I don’t think anyone was really expecting the Knights to beat Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night. Nevertheless, I don’t think anyone was really expecting such a dramatic win margin either.
While the Broncos and the Knights may be at opposite ends of the ladder in 2016, there’s still something elegant and impressive about a 53-0 score. Even from the very best team in the competition, that’s a majestic result.
By the end of the game, Anthony Milford seemed to know that Brisbane had achieved something pretty special. In the 80th minute, he kicked a field goal on the back of his try two minutes earlier just for the hell of it.
Some people called it arrogant, but I saw it more as elation.
In an interview with the Telegraph in 2013 about his match-winning field goal in game 3 of 2012 State of Origin, Cooper Cronk reflected that: “every sinew in my body came together in one perfect whole… I began to realise when we are being completely free of our own expectation, the body extends into its natural form, without impediment. And things happen.”
Something similar happened to Milford with his field goal at the end of Saturday’s night match. His elation was all the more marked in that his one-pointer wasn’t even needed to win the game.
Instead, it was a bit like the footy equivalent of the runner’s high – a display of pure momentum that perfectly summarised the Brisbane effort.
In fact, so dominant was the Suncorp team that the whole match had a bit of an Origin flavour, especially since Trent Hodkinson increasingly feels as if he might join Jarrod Mullen in the long list of great Blues halves that never were.
However you feel about Brisbane as a team, a club and a culture, there was no doubt that the Broncos were poetry in motion on Saturday night.
While there’s been a lot of press about coaches recently – Anthony Griffin’s stress about Penrith’s close finishes, Andrew McFadden cementing the new Warriors spine, Paul McGregor contemplating dark times ahead for the Dragons – it’s rare to see a team operating as seamlessly and superlatively to enact their coaches’ vision as the Broncos.
More than any other coach in the game – with the possible exception of Craig Bellamy – Wayne Bennett knows how to choreograph a perfect two acts of footy. The fact that he’s so retired and reticent just makes his vision all the more enigmatic and awe-inspiring.
As always, Darius Boyd continues to be the key to Bennett’s vision. Although he’s one of the quietest fullbacks in the game – sometimes to a fault – he’s got a slippery, elastic presence on the field that makes him one of the best custodians out there.
The halves continue to shine as well, especially Anthony Milford. If each round of footy this season has felt like a fresh argument for both Josh Dugan and James Tedesco as Blues contenders, then every Broncos game over the last couple of weeks feels as if it has been designed specifically to showcase why their no. 6 may just be the next J.T.
Thurston himself has said as much in a recent interview with the Courier Mail.
Along with Corey Oates (9, 26. 47), Milford racked up an incredible three tries (21, 32, 78), with additional four-pointers planted by Jordan Kahu (54), Ben Hunt (58), Joe Ofahengaue (69) and Kahu again in the 75th minute.
With one try roughly every eight minutes, it felt like every member of the Brisbane bunch got a taste of the action.
Still, it was Milford and Oates who dominated. Between them, they were responsible for every try in the game until the 54 minute mark.
Despite such an impressive tally of four-pointers, it was a sign of Brisbane’s supremacy that they managed to get to a 53-0 lead despite only converting half of their tries and not relying on-field goals or penalty goals to maintain their margin.
If Corey Parker and Jordan Kahu had been a little more consistent with their kicking game on the night, the score would have stood at a staggering 63-0.
That they didn’t is a testament to the dominance of Brisbane’s mid-aged players. Whereas other teams in the competition are struggling to find a bridge between their veterans and young guns, the Broncos are blessed with a pair of halves who are now entering the second stage of their careers with dedication and conviction.
While Hunt may not have been quite as dominant in planting the ball – although his one-hander in the 58th minute was a high point – he was a key orchestrator, sending an inside ball to Milford in the 20th minute and gifting him a beautiful grubber in the 32nd.
It was a good night for James Roberts as well, who has tended to come into his own at Brisbane when backed by the Broncos at full firing power. Proving that he still has more speed than Oxford Street, the former Gold Coast centre dashed around the scrum to slip the Steeden to Kahu for his 54th-minute try.
With such a low-firing Knights outfit, it was hard to pick out any player who really shone.
If anything, Newcastle felt more defined by the players who were off the field. Not only was captain Jeremy Smith out with a knee injury, but winger Nathan Ross was taken off in the second half, leaving only one player on the interchange bench.
Losing Jarrod Mullen to a concussion in the ninth minute was especially disheartening – one of those departures so sudden you couldn’t help but assume that he would return later in the game.
For this Tigers fan, the pleasure of seeing such superlative footy from the Broncos was also offset by the fact that this sorry Knights outfit still somehow managed to beat us at Hunter Stadium last week.
Sure, playing at home is always an advantage – especially for Newcastle – but in combination with the loss against the Storm on Sunday afternoon, the Brisbane win just seemed to drive the Tigers further into the gutter.
Looking forward to Round 8, Brisbane and Newcastle couldn’t be further apart. On the one hand, the Broncos have lost only once this season – the golden point with Penrith in Round 3 – while managing to put down 82 points in the last one hundred and 60 minutes of football without conceding even a penalty goal to the opposition.
On the other hand, the Knights had already conceded more points than any other outfit before they even rocked up at Suncorp on Saturday night.
With the Broncos set to take on the Rabbitohs and the Knights set to take on the Sea Eagles I’m tempted to say that the rich are likely to get richer and the poor poorer, at least in Round 8.
Still, you never know – if anything has characterised 2016 it’s been unpredictability, and it’s going to be interesting to see how these teams fare over the next couple of days.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The NRL's match officials announcement on Tuesday lunchtime is usually cause for little fanfare, but sparked debate this week with top ref Ashley Klein…
It had all been going so well. Canberra were by far the better side for ten minutes, with Jamal Fogarty giving the Brisbane back…
Like most clubs, the Brisbane Broncos have had their fair share of big boppers over the years, many of them legends of the game.…
Who are the hardest working big men in the NRL?
My American mate wants a Canberra Raiders jersey. If someone had told me a couple of months ago that I’d have friends in the…
Derbies are often rated on intensity rather than quality, and that was very much to the fore at Suncorp for the third Battle of…
