Brisbane will repeatedly send Jordan Riki at Parramatta playmaker jonah pezet on Thursday night, with centre Kotoni Staggs saying the Broncos will “probably put Riki on him and make him make tackles. ” The move reveals a deliberate edge-focused tactic designed to test Pezet now and blunt his impact before he joins Brisbane next year.
Jonah Pezet defensive plan
Jordan Riki will line up directly opposite Pezet and Kotoni Staggs will play outside him, with the Broncos planning to run traffic down that edge the way Melbourne did. Pezet was forced into 21 tackles and missed two in Parramatta’s loss to the Storm while Melbourne forward Joe Chan produced 198m and a try from 16 carries and forced an error that involved Pezet’s former teammate. The pattern suggests Brisbane wants to recreate the pressure Pezet faced against the Storm to force handling errors and reduce his service time to his outside runners.
Jordan Riki matchup details
Staggs explicitly said Brisbane will “probably put Riki on him and make him make tackles, ” signalling a personnel-specific game plan rather than a broad change to structure. Brisbane’s intent to target that edge comes as a direct response to being outplayed in round one: the Broncos were held scoreless in a 26-0 loss to Penrith and completed just 62 per cent of their sets. The figures point to a short-term tactical pivot—use a hard-running, defensive winger in Riki to turn Pezet’s role into a defensive grind and generate quick possession opportunities for the Broncos’ attack.
Brisbane’s Round One issues
Brisbane’s season-opening defeat to Penrith has added urgency to the Riki-on-Pezet plan, and Staggs pushed back against talk of a premiership hangover after the 26-0 loss. Those hangover fears have been fuelled in part by Payne Haas signing with Souths next year and Brisbane’s shock loss to Hull KR in the World Club Challenge, but Staggs emphasised that Pezet is “a Parramatta Eel so we’ll try to play our game against him” and that Brisbane still sees the matchup as this season’s priority. The analysis suggests the coaching staff is prioritising immediate corrective measures—targeted matchups and edge pressure—to arrest the completion-rate decline evident in round one.
Pezet left the Storm at the end of the 2025 season and will spend one year at the Eels before he joins Brisbane on a long-term deal; that transfer is the next confirmed development in this situation. If Brisbane’s plan to force repeated tackles on Pezet succeeds and creates errors or short possessions, the data suggests they can both win this match and send a message about how they intend to neutralise him ahead of his arrival next year.
