Where to now for the struggling Brisbane Broncos?

The Brisbane Broncos have been one of the most dominant and well respected clubs in the NRL for a long and sustained period of time.

They have been the NRL’s financial drawcard with average attendance at home games at around 35,000 or more primetime views every Friday night, which are the most of any team in the NRL.

Surprisingly also the Brisbane Broncos are the only club in the NRL that is publicly listed on the Australian Stock Market (ASX)

Well can money and a huge fan-base stop them from losing? At the moment doesn’t seem so, but let’s look back, to the last time the Broncos had a taste of premiership glory.

The year is 2006, after the first week of the finals which the Broncos lost convincingly to the Dragons 20-4. Most punters wrote them off.

History would say otherwise, they gave the Knights their biggest defeat in finals history, went on to beat the Dogs in what was one of their best performances in a finals match and ground out win against the Storm to win the 2006 Premiership and send Shane Webcke off on a high note.

Fast forward to now and it’s 14 years since the last time the Provan-Summons Trophy was at Red Hill. Most players in that 2006 team have gone their own separate ways.

Coach Wayne Bennett has departed after his last stint ended prematurely, while some remained back with the club most notably Corey Parker and Darren Lockyer, with Locky holding a position on the board of directors and Corey part of the coaching group.

With so much expectation coming into 2020, this season for the men in Gold and Maroon has been turbulent to say the least.

They began the season well with wins over the Cowboys and an impressive performance over their former coach’s team.

However after those two first up wins, they have been at the wrong end of the score line, most notably their losses to the Tigers and the Roosters which are in the highlights package for the wrong reasons this season.

There have been some games which they were in control where they held a lead yet they surrendered, or sometimes they were impressive in the first 40, but trailed off.

Their losses to the Storm and more recently over the weekend their clash with Cronulla, where they failed to close a game out after leading for 71 minutes of the match, are examples.

You see such things hurt you and this will really test their mental edge in their next hit out, which is the grudge match against a Souths team full of confidence.

Much of the cause to them losing games is because of the lack of experience and they struggle to find the right combinations.

When looking at their roster, it is easy to notice that the average of the Broncos playing group is 23 and the average games per individual is below 20 games. Although I must say, the game against Cronulla was one of their best performances since the beginning of the season.

Also, their defence also has just been horrendous, horrible and just not the expected standard. To leak 31 points per game is just too much.

Is this their worst season so far? This season by far is the worst by a country mile when you take into consideration the points scored and the position they hold on the ladder

And then there’s Anthony Seibold. The other reason – or should I say the sole reason – why they have been losing so terribly.

His idea of “Mr Fix It” mentality of shifting players from one position to the other has caused the players to lose confidence in themselves, resulting in poor performances week-in, week-out.

Payne Haas of the Broncos is tackled during the NRL Elimination Final match between the Parramatta Eels and the Brisbane Broncos at Bankwest Stadium on September 15, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Can we blame all the reshuffling of positions due to injuries? You be the judge, I don’t really want to get into that.

Shifting players from key positions, for instance they have three players who have played fullback so far this season, two or more in the halves and six players on the wings respectively, surprising isn’t it?

If you compare past players with those from today, they played for the jersey, the team, the fans and more importantly they played with a badge of honour, respect, loyalty, sacrifice, etc. week-in, week-out – even if it was in a losing team.

The current playing group, although very young, have shown that these virtues, things which are the cornerstone of the club, are just pages in the book that they can rip off whenever they please.

The Broncos has always been the face of NRL in Queensland and with them reeling at the bottom of the ladder, it’s now time for some changes to happen.