As the NRL season winds down, now comes the time to reflect on what has been a largely disappointing season for all three of the Queensland-based teams.
Brisbane Broncos
It was not that long ago the Brisbane Broncos won their most recent premiership, back in 2006. However, the club has not been back to the big dance since, and as such are currently enduring their longest ever premiership drought.
After doing enough to make the finals in the first year of the post-Darren Lockyer era, the Broncos tried to add experience to the halves, which had (and still have) suffered since Lockyer’s retirement in 2011, by bringing Scott Prince home for what would turn out to be his final ever season in top level.
However, not even Prince was able to save the club from what would eventually be one of the club’s worst seasons on record, finishing 12th and managing only ten wins and one draw from its 24 matches.
Their 12th place finish meant for the first time since the Titans entered the competition in 2007, they finished the lowest of the three Queensland sides.
But as has been in past Broncos seasons, there were many highlights for the fans.
Although they finished the lowest of the three Queensland sides, they did defeat the Titans and the Cowboys twice each, and also recorded doubles over the Tigers and Dragons during the year.
They also ended the year with a narrow 16-11 victory over the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, which could give their loyal supporters faint hope a return to the top half of the ladder could come sooner rather than later.
However, there were many lowlights during the year for supporters as well.
The club was shut out twice during the year, in Round 3 against the Sydney Roosters (8-0) and in Round 17 against the Melbourne Storm (32-0).
Additionally, they also suffered their worst ever defeat at home, being thrashed by the New Zealand Warriors 56-18 back in June; that defeat coming in front of their lowest home crowd for the season and counting among eight losses in ten matches between the beginning of May and the end of the State of Origin series.
They were also unable to win more than three matches in a row, marking the first time since 2001 in which they were unable to maintain any consistency on that front.
The Broncos face an uphill battle if they are to return to the top half of the ladder in 2014 – Scott Prince has retired, while Corey Norman will head off to Parramatta and Peter Wallace will return home to Penrith.
The club will also have to contend without Justin Hodges until at least mid-May, after he ruptured his Achilles towards the end of the season.
Gold Coast Titans
The Titans may have missed out on the finals for the third consecutive year but there was no doubt the team did improve its performances on the field after two relatively disappointing seasons for the holiday boys.
Up to and including an upset of the Melbourne Storm at home in Round 15, the club won eight of its first 14 matches and were seen as legitimate contenders for the finals series.
However, the club was only able to win three more matches after that and their poor percentage also ultimately cost them a place in September.
There were many highlights during the season, such as the continued workload of Greg Bird, who will remain at the club until 2017, and the breaking of new ground in Round 11, when the Titans recorded their biggest marginal victory over wooden spooners Parramatta by defeating them 42-4 in Mudgee.
They also defeated the Bulldogs in Round 22, with Kevin Gordon scoring a hat-trick (the only one by any Titans player all year), and also caused an upset in the penultimate round when they knocked off the minor premiers, the Sydney Roosters, 30-22 in their Allianz Stadium backyard.
Some lowlights for the team included the fact they only featured on the Friday night stage twice during the year, both derbies against the Broncos that were lost by 20 and 26 points in rounds five and ten respectively.
Additionally, it was also their late season slump (seven losses from their last ten games), which also cost them the chance to return to September for the first time since 2010.
But other than that, it was a vastly improved effort from the Titans this year and they will use their ninth-place finish as motivation to return to the finals next year.
North Queensland Cowboys
Prior to the season the Cowboys were being touted as premiership contenders, but their first half of the season did not vindicate that and by the end of Round 20, by which time it appeared the club’s finals chances were all but shot, Neil Henry was told that he was not required next year.
The season started well enough for the club when they beat last year’s runners-up, the Bulldogs, in the first round; they were also able to secure victories over Penrith, Parramatta and Canberra during the year as well.
Other than those, there were also a couple of disappointing losses, none more so than one to the Titans away, another to the Roosters at home and a pair of losses to big brother, the Brisbane Broncos.
It was after the latter loss in which the Cowboys’ finals hopes appeared all but dead. Neil Henry was to pay the price for the club’s poor season to that point.
But this was where it all turned around.
A stunning Round 21 victory over the then-ladder leading South Sydney Rabbitohs triggered a six-match winning streak, which the club would eventually carry into the finals.
Among their victims also included the Panthers, Titans, Knights, Sharks and the Wests Tigers, before the streak (and their season) was ended in the most controversial of circumstances in the first week of the finals.
Facing up to the Sharks in Sydney for the second time in as many weeks, the Cowboys were on the wrong end of some incompetent refereeing and were narrowly beaten 20-18, the difference being the now-infamous seventh-tackle try being scored by Sharks winger Beau Ryan.
The Cows also had the chance to win the game in the final minute when Kane Linnett appeared to score the match-winning try, only to have it cancelled out when replays showed his foot had touched the line due to a John Morris tackle.
So, what if the refs had kept count and what if Linnett hadn’t touched the line with his foot?
The Cowboys’ season would still be alive (and I wouldn’t have to write about them now), and they would have been preparing for a sudden-death semi-final against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
Instead, however, the club will be left to ponder yet another season ended by the most incompetent of refereeing decisions in the NRL.
Last year, the club was eliminated from the play-offs after Kieran Foran’s ‘hand of Foz’ try proved the difference in a 22-12 defeat.
Nevertheless, it was still somehow a successful season from the Cowboys and whoever coaches the club next year will inherit a talented playing list yet to reach its full potential.
Johnathan Thurston once again showed just how important he was to the club, as proven by his winning the Rugby League Players’ player award just recently.
But after what has been a relatively disappointing 2013 for the three Queensland clubs collectively, one would have to think about whether the premiership will head north again in the years to come.
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