Upping the ante in his "back me or sack me" approach, Wayne Bennett has had a crack at Brisbane's board for not having a succession plan and demanded an answer on his future at the NRL club.
Bennett, 68, is off contract next year but is believed to have tabled his future plans to the Broncos board on Wednesday in a bid to get a contract extension well into his 70s.
Bennett is suddenly in a position of power after Craig Bellamy knocked back a lucrative deal to stay with Melbourne.
In his 25th season at Brisbane's helm, Bennett said letting coaching speculation swirl around the club was "not who the Broncos are" and wanted an answer from the board soon.
"The major reason (to get a prompt reply) is that we don't want any distractions going into the back end of the season," Bennett said ahead of Saturday night's NRL clash with Canberra.
"We have had a season of distractions here and it's been remarkable what these players have done under the circumstances.
"It's not who the Broncos are and it is not what I want the Broncos to be so we need to get some clarity so we can get our jobs done."
Asked if he expected an answer soon, Bennett said: "I hope so."
Another distraction for Brisbane this season has been controversial prop Matt Lodge.
Bennett denied reports Lodge had signed a new two-year deal but confirmed the 23-year-old was in negotiations.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg had indicated Lodge would be registered if Brisbane submitted a contract after the prop recently took out a bank loan to compensate the victims of his drunken 2015 New York attack.
Eighth-placed Brisbane still hope to keep their top-four goal alive when they line-up against the Raiders without backrower Tevita Pangai.
Pangai succumbed to a rib injury suffered in their last round win over Cronulla after Friday's training session.
In a reshuffle, Alex Glenn comes off the bench to the starting second-row for Pangai while prop Korbin Sims returns from a six week lay-off with a broken jaw to take his place on the interchange.
"Tevita was still not really comfortable with what can be a very painful injury," Broncos high performance manager Jeremy Hickmans said.
"We would rather give it another week to heal than have the problem hang around for the rest of the season."
STATS THAT MATTER
* Brisbane are aiming for six straight wins over Canberra for the first time after previously claiming five straight from 1991-93
* Canberra have the best red zone attack of any NRL team, scoring a try inside their opponent's 20m every 8.5 tackles
* Canberra have won eight of 35 matches in Queensland since 2005 - the worst record of any team in this period
