It appears the Brisbane Broncos have effectively bungled the rebuilding of their club in the wake of Darren Lockyer’s retirement through the signing of Scott Prince.
The first six months of life without Lockyer for the Broncos was great.
They had a youthful roster deep in talent and importantly the 1-6-7-9 combination of Josh Hoffman, Corey Norman, Peter Wallace and Andrew McCullough were showing plenty of promise.
Then as young teams tend to do they lost their way toward the end of the season but at least the ability was still there and you could envisage that nucleus potentially winning a premiership in the next five years.
For the last five seasons, the Broncos were potentially denied a premiership by either a Lockyer injury or an Ashton Sims dropped ball, which signifies the importance of Lockyer’s leadership and creativity.
It appeared Norman was on a path of doing a good job of replacing this until some internal instability seemed to set in late last year.
The decision to sign Prince to replace Norman in the halves was a confusing one for a rebuilding team that lacked potency in attack.
Wallace is a reliable halfback but can struggle to create line breaks and tries for his side.
Teaming him with an ageing Prince, who also spearheaded one the worst attacking sides in the NRL for the past few years, was always going to render you with the bluntest halves combination in the NRL.
They only justifiable explanation for the Prince signing is that he can be a useful promotional tool that can sell tickets and that it was a temporary solution before winning the Jonathon Thurston and Cooper Cronk sweepstakes which is fine, but they lost.
Beyond that it had the short term risk of limiting opportunities and development for the young talent coming through.
The ramifications of the Prince signing could not have turned out worse for the Broncos, there best long term prospect for a five-eighth has justifiably fled to Parramatta, which amazingly offers more hope for his career.
Tonight’s opposition, local rivals Gold Coast Titans, are free of Prince, have a young dynamic halves combination and are the strongest they have ever looked.
Another strange reason for letting Norman go appeared to be to give them the salary cap flexibility to sign the brilliant but troubled Josh Dugan which also would have jeopardised the career of Hoffman at the Broncos.
Unsurprisingly this plan backfired, but maybe for the best this time.
If the Broncos are going to be a premiership threat in the next five years, they are going to have to find a future half prodigy in the under-20s comp once Prince leaves at the end of next season.
Otherwise it is going to be a long decade for the former superpower.
punisa
Guest
no,wallace is good he is johnny on the spot always, prince and wallace should switch spots and now its too late cause all the good halves are all sighned up we are screwed they should just develop hoffman at 5/8 cause thats what he played as a junor
David Hayward
Roar Pro
Great points about Gagai, Taylor, Sims (Henjak's fault), Korbin and even disciplining Hoffman last year. Utterly hypocritical!
David Hayward
Roar Pro
Fair points Alex, although Norman was responsible for most of there tries in the time period you refer to so I'm unconvinced they can be that strong in attack without him.
David Hayward
Roar Pro
Not really, Kelly was the best half on the field and Sezer didn't play!
Jake
Guest
"Tonight’s opposition, local rivals Gold Coast Titans, are free of Prince, have a young dynamic halves combination and are the strongest they have ever looked." Egg on face, much?
alex
Guest
DH. given the broncos last three halves of football against two of the more favoured teams , your initials are quite appropriate !! stats dont lie . they have scored 8 tries in 80 minutes against the two best defence record sides in the comp . fair to say prior to that they were ordinary but their effort last night was quite brilliant . like many I have been a long term critic of their percentage style in attack , however griffin has clearly unshackled them since the shutout against the roosters . thats been the difference . second phase , moving opposition firwards around , making them run repeatedly to one tackle spot then as the off load comes , run again . it prevents the defence retaining their shape in defence and it allows u to get space in attack . last night they looked likely to score every time they were in titans half , just as they did against storm last week . they have looked ordinary for a while , however credit where its due - the coach encouraging prince to take control more has worked well in their last twi games . attitude change is all that has happenned on field . off field , our recruitment is essentially the domain of andrew gee . he hasnt got it right fir a few years . the retention of wallace and mcullough on comparatively high numbers shud be questioned . Ben H unt and Jake Granville at half the cost , give FAR more effect from the 9 position than mcullough ever can . too slow .
