Last night Brisbane Broncos suffered the worst loss in the clubs history, a 56-0 thrashing by the Canberra Raiders down in the national capital.
You’d had to see it to really understand how terrible the loss was.
Canberra led 16-0 at half time and looked to be beating the Broncos quite comfortably. The Raiders have been in pretty poor form recently and haven’t set the world on fire at all this year.
In the second half the Raiders scored a point per minute.
The Broncos forward pack was destroyed. canberra walked through them up the middle of the park with ease, it wasn’t even a contest.
I thought they should have taken Darren Lockyer from the field before the 60 minture mark. He didn’t deserve to have to play in that shitful side, you’re putting un-needed miles into old legs, I would have taken him from the field and told him to have an early shower and leave the rest of the side to deal with it.
The Broncos now are on the verge of missing their first finals series since 1991.
So whats happening up there? You have to look back over a few years with the Broncos in my opinion.
Go back to the start of a turning tide, when the Broncos stopped giving players the old tap on the shoulder and players started to actually walk away from the Broncos. The club used to use loyalty when it suited them, telling players they couldn’t turn their back on the Broncos or Queensland, they had to resign, there is no other option.
The Cowboys started to become an option for players, and later, the Gold Coast. Australian rugby union took a few players and then even a fedw Sydney clubs managed to get some Broncos players.
A big turning point was when Wayne Bennett, the man who used two faced loyalty for years to retain players, decided to leave the Broncos for the Sydney Roosters. The move didn’t come off, but it was a big mopment in the clubs history.
Stories of poor player behaviour started to leak out of Brisbane, something that never happened in the past and all of a sudden all the commitment we had seen ion the past to the Broncos started looking more like an “every man for himself” mindset.
Soon after the Broncos management got sick and tire of Wayne Bennett for some reason and they parted company, with Bennett going to the Dragons and being replaced by his assistant coach Ivan Henjak.
Heading into 2009 the Broncos had an amazing backline but a terrible forward pack. They started off strong but faded as the season went on.
Darren Lockyer looked old, Ivan Henjak panicked and brought back Tonie Carroll, and all of a sudden the Broncos looked like they were scrambling to try anything at all.
Karmichael Hunt then wanted to feel special and started a circus and broncos players were flimed larking around with an AFL ball leading into what would be the clubs biggest loss in their proud history.
As is stands right now, I’d be shocked if the Broncos made the finals. They are gone!
So what happens from here?
Ivan Henjak needs time. He has taken over from a legend, he is under more pressure and spotlight than any other coach, he needs to be allowed time to learn from his mistakes. He also needs support, he needs at least three years to be allowed to get rid of players he doesnt want and get in players he does want.
Secondly, who ever is in charge of player recruitment and player retention needs fired.
The Broncos lost far more talent than they they got back in the player shuffle and it must kill Broncos fans to see a large part of last years forward pack doing so well at the Bulldogs.
The club needs to look at how to develops forwards and which of these forwards they retain.
I’d going to give Darren Lockyer his last season but the club needs to start the post Darren Lockyer era now. They need to be looking at who will be their halves combination going forward.
The club never replaced Allan Langer and were lucky that Lockyer was able to cover that. Who is going to be there to take over when Lockyer is gone?
They club needs to clear out all their current forwards, they are terrible. The other thing they need to do is blood some new forwards in these last few rounds.
Last but not least, the club needs a real culture change. The focus stopped being of doing well for the club many years ago and look where it is now leading them.
Talent will only take the club so far and now a lot of that talent is leaving, the Broncos could find themselves near the bottom of the table for a few years to come.
