Having revived their fortunes after a poor first half of the season, the Brisbane Broncos will be out to keep their finals chances alive when they host the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
After Anthony Seibold took over from Wayne Bennett during a tumultuous pre-season, the Broncos struggled to adapt to the ex-Souths mentor’s coaching, losing six of their first eight matches to languish near the bottom of the ladder.
Not only that, Seibold oversaw James Roberts and Jaydn Su’A reuniting with Bennett at the Rabbitohs mid-season.
Fullback and captain Darius Boyd also copped criticism for his poor individual form this season, the two-time premiership winner appearing a shadow of the player who burst onto the scene as a premiership-winning teenage winger in 2006.
Darius Boyd (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
However, the Broncos have turned a corner over the past two-and-a-half months, winning six of their past ten matches, and drawing with the New Zealand Warriors in Round 17, to climb into the eight for the first time since Round 2.
Their last outing was their most impressive performance this season, defeating the Gold Coast 34-12 at Cbus Super Stadium and reversing a 26-18 loss against the Titans Suncorp Stadium in Round 13.
They’ve also beaten top eight sides the Manly Sea Eagles and Sydney Roosters in the past three months, displaying the football that they are capable of producing when they are at their best.
However, this Friday night starts a stretch of home games in which the Broncos face current top-eight sides the Panthers, Rabbitohs and Eels.
As for the Storm, they suffered just their third defeat of the season when they lost to Manly 11-10 last Saturday night.
They’d also lost to the Roosters in golden point on Good Friday back in April, while they were beaten by Cronulla back in Round 8, by just two points.
Coincidentally, this means the Storm’s three defeats have come against three of the four teams to beat them in a grand final.
Therefore the Broncos, who took out the 2006 premiership at the expense of a side nobody knew had been illegally assembled at the time, will be looking to make it a clean sweep and hand Melbourne their fourth loss of the season.
On the opening night of the season the Storm handed Brisbane a 22-12 defeat and the glamour club has an overall poor record against Melbourne – especially at Suncorp Stadium, where they have not beaten the men from the AFL capital since Round 2, 2009, and only three times overall (the other times being 2004 and 2005).
The last time the Broncos beat the Storm at home, ex-Storm winger Israel Folau, who was then representing the Broncos, scored a spectacular first-half try to help his side to a 16-14 victory.
Israel Folau in action for the Broncos. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan)
Overall, Craig Bellamy’s side hold a 32-2-13 win-draw-loss record across nearly 50 matches, including taking out six of eight finals meetings.
A lot of this success against the Broncos has got to do with the leadership of former Queensland and Australian captain Cameron Smith, whom the Broncos let slip through their fingers at the turn of the century.
Smith debuted for the Storm in 2002, which was the last time the club missed the finals because of their on-field performances. There was a time when Smith was about to finish his career at the Broncos – thus bringing him much closer to home – only for the now-36-year-old to remain loyal to Melbourne, where he will almost certainly finish his NRL career.
Earlier this month, Smith racked up his 400th NRL first-grade game – a remarkable achievement given his club doesn’t regularly get the same attention they do in Victoria, despite their ongoing and overall success.
He will feel at home playing at Suncorp, where he has led Queensland to multiple State of Origin series victories, and Australia to the rugby league World Cup in 2017.
Thus, if the Broncos are to continue their late-season surge, they will need to prove that they can not just match it with the best, but also beat them at their own game.
Nat
Roar Guru
If Brisbane could have the 30 more penalties that Souths have been gifted this year maybe they would be higher on the ladder too. #factsarefriends #southscannotcount
Nat
Roar Guru
The Broncos have supplied the majority of the Qld team since their inception. They supplied 6 players this year from 14th position. They supply the most because they have the most - it really is that simple. The salary cap has been stringent long before that - just ask Doggies fans, Melbourne forced their hand to crack down further. TPJ, Oates, Gillett, Haas, Lodge all could have gone elsewhere for more money in the last 2 yrs. Milford accepted less to come to Brisbane and played in a GF that year, finals every year since and for QLD all in front of his family. How's Canberra travelling in that time? Have you ever thought there is more to these decisions than money? You can throw conspiracy theories around all you want but nothing proves a point. These Thouroughbreds must be doing a terrible job if everyone knows about them except the NRL. Fun Fact: Melbourne lead the league significantly in TPAs and Brisbane can/do offer those as well because they are not illegal. I don't have any "moral outrage", Melbourne cooked the books and got caught and punished but it was many years ago. Don't go postulating that anyone else has been anywhere near what Melbourne has been proven guilty of.
Ken
Guest
But at that time an place the broncos had 2/3 of the Qld Origin team all under the salary cap apparently ???? , the you can’t prove a thing argument is valid but players taking $200-100,000 a season less to play for the broncos ? What’s the name of your businessman group that privately “Sponsors “ the broncos playing group again “The Thoroughbreds “.I find the moral outrage from broncos supporters a joke , after 2006 the salary cap became more stringent its weird the Broncos have never won a premiership since , also weird Milford knocked back $1 million a season from Canberra to sign for the broncos for $400,000 less around the time Andrew Gee decided to dip into Broncos league season money for some undisclosed purposes than resign before they could question him .
