicks off shortly after 6:30pm and will be televised live on Channel Nine.

Cowboys in squads

Six North Queensland Cowboys have been included in representative squads following their disappointing exit from the competition last week.

Despite leading 8-0 at halftime against Manly, the Cowboys were comprehensively outplayed by the Premiership favourites to leak 42 unanswered points in the second half.

With their season over, attention now turns for some to the October Test matches and Four Nations tour to England.

Incumbents Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott have been named in the Australian squad along with fullback Matt Bowen and Maroons centre Willie Tonga.

They will meet the rest of the squad in Sydney on Thursday before selectors name the Prime Ministers squad to face PNG on September 25.

Australian selectors overlooked former Queensland regulars Brent Tate, who played nine games at the end of the year after recovering from a knee injury, and Dallas Johnson, who returned to the NRL this year after spending 2010 in the English Super League.

Cowboys’ winger Kalifa Faifai Loa and impressive young prop James Tamou have been included in New Zealand’s train-on squad.

The full squad will assemble after the Grand Final and play a Test against the Cook Islands on October 6, before meeting Australia on October 16 in Newcastle.

Brisbane Broncos vs. Dragons, Saturday 6:30pm, (Channel Nine, live)

Gerard Beale, Dale Copley, Jack Reed, Justin Hodges, Jharal Yow Yeh, Darren Lockyer (c), Peter Wallace, Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough, Ben Hannant, Alex Glenn, Ben Te’o, Corey Parker. Interchange: Matt Gillett, Ben Hunt, Scott Anderson, David Hala.