- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
As official ruler of the unofficial capital of rugby league, the Brisbane Broncos know silver service. And despite an abundance of NRL luxuries, the competition’s glamour club still unashamedly demands red carpet access to end its longest title drought.
Brisbane’s six titles since their inception make them the most successful team of the past 28 years.
With first dibs on an entire city’s talent, a world-class stadium and a flood of corporate exposure – an adaptation of a familiar jingle resonates, “Ah Brisbane Broncos, beautiful one day, perfect the next!”
The perfection reflects the NRL’s imperfection. Examples of inequality are splashed across The Roar on a daily basis. Bias in a schedule where all sides fail to meet each other twice is just the start.
Venting recruitment and commercial advantages basis geographic location at the wrong water cooler can ignite like an eighties State of Origin powder keg.
Wayne Bennett understands inequality better than most. The author of League’s a Lot Like Life knows rich clubs and individuals usually get richer – it’s the carrot that probably enticed him home after mixed fortunes at St George-Illawarra and Newcastle.
Now slumped in sixth spot with only three wins from his last nine, the Supercoach is playing the Origin hardship card.
Sam Thaiday also fired holes in the Origin schedule.
Last week in Rugby League Week the veteran forward claimed Brisbane shouldn’t be punished for nurturing young players into Origin stars before adding, “I think the best thing the game has done is make the Australian Test a stand-alone, and the next step is to make State of Origin stand-alone, maybe for three weeks in the middle of the season.”
Hardly an original gripe, and if all teams danced to the same beat, a fair and logical assessment.
But for the majority of teams operating on a considerably smaller scale than Brisbane, Origin reverses polarity. Sweating on mid-season depleted line-ups can make or break a wannabe’s season.
The strugglers can argue Thaiday’s comments are selfish and ignorant of the Broncos already extensive list of fortuitous advantages.
So what?
The jokers in the NRL deck aren’t the Broncos’ concern, nor are their allocation to the less fortunate – after all, league’s a lot like life.
But for all Brisbane’s mid-year heartache, premiership aspirations plummet without elite experience. The heavyweights always favour in the straight – except the 2005 Wests Tigers, the only title winner not to contribute to Origin in the same year.
However, the Broncos’ ailment masks a much more extravagant demise closer to Red Hill.
Excluding the Super League title, the Broncos’ five premiership winning teams each fielded on average a staggering 9.4 Origin representatives. As their title drought nudges a decade, that number has slumped to a healthy 5.7 per year since 2007.
Hardly a situation for remorse. In fact the Broncos’ board should punish those asleep at the recruiting wheel.
With an unparalleled six representatives this year, the pressing question of NRL inequality remains unanswered.
What’s stopping the Broncos from rebuilding a squad with a demoralising double-digit number of Origin stars?
Parramatta fans might argue the salary cap. But for a third-party magnet like Brisbane the salary cap is merely an auditor’s tick-and-flick.
With all but one of 12 home games shown on primetime free-to-air television, the Broncos are Queensland’s billboard for hire. No other club comes close. The Raiders only feature twice at home and the premiership city of Townsville only screens on four occasions.
Throw in the attraction of Suncorp Stadium with its consistent large crowds and the Broncos are the undisputed kings of cash and player desire.
But so long as Brisbane’s stand-alone Origin request tops the list, the NRL continue to ignore the necessary and diamond-impregnated premiership leveller.
The continued reluctance to increase rugby league’s exposure and revenue via a second Brisbane team is dumbfounding.
Fortnightly NRL usage of Suncorp Stadium is an embarrassment on par with wasting homegrown talent who miss alternate pathways to the Broncos.
With over a decade of interstate domination, record NRL gates, a thriving western corridor and another World Cup final, Brisbane is ripe for growth.
Slapping the Broncos’ ego with a healthy dose of neighbourly competition and an equitable distribution of the city’s fruits is the shot in the arm both the Queensland capital and rugby league deserves.
But until a second thoroughbred joins the stable, the Broncos along with the likes of Sam Thaiday will continue to bask in the monopoly while scoffing all its cake too.
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.