Emcie
Roar Guru
Ah, nothing more rugby league then having very definate opinions about a story one barely understands... Andrew Gee was not the CEO, the Broncos side at the time was 8 years removed from the 2006 side (and had been struggling to make the 8 for several seasons), there was nothing actually linking the "missing" funds (from the Leagues Club) to anything cap related (or even to the club itself) aside from accusations from other clubs. And as much as people like to say that Gee took one for the team the truth is that he would've been facing much hasher consequences from financial regulatory bodies then the NRL had he stayed on given that he was basicly giving himself unrecorded unauthorised interest free loans while a director of the Leagues Club.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Do you mean Dave Gallop's 2010 NRL that made an emotive snap decision 48 hours after finding out about the Storm, or the 2018 NRL which let Cronulla keep their premiership?
Avatar
Roar Guru
Also worth noting that Melbourne Storm lost 38-36 to the Gold Coast Titans at Suncorp in 2017.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
Duncan Smith disagrees. Hard to argue with that. ????
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Alfie will be doing his best to marshal "his troops" in defence however it's doubtful whether "turnstiles" such as Boyd will have the ability to comply. However if the scores are close towards the end, the match officials can always pull out a decision favourable to the home side.
Emcie
Roar Guru
they had the 2006 minor premiership stripped off them, the NRL seemed to think they were over the cap
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
At the start of the 2006 season when their salaries were decided, not many of them were rep players. Most of them won rep status during and after their great 2007 season. Their salaries did not suddenly go up halfway through the season, so I doubt they were over the cap.
MORDAC
Roar Rookie
Apparently Broncos side wasn't illegally assembled but when some evidence of just that emerged, the CEO stood down so that the NRL didn't have the power to question him over it. And that was that.
MORDAC
Roar Rookie
Broncos to play one of their better games vs Melbourne. Melbourne by "only" 26.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
Death, taxes, Melbourne turning it on at Suncorp.
Nat
Roar Guru
Only Smith and Inglis? Slater and Johnson were also in the Qld team by 06. Geyer, King, White and Hill all played for NSW. Kaufusi (Aust rep 06). Kidwell, Blair for NZ. Hoffman (NSW) and J Smith (NZ) would rep in 07. So only Turner, Cronk, Friend and Cross were the only non reps in that Melb team and 3 of them would later be State and/or Aust reps very soon after. If I used hindsight as you have, only 1 Melbourne player is not rep player. Brisbane may use TPA's to their advantage as Melbourne does today but never have they been proven to have cooked the books to gain their success.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
In 2009 the Storm lost Folau, Jeremy Smith , Michael Crocker , Kafusi and Tagataese and were said to be facing their biggest challenge according to preseason reviews. Did anyone think at the time that they were a million ? over the cap after shedding all those players? Point is we can't look at any club from a distance and determine their cap compliance , it's a waste of time. Doing the sums on the Chooks today are just as futile.
Ken
Guest
Hang on your talking about the broncos 2006 that had Lockyer , petro , Hodges ,Karmichael Hunt ,shaun berrigan, Corey Parker ,Brad Thorn ,Shane webcke , Darius Boyd ,Brent Tate ,Michael Ennis , Sam Thaiday ,Dane Carlaw , Tonie Carrol to name a few ...that under strength , under the salary cap Broncos team , the team with the Australian fullback , centres , 6 , both props and locks , Origin hooker , yeh this cheating Storm players had a huge advantage ????????????, don’t let fact ruin your argument , God I just looked they actually had 3/4 of the Qld Origin team playing for the broncos , definite under dogs against those cheating storm ???? with only Cameron an Inglis repping at the time .
Emcie
Roar Guru
An up and coming team that just so happened to go from middle of the pack to 3 straight minor premierships from the year they began their cap shananigans, and they certainly had a lot more quality in their side then just Cronk, Inglis and Slater.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
OK, but at the start of 2006, the Storm were still only an up and coming team. Cronk was an untried half, his first season there. Inglis had not played origin. Slater was just a winger for Queensland, in and out of the team. Like I said, they would have been 6th or 7th in premiership betting at the start of the year. I don't understand how or why they would have been over the cap in 2006.
Emcie
Roar Guru
2006 was apparently the when things kicked off for the storm cap wise, and they certainly had a hell of a team. The broncos side was a mix of guys coming to the end of their careers (back when players would take unders to extend their careers and 300 game players hadn't got into double figures yet) and players who's careers were just starting to kick off.
Nat
Roar Guru
Apparently they were but the NRL only make a really big deal over it if you win. The clubs know this, they buy 3-4 top line players, get caught, the Leagues club pays the fine and the Footy club off-loads the B+ players and they remain competitive. Only now have they started taking $ from the cap in an effort to actually punish the clubs.