Will the bye affect Brisbane’s slim finals chances?

The Brisbane Broncos' finals hopes in 2024 were narrowly kept alive in Round 23 as they impressively took down the North Queensland Cowboys 42-18 on Saturday evening.

After being all but ruled out of contention for a top eight last week, the Broncos mathematically kept their season alive but still face a major uphill battle to secure a finals spot.

With season-ending injuries to Payne Haas and Ezra Mam, the Broncos' chances look even slimmer despite what could be considered a favourable draw to finish the year.

Broncos legend Corey Parker weighed in on his former club’s chances of a late-season revival with a bye looming this weekend.

“What we saw on the weekend, particularly in the second half was a big turnaround from recent weeks, so there’s some positives to take out of it,” Parker said on SENQ Mornings.

“I actually feel that the bye has come at a bad time, now they’ve got a week off and yes they can refresh and do that side of things but you lose that little bit of momentum, that groove, that cohesion that they felt up there in North Queensland.

“That’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds, it gives people an extra week however to potentially overcome injuries.”

Brisbane remains at home for the final three games of their season but would still need both the Cowboys and Dragons to loss the majority of their matches to lock up a finals spot.

“They play the Parramatta Eels, did you see enough from Brisbane against the Cowboys to suggest that you’re going to be very confident in the next three weeks? I’m not sure,” Parker added.

“They won the game and had to win the game, they had to do it any way possible and they did that.

“They play Parramatta, they’ve shown that they can push any team… they will play a style of football where they don’t really care too much and that could well and truly worry a couple of teams moving to the (backend of the season).

“Then you play the Dolphins, that’ll be an absolute corker… then they finish with the Storm, who they have just had an abysmal run against the Melbourne Storm.”

Brisbane enjoys the weekend off in Round 24 before hosting the Eels in Round 25.