Caring ethos retains Haas firing for Broncos in Ramadan | USAEMALL.com

After another benchmark display, Payne Haas has explained why the ethos of playing NRL through Ramadan is what drives his incredible standards rather than the physical challenge.

The Brisbane prop, an adherent of the Muslim faith, won the Carl Webb Medal as man of the match in the 26-16 win over North Queensland at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night after a rampaging performance.

The holy month of Ramadan runs right through until March 30 and Haas will continue to fast – which includes not drinking water – from sunrise until sunset.

For a man that puts it all on the line at training and in games, it is a remarkable feat but one that Haas said gave him pause for self-reflection rather than being “hard”.

“There’s so many other people in this world who struggle to find food and water during this time and I’m blessed I can get food and water whenever I want to, so no, it’s not hard,” Haas said.

“I keep on thinking back to kids in third world countries. It’s hard for them to get water and food. I’m pretty grateful for the life I live and I get it pretty easy compared to most people.”

Haas scored a 30m try to kick the Broncos clear in the second half. He ran for 214m with two line breaks and nine tackle busts.

The man of the match was named in honour of Webb, a ferocious forward for both Brisbane and North Queensland who died in 2023 of Motor Neurone Disease.

“He means a lot to both clubs and to receive that award is an honour and privilege to be honest,” Haas said.

“Carl is on our strength leaderboard in the gym, so he’s around our club and he’s a legend. He’ll live forever live in everyone’s minds in both clubs.”

Brisbane five-eighth Ben Hunt has played with the great props of the modern era and said Haas was leading the current crop.

“I’d like to see who is better than him to be honest, at the moment anyway,” Hunt said.

“He is just exceptional. He seems to keep going to another level.”It’s just his engine. If he really wanted to, he could play 80 minutes. I know you don’t want to burn him out like that but he can do it.

“He just keeps turning up, he never misses a tackle and he turns up in the right place. There was a grubber in the in-goal that I missed, but Payne just turns up there. It’s things like that. He is a special player.”