Brisbane Broncos: End of an Era

It was a rare show of emotion from Darren Lockyer (as Greg Inglis snatched a late win for the still-underwhelming Storm on Saturday night) but he had every right to be upset. Not just because they had lost a great opportunity to make it to a preliminary final but because it might just be his last chance at premiership success. A lot of familiar faces still ran out on to Suncorp Stadium this season, but the Broncos are not the team they once were.

In other news from Week 2 of an intriguing NRL finals series, the Storm are running on fumes but still running, the Roosters still couldn't figure out that a rugby league game lasts for 80 minutes and the Warriors' juggernaut kept on rolling.

Between 1992 and 2002, Brisbane made it to the prelim final stage or beyond six times. Since then, they've made it just once as their depth suffered, their ability to acquire the best SEQ talent tapered somewhat and their Origin stars were largely unable to produce in latter part of each season.

That said, their 2006 premiership was a sterling achievement. Their trademark late-season slump threatened to see them miss the finals completely, but they finished very strongly, winning 6 of 7 and overwhelming Melbourne to win the comp.

Sadly for Brisbane, much of the core of this team is now gone and while they replaced much of the talent of these departees, the experience and consistency of these players was lacking in the new-look Broncos of 2008.

Much was made of the Saturday night binge a few weeks back, but this was somewhat a product of circumstances. Since the introduction of the Titans (and the advent of live Friday night games), Channel 9's desire for a Queensland team to be playing on Friday night has seen Brisbane become almost exclusively a Friday night team, especially at home. It seems as though the combination of free weekends and a younger squad was a factor in the much-discussed night out.

That said... many a team has had to close a relationship with alcohol over the years with this not being too detrimental to team performance. But Brisbane had a somewhat inconsistent season (even with Lockyer's ongoing struggle to regain full fitness after his knee injury): they started strongly (as they almost always have) but after their quite efficient win over the Tigers in Sydney in Round 8, they had (by my count) three efforts for the remainder of the minor premiership. Parramatta pushed them to a big effort and a late win at home in Round 12, they thrashed a brave Canberra in Round 21 and their Round 26 win over Newcastle was clinical.

Apart from these games, their season was a mix of doing-the-absolute-minimum-to-get-the-win games, winning by 10 or so points but not looking convincing games and quite a few losses (some sloppy, others to good teams).

They did look quite impressive in Week 1, abosrbing the Roosters' 40 minutes and posting the win and to take a 12-0 lead over a full-strength (in appearance anyway) Melbourne is a rare feat. But the fact they couldn't go on and defeat Melbourne probably says as much about the gutsy Storm as it did about Brisbane.

With Hunt, Lockyer, Wallace and Ennis in the all-important 1-6-7-9 positions and class and experience with the likes of Thaiday, Carroll, Sims, Parker, Kemp and Boyd, Brisbane 2008 had the look of a team that could go far, but just didn't have....something. Was Bennett's looming departure a factor (did his decreasing influence encourage poor behaviour and bad habits)? Did Lockyer's increasing on-field influence (and just-do-enough-ness) carry over to his teammates? Were they missing one or two more hardheads (what amounted to a Civoniceva for Clinton trade certainly ended up in Penrith's favour)? Or was the greater alcohol culture to blame?

Likely, each of these factors contributed to Brisbane's unrealised potentially very good season, but it's difficult to see where improvement will come from for them in the next few years. Bennett's loss is massive, it's a huge void for Ivan Henjak to step into. They also are losing Ennis, Hannant, Kemp, Carroll and Moon. They will gain a superstar in Folau, but his quiet demeanour may not be what's needed (although his size, power and tries will certainly help). Brisbane will be Friday night regulars again and with less veteran experience and structure in the club, the alcohol culture could very well worsen before it gets better. Lockyer is nearing the end of his career and they'll probably have another strong Origin/Rep contingent of players....there are too many signs of Brisbane struggling over the next couple of years.

Of course, this could just mean finishing between 6th and 8th and threatening the upper echelon teams: some teams would kill for these to be their bad seasons. Everything's relative, but the Broncos will likely start their 2nd 20 years with a bit of a rough patch.

How about Melbourne though? They looked extremely vulnerable before Saturday night and now they are without a hobbled Hoffman and fit players in C and J Smith. Their depth has been gradually thinned over the last few years and they've looked less than impressive for much of the 2nd half of the season. Sure they beat Manly, but it looked a tired effort for much of the time (surely the Storm are rapidly nearing the end of their supply of last-ditch try-saving tackles.. How about Slater's one on Hannant with 3 to go on Saturday night?!). There appears to be an attitude of "We'll be ok, Cooper will kick for Folau or Slater or Inglis will just run over some people.. if we can tackle, we'll be ok".

That said, their less-than-full pace is better than some team's full pace... but Cronulla is not just some team. Well...maybe they are by any sort of measure of skill or talent, but you'd think they will push the short-staffed tired Storm physically. It is a wonderful position for Cronulla to be in, where they have a great chance to make a grand final by physically overwhelming a team...but they are Cronulla, so anything's possible. Still...can't wait to see it.

Finally, great to see the Warriors put forth a huge effort to see off the Roosters. They got some excellent contributions from both their salt and their pepper (thanks to Mark Geyer for that one) but their dominance was such the Roosters barely saw the other half of the field in the 2nd half. And such a wonderful, full home crowd.

I can see a fired-up Manly being a bit too much for them on Saturday night (i.e. playing for more than 40 minutes), but it will take a very good Manly effort... I don't think the Warriors are finished just yet. Manly will be stiff opposition, but so to will the inconsistent Warriors' halves (at least Rovelli is not playing in this one, although he wasn't that bad since his return to the team).

Another big weekend ahead - enjoy!

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