A week off may come back to bite Melbourne when they face a battle-hardened Brisbane in an NRL preliminary final, Broncos veteran Sam Thaiday says.
But the evergreen Bronco admits they will still have to produce their best game of the year to pull off a boilover against the runaway title favourites at AAMI Park on Friday.
Taking on a fresh Storm outfit in their own backyard should be a daunting prospect for the Broncos but Thaiday believes they may have the jump on a Storm side returning from a weekend's rest.
Thaiday said the Broncos were primed for a finals grind after their hard-earned 13-6 semi-final win over Penrith.
In contrast, Melbourne may struggle to regain their winning momentum after a week's break since their qualifying final triumph over Parramatta, he says.
Asked if the week off may hinder Melbourne, Thaiday said: "It is a question that has been tossed up a fair bit.
"Sometimes the week off isn't necessarily a good thing.
"We know we have played a tough game of footy last week where we really needed to scramble in defence and work hard for the win.
"Hopefully that is going to help us going down to Melbourne.
"But I know Melbourne. They wouldn't have been kicking their feet up last week."
Brisbane had contrasting losses to Melbourne this season - a nail-biting 14-12 result at AAMI Park in round three and a 42-12 round-17 blowout at Suncorp Stadium.
Thaiday said they had looked over video of both matches but knew what they had to do against Melbourne - bring their best.
"We've watched a fair bit of tape, and the last two times we played them," he said.
"We had a lot of unforced errors and played very uncharacteristically.
"There are a few simple things to fix but we just need to play our best football of the year to win - it's that simple."
Brisbane hooker Ben Hunt said the Broncos were not afraid of facing Melbourne despite a lousy recent record.
Brisbane have won just four of their last 23 games against the Storm.
"There is never any fear. We just have to turn up with a good attitude," he said.
"But yeah, plain and simple we will have to play our best game (to win).
"They have been the No.1 team all year and we have to be better."
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