Turn 15 tackles into 51: Seibold's plan to tire out Taumalolo

When it comes to stopping Jason Taumalolo, forcing him to make 51 tackles rather than 15 would be a start.

In a nutshell, Brisbane's simple aim in the Queensland derby clash with the Cowboys on Friday night is to reduce the impact the North Queensland wrecking ball has on the match.

Coach Anthony Seibold revealed a big clue to Brisbane's modus operandi against Taumalolo when referring to the 15 tackles he made against the Dragons on Saturday night, a minimal defensive workload which freed the Tongan international to make 286m with the ball and leave a trail of devastation in his wake.

"He's a dangerous player that is for sure," Seibold said.

"You are never going to take away his weapons. What we have got to try and do is minimise his weapons.

"The big thing is that we want to make him make some tackles. Jason only made 15 tackles last week. You want to make sure he has to get into the tackles a little bit more and it is the same with all of their forwards. They are real weapons and if we don't stand strong in the middle they are going to come through us."

Seibold said Taumalolo was just as much of a handful on the edge as in the middle and has challenged his starting props Tevita Pangai jnr and Joe Ofahengaue against a pack that also contains Origin and international stars Jordan McLean, Matt Scott, Coen Hess, Gavin Cooper and former Bronco Josh McGuire.

"I thought Tevita was really good off the bench [against Melbourne]. He played almost 50 minutes so he is going to start, and it's a big challenge for Joe," Seibold said.

"I thought he has been really consistent in our pre-season and he does a lot of things that go unnoticed but it is a big challenge for those guys.

"One thing we have seen with Jason when he plays on the edge is that he does a lot of their set-up plays and gets a quick play the ball … and we've got to make sure we get our bodies in front and do the job on Jason when he goes through the middle."

Seibold has juggled the roles of David Fifita and Jaydn Su'A with Fifita starting in the back row after coming off the bench last week.

"I am going to play Jaydn through the middle. With Payne Haas and Matt Lodge unavailable I just think we need a bit of size there through the middle," Seibold said.

"Jaydn is a big powerful guy so rather than starting him we can bring him off the bench. It's just a matter of leaving two back-rowers out there we think can play 80 minutes and rotate through the middle.

"I won't divulge too much but we need to make sure we move them around a little bit and make them feel fatigue.

"We had a look at arm wrestles across the competition last week and ball-in-play times and one thing we did see was that their weren't a whole heap of arm wrestles in their game against the Dragons. We need to make sure we keep the ball in play and put some fatigue into those guys but it is easier said than done."

James Roberts is set to play after recovering from an acute back spasm suffered against the Storm in the fifth minute. The NSW centre trained with Brisbane on Thursday and got through the captain's run to the satisfaction of Seibold and medical staff.