Brisbane’s personnel crisis has taken another hit with Pat Carrigan facing a two-match ban for a high tackle on Tom Chester.
Already without Reece Walsh and Ben Hunt through injury, the Broncos suffered further bad news on Saturday when Carrigan was hit with a grade-two charge by the match review committee.
And making matters worse for the Broncos, hooker Blake Mozer suffered a broken jaw in Friday night’s loss to North Queensland and will miss six weeks.
Carrigan can challenge his suspension, but will risk a third match on the sideline if he loses at the judiciary.
The star Brisbane lock had attempted to play down the severity of the tackle after Friday night’s 35-31 loss to North Queensland, claiming it was only a chest tackle.
His coach agreed.
“It was chest,” Michael Maguire said. “That’s how I saw it. It is interesting because I thought it was a really good chest tackle.”
The coach added the side “really dug in for each other” despite not getting the result they wanted amid “a fair bit of carnage”.
Brisbane face Wests Tigers and Canterbury in the next fortnight.
The defending premiers were also without halfback Adam Reynolds on Friday night, with his groin injury considered a week-by-week prospect.
Brisbane will try to have the category-one concussion of hooker Cory Paix overturned given their injury crisis.
The Paix ruling in the 45th minute of the clash had Maguire perplexed ahead of next Saturday’s clash at Wests Tigers.
The category one for Paix meant he automatically misses the Tigers clash and couldn’t come back on the field against the Cowboys.
Mozer, playing off the bench in his first NRL match since 2024, broke his jaw while trying to tackle Cowboys wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo.
“That is something we are going to have to review,” Maguire said of the Paix ruling.
“Blakey was a cat-one and gets given a cat-two. Paixy ran off, passed the test and got a cat-one. I don’t quite get that.
“I think Paixy will be fine for next week. He was ready to run back out. That is a call made externally so I will go through the right channels with the doctors and review that one. Talking to Paixy, he can’t believe it himself.
“Then on the flip side, you have got Mozer with a jaw potentially broken.”
Doctors assessed Mozer in the dressing room after the match.
“It a real shame,” Maguire said.
“He has worked really hard and I thought he was going really good out there. We were all excited for him.”
With other roster hookers Hunt and Billy Walters injured, the Broncos may turn to 20-year-old Cameron Bukowski, a highly rated No.9 who has a development contract.
“I’ve had a good conversation with a few of the boys and we think he is ready,” Maguire said.
“Cam has been battling away, fighting and working hard in the background. An opportunity might be around the corner.”
