Carrigan:
"Losing the Grand Final is going to burn for a little bit. I think this will make us stronger. Any hardship you have makes you better. We can’t sulk about it and pretend it didn’t happen. It’s something we have to learn from to get better and I know as a group, we’re going to be better. I’ll spend the off-season thinking about what happened and I’ll come back to pre-season just as hungry as I was this year. In another 12 months, it will be pretty special to see where this group can get to. There’s more growth in us.”
“It’s a bit weird to be honest. I had to go straight into Aussie camp for the Pacific Championships so I didn’t have too much downtime to process it. We had a great opportunity to win the premiership but Penrith hung in there and got us in the end. The dust has settled now, the game is done and we can’t change what happened. You ask anyone who loses a grand final, definitely it’s painful. But rather than it be an end point, I would like to think it will be a big journey in my mind of where we are going as a group. In my eyes, we are just getting started. We can take some lessons from what happened.”
“Whilst Penrith have won three straight premierships, they lost their first grand final, too in 2020. So it’s a process about us getting better and learning from losing a grand final. It won’t break us. There is such a big ceiling for a lot of the boys in this team and that’s the exciting thing. ‘Kevvie’ will keep us humble and grounded — I have no doubt we can win it next year if we want to achieve that.”
“I do think Reece can go to another level next year. Reece is a good mate of mine and he will be burning from some of the stuff that happened in the grand final. He is always looking for improvements. He had a massive year for us last year, he started to find his niche in our game and with time, it’s only going to make him more comfortable with his role in our team. The more they play together, the more Reece will complement Ezra and ‘Reyno.' The lesson for Reece is when to do a lot and when not to do too much. He is only 21. If people think this year was his ceiling, they will be wrong.”
“It’s all news to me (about moving to prop). I’m always a team player and the Broncos come first. If they needed me to move to prop, I would, but I think my growth at 13 has been pretty good this year. That’s where I’d like to stay and Kev has put that confidence in me to grow my game to another level. I’m really confident being a lighter fella that my best footy can be played at 13, but it’s a team sport and you do what’s best for the team. If there’s a brick wall to run through for the Broncos, I’ll do it. I have learnt so much in the 13 and my best footy for the Broncos is in that position I believe. I want to add more variation to my game. I am a big believer that you have to keep adapting and keep working on new elements if you want to keep succeeding in this game. I’m not satisfied.”
“It does go through your mind, whether you could benefit from going somewhere else (like the Dolphins). I have massive respect for Wayne and everything he did. I actually signed with the Broncos because of Wayne, he’s the greatest coach and he was special when I first came here. But when it came to making a call, I just love this club and I love playing with my good mates. We’ve been through some tough times and I didn’t want to walk away from that. ‘Kevvie’ brought that enjoyment back for me … the Broncos are everything and everywhere I wanted to be.”