The Brisbane Broncos last chance of winning a Grand Final was 2011. In a finals match against St George Illawarra Dragons, Darren Lockyer, playing his 355th game of his Rugby League career, would play one of the greatest games of the year.
This match had everything from drama, entertainment, edge of your seat suspense, and nail biting moments with heart in your mouth action.
Although falling short of a fairy tale campaign and despite a fractured cheekbone, Darren Lockyer will always be remembered and remember his match winning efforts that summed in more ways than one, summed up his career.
Each season Darren Lockyer played, the Brisbane Broncos were always regarded a chance of winning the Premiership.
This year the Broncos lacked the leadership, composure and vision of their former leader. Although they started the season extremely well, they didn’t really keep it going.
Towards the final quarter of the season, the Broncos team were constantly being poked and prodded to find the right formula that would unite the team together to get their premiership campaign back on track.
Players like Peter Wallace, Corey Norman, Ben Hunt and Josh Hoffman, in my opinion, really let the team down. The form shown by these four in the early parts of the season was what many thought would be the right combination to take the Broncos to their next premiership.
Broncos would place emphasis on developing their youth and in time win a premiership and say they didn’t buy it, but is this really what fans really want to hear?
All is great if it works, but the big question is, what if the players being developed and chosen by the Broncos aren’t good enough?
The purchase of Scott Prince, I believe, will provide the Broncos youth with the kick up the back side to get their football back into gear.
Prince doesn’t just provide another option at halfback but he has proved he is a genuine halfback that when the rest of his team can perform around him, has the credentials to take any team to a premiership. In 2005 he achieved this with the West Tigers.
After years of torment through injuries it was about time Prince got a break, and since 2005 he has performed quiet consistently.
At times he has pushed for State of Origin selection and even Australian selection but the current crop of Queensland halfbacks are simply better, which doesn’t mean to say that Prince isn’t good enough to keep the pressure on the Queensland halves.
Although his skills will not scale the heights of Lockyer, Prince, when performing at his best, has the leadership, composure and vision to tear any team apart.
He is still the same Prince that led the Tigers to a premiership and Titans to a few finals campaigns but he is a bit older now, with more match experience, knowledge and leadership to give the Broncos a chance of developing their youth further and taking them to their next grand final.
This period for the club has been the longest they have gone without a premiership, but they really haven’t deserved one.
The game has developed leaps and bounds and teams are starting to develop new game plans, which make the game more entertaining for the younger generation (Bulldogs) and provide a nitty gritty game of football that is well structured and devised to tear teams apart (Storm).
Most NRL supporters know the Broncos very well; they know the expectations that are placed upon the most supported and successful team of the past 20 years.
If a premiership doesn’t eventuate soon, fans will start to become frustrated, but this is what success breeds; expectation.
Questions will be asked and fans will want answers. Broncos fans will be hoping the purchase of Prince isn’t just another failure that changes nothing for the upcoming season, but instead they will hope to see something more, something different and something that provides the Broncos faithful with that glimmer of hope once again where they honestly believe their team is the best in the NRL.
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