Payne Haas is tipped to become an even bigger nightmare for defenders as the Brisbane prop reboots the prodigious offloading skills he has long held in his arsenal.
In last week's 50-14 win over Sydney Roosters, the rampaging front-rower unleashed four offloads and set up a try with a silky pass for hooker Cory Paix to score.
"He's a freak of nature and can pull that out of his arsenal. Payne just keeps getting better and better," Broncos lock Kobe Hetherington said.
In the early years of his NRL career Haas did not offload the ball often. In the club's grand-final year of 2023 he had a career-high 50 for the season in 23 games before not utilising the skill as much in a disrupted 2024.
Haas was old twinkle toes against the Roosters as he tripped the light fantastic like Fred Astaire to dance around defenders with ease on the way to 167m from 15 runs in a blockbusting 49 minutes of mayhem.
You don't win five Broncos player-of-the-year awards and represent NSW and Australia being one-dimensional, but the beauty of Haas is that he has tricks in his kit bag that have only been brought out sporadically.
The 25-year-old's offloads, body swerve and nimble feet can be a lethal weapon in the Broncos attack.
His former Keebra Park High School coach Glen Campbell said Haas always had ball distribution as part of his craft.
"At schoolboy level Payne worked in tandem with a fullback we had called Damian Dumas and he slipped passes at will to set up countless tries after he'd made a break," Campbell told AAP.
"The try he set up for Cory Paix against the Roosters, where he slipped the ball when falling to the ground, was what he was doing for us.
"He has possibly been given a licence to do it by (coach) Michael Maguire and he will get better and better.
"With Payne's skillset he will become a nightmare for sides if they can't control him upstairs.
"He can play the ball fast or offload. Now everyone has seen it they will be thinking, 'how do we defend against this guy?'"
Dumas was the school's leading try scorer with Haas running amok and Campbell said Broncos fullback Reece Walsh could also benefit by following the big man.
"The amount of tries he put Dumas in for was nothing short of amazing. Anybody who is a backup specialist, like a Reece Walsh, could have an absolute field day," Campbell said.
"Payne is amazingly quick for a big man and steps off both feet. The shorter spurts Maguire is playing him, where he goes hammer and tongs for 30 minutes, are a big plus for him.
"He gets the 10 minutes rest before half-time and on the other side of the break he is ready to rip in. Payne has had some breakout years but this could be something special."