wow
Guest
little improvement you are not watching the same games I am they are improving no need for the wilderness, last year is last year stop living in the past and see what the future holds because before those 11 games the same nuffies on here were calling them favourites
ferret
Guest
@ wow - slight correction - the Broncos were terrible for the last 11 games in 2012 and have shown little improvement in the first 4 in 2013. So, for me, 15 games in a row would suggest a trend is indeed developing. And it is with, mostly, the same players (2012 & 2013). So do the Broncos adopt a strategy to "make the 8" year after year, or are they interested in actually winning the thing? I'd rather a season or two in the wilderness if there was clear a strategy to once again be premiers.
wow
Guest
I cant believe how after just 4 rounds how everyone knows who will win & who is wooden spoon . Have any of you watched a season before? the broncos will be in the finals again and they dont have to buy a whole new team (bulldogs/sharks) to do so and Norman was not worth what the Eels paid for him so cant blame them for not matching the offer
Edward Kelly
Guest
No matter how bad the Broncos get, they will still feature on Friday night on Nine! I personally hope Nine suffers dismal ratings for their Bronco games.
oikee
Guest
For some reason Wallace is a protected species, yet he never seem to come up with the right play. He can tackle, but tackling big forwards does not win you games. The Broncos are stale and rusty, they need to buy some talent. God knows how many gooduns they have let get away, and that is another bad sign, why has this club fallen apart. Is it White, or Griffith, it has to be one or the other, or both. Anyhow, they tried on the youth policy and it crumbled around them, lets see how the recruiting policy goes, so far they have tried to hire a bad boy gone bad and he exploded before they even had him on the books, so hiring superstars has got off to a bad start. I really am wondering if this club is the blind leading the blind, and like the NRL and Harrigon as ref boss, who can stop them, who can sack them. ??? The Broncos being untouchable could be the death of this once mighty powerhouse,. They are now powerpuffs in everything they do and touch.
maximillian
Guest
I think they may have initially signed Prince to play halfback in place of Wallace (well thats what I wouldve done). Then have Norman at 6, Hoffman at 1 & Copley/YowYeh on the wing. Unfortunately they had some longterm injuries to some outside backs so that has caused the current reshuffle we have now, that isnt working. I dont blame Norman for leaving as he probably wants to play 6, but the Broncs shouldve dropped Wallace to make this happen.
Damn Straight
Roar Rookie
Much like Parramatta's recruitment post Noel Cleal.
ferret
Guest
Spot on Roarsome. Since the loss of Cyril, the Broncos have made some very "interesting" recruitment decisions. First they sold half our pack (Hannant, Eastwood, Stagg) to sign a winger (Folau). Dave Taylor was released 'cos he didn't have the perfect physique. Getting rid of Ashton, led to the loss of Tariq and Korbin, two potentially great forwards! We disciplined Gagai by releasing him, but were happy to spend a motza on Duggan! And that doesn't even touch the ongoing problem with the halves. Having a genius like Lockyer as 5/8 was a huge blessing but also somewhat of a curse. It appeared to me that as time went on and the legend grew, everyone simply relied on Darren to pull one out of the fire. No-one developed their own game and no-one had the guts to over-ride a Lockyer call (except McCulluogh occasionally). With Lockyer we could accommodate a defensive, non-creative half in Pete Wallace but that is no longer the case. Prince is a retrograde step. All he's done is lead to the loss of Norman and now they are trying to alienate Hoffman! The most worrying aspect is this is something that we couch-coaches have been saying for some time. And what do we know? Nothing! Still we seem to have a better clue than the current Broncos recruitment group! Note to Broncos - there is no salary cap on your support team. So, find the best recruitment man in the game and offer him double what he's on. You're a rich club, you can afford it.
Bazzio
Roar Guru
Brisbane is brisbane's problem ;)
Roarsome
Guest
Instead of selling an ageing, out of form half to boost the squad, they bought another. While Lockyer was a big loss, Cyril Connell's loss in 2009 will be felt for years. He was the genius responsible for finding all the Broncos young talent, most of which are now running around for other clubs thanks to the Salary Cap.
oikee
Guest
Scott Prince is not the Broncos Problem, the lack of superstars is our problem.