Seibold to bank on young guns after losing Oates and Croft

The Broncos will turn to 19-year-old duo Tom Dearden and Xavier Coates if Brodie Croft and Corey Oates are ruled out of Sunday’s away clash with the Gold Coast Titans.

Croft left the field in the 14th minute of the 22-18 win over the Rabbitohs on Friday night with an AC joint injury while Oates was in considerable pain when he came off with a rib injury in the final five minutes.

The extent of their injuries is yet to be determined by medical staff but both players are in considerable doubt for next week.

Broncos coach Anthony Seibold said Croft could "possibly" play through his injury but backed Dearden to do the job if called up to partner Anthony Milford.

"It is an AC joint injury so hopefully it settles down in the next few days. I am not sure what the next step is, whether we get a scan or check in with the doctor and physio on Monday," Seibold said.

"We have got Tom Dearden there who we have got a lot of confidence in. I think everyone has shown so far that it is the next man up.

"Jamil Hopoate did a hell of a job for Tevita [Pangai Jnr] tonight and if Tommy comes in next week I am sure he will do a hell of a job as well."

Seibold utilised Andrew McCullough and Kotoni Staggs in the halves to cope with the loss of Croft but said he preferred to go with a recognised half if Croft was out.

"We developed Tom Dearden last year. I gave him five games of NRL as an 18-year-old kid. He is fresh and ready to go," Seibold said.

"He will come into the side. I think he is a very good young player.

"We can’t take a trick at the moment."

Herbie Farnworth came off the bench to play wing when Seibold reshuffled his backline and he is likely to be a starting winger if Oates is ruled out with Coates, who played three NRL games last year, coming into the side on the bench.

Oates is also looking like an unlikely starter against the Titans.

"He is not real good. Probably in the next 48 hours we will know a bit more," Seibold said.

“With rib injuries, having them myself and seeing other players pick them up, they are pretty uncomfortable. So I'd say he would be doubtful for next week at this stage.

“We have got Xavier who played really well for Redcliffe last week against the Sunshine Coast. If Oates is not there we have Coates sitting there and Herbie who did a good job on the wing. One of them would start on the wing and the other on the bench."

The Broncos trailed 12-10 at half-time but deserved their win over Souths with hat-trick hero Staggs, five-eighth Anthony Milford and middle forwards Tom Flegler and Pat Carrigan all enormous.

"I thought we were certainly the better team. One thing I was really proud of is that the group didn’t let the scoreboard affect them at half-time," Seibold said.

"Potentially last year we would have looked to the scoreboard after being down by two at half-time after being dominant.

"They have overcome a fair bit of adversity. If you look at who is out in our team with Tevita, Alex Glenn, Matt Lodge and Jack Bird … and we lost Crofty. We had four halves in the game.

"That is a really quality South Sydney team that was fighting hard at the end."