There are so many rugby league supporters out there stupidly taking great joy in the current plight of the Brisbane Broncos.
Every week, hordes of people are tuning in to Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs games, willing the Belmore Boys to get another win that will send the Broncos into the wooden spoon position.
Make no mistake, the 2020 Broncos are already at the bottom of their barrel. In their 33-year history, the worst finish the Broncos have ever had was 12th in 2013.
It was one of only two occasions that they haven’t placed at least eighth or higher. If they win all their remaining five games – incredibly unlikely given those five games are against the Roosters, Panthers, Titans, Eels, and Cowboys – they will still finish with just eight wins for the season, two fewer than their worst ever return in 2013. Their average score for this season is a 14-31 loss.
That is their average worst score – both for and against – ever. And with that run home you can bet it will get lots worse.
However, this season of horror for the Mustard and Maroon is about to bring the era of Bronco mediocrity to a grinding halt.
This abject failure will almost certainly usher in an era of success that will make all the other teams and their supporters yearn for the seasons when an elimination final berth was enough to paper over the yawning organisational cracks at Red Hill, rather than having them meaningfully addressed and fixed.
Following the bombing of the US Fleet in Pearl Harbour in 1941, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is attributed as stating (possibly apocryphally), “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Sure enough, that provocation was the catalyst that saw the United States war machine driven to greater and deadlier lengths than ever before imagined.
The massive resources and manpower of the nation were harnessed to push a total war effort that swept aside two very formidable adversaries, across two vastly different fields, in just over three years.
This appalling season is the Broncos’ Pearl Harbour. It is their wake-up call. Just imagine how dominant the Broncos will be when they properly harness all their financial strength and actually capitalise on their unparalleled breeding ground of players.
Payne Haas. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
The Brisbane Broncos LTD is a company that is necessarily all about making money for the shareholders and being successful on the field is essential for that. They are a company that has tolerated mediocrity for far too long.
While the results on the field are worse than ever, the real bottom line is money. COVID-19 is certain to have played a big part in the Brisbane Broncos LTD one year Sales Change of minus 25.42 per cent. However, their on-field performance is unlikely to be selling associated products in the type of numbers expected – nay demanded – by the shareholders. Nor to get the required viewing numbers.
The poor results were always going to put pressure on Seibold first and foremost. I saw his inevitable removal this year directly after their 34-6 flogging at the hands of the Eels back in May.
I copped a fair bit for making that call then.
Now Seibold’s departure is just a matter of when, not if.
However, anyone who really thinks Seibold is to blame for this situation and that the ship will suddenly right itself when he goes is fooling themselves. I have seen this coming for years now.
Yvonne Sampson asked Cooper Cronk his view in regard to the talk of removing Seibold, “When does it become a business decision, rather than pride or trying to do the right thing?”
Cronk replied, “When your share price drops dramatically that becomes a business decision. When you work out how much it is going to cost you to pay out a coach – if that’s the decision they make – that’s when it becomes a business decision.”
It sure is a business decision and that business decision is highly unlikely to only go as far as removing the coach.
My bet is that there will be quite a few in the Brisbane Broncos LTD boardroom and at the Red Hill HQ hoping that the departure of coach Anthony Seibold might provide enough of a scapegoat to divert attention from their own perceived role in this deep malaise.
Anthony Seibold. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
However, I’d be surprised if more than a few escape scrutiny when the major shareholder has the ruler forensically run over every department. And that is positively going to happen.
I’d be surprised if there isn’t a very big clean out throughout the whole organisation that will see many incumbents removed and replaced with people who will ruthlessly and single mindedly take the organisation back to the very top.
Personally, I’d start by putting in place a premium elite player development production line that will make Cyril Connell’s legendary role look Mickey Mouse in comparison.
We already know that Chief Executive Officer Paul White is leaving at year’s end. The question now is how many others – in the organisation and on the board – will go with him and who will replace them?
Once that happens – and if good appointments are made – it will be a very short time until all non-Broncos fans will be yearning for the halcyon days of 2020 when they could actually ridicule the team.
So laugh it up while you can people. This is probably the beginning of the end.
I’m quaking in my boots and you should be too.
PaulC
Guest
no one in particular, The Gold Coast Team was registered in NSW not Qld. When Ribot found out about the Gold Coast Team he was about to send a map to Arthurson when it was pointed out that the Gold coast Team was a NSW Team.
Tyron
Roar Rookie
It's a separate entity with an aim of supporting the aims and objectives of the Ltd club. The seperate entity funds the community outreach and the old boys.
Jak
Guest
come on, it's great watching them flounder. long may it continue!!!
elvis
Roar Rookie
no no no as Gould would say. What you are doing is what got the club into the mess in the first place. You can't at the same time - lock up all the good young players as well as afford old experienced players. what poor attitude players? I see 19 year olds with 10 games vs 27 years olds with 150 games. And unless you happen to be David Fifita or Lockyer, you are going to lose. You can have an attitude cakewalk through King George Square and you are still going to get flogged. What Siebold has done is set up beautifully for the future provided the incoming coach doesn't start panicking and trying to buy immediate success.
Bee bee
Guest
I prefer the modern day comedic quotes of one Donald Trump..... “Gee that Storm is big. Why don’t we nuke it?”
Brett Allen
Guest
The Broncos football club doesn't get a cent from the Broncos Leagues Club. The two are completely separate entities.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
matth, does anyone know or remember why there was this big push at Parramatta to get rid of Fitzgerald after so many successful years? Everybody seemed to be sticking their noses in from everywhere. It seemed from that time on, things went from a bit crook to BA awful at Parra with infighting and instability. The Roosters had a disaster in 2016, but was anyone at the club screaming sack the coach, they only won 6 games all season. No, they regrouped, did not panic, made the Prelims in 2017 then won back to back 18 &19
Tyron
Roar Rookie
Excellent article Tim. I’ve been having this conversation with my father in law for years. Broncos management really has made some poor recruiting and development decisions and needs a change of structure in football operations that puts more time and effort back into scouting and growth in SEQLD. One of the management issues that really showed how some of the poor culture got into the front office was the wealthy club asking for donations from fans and members for its high performance facility. This club makes a shedload from its gaming facilities and sponsorships through sports betting. The nerve of grifting from many members who are sick of the pervasive influence of gambling (hello late night pokies last year) is something that is not looked at closely. I wish the wealthier NRL clubs would look at what Collingwood has done and start thinking more about corporate social responsibility before they make an example of players like TVP about morals and ethics.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Isaac Moses got suspended.
Brett Allen
Guest
Yep, but this is being driven by the Broncos Old Boys, Tallis, Hodges, Renouf etc.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
Brett agree, but he seems to be the Fav along with Paul Green and in comparison Green has a far more impressive resume than Walters. They made the mistake with Siebold with a rookie coach and seriously as Freddy Fittler says when you are coaching state of origin with the standard of player you are working with you are not having to teach the basic fundamentals to a bunch of young players.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
The worst thing about The Roar is the dearth of articles deconstructing China's role in the 21st-century geo-political landscape. Editors remedy this pls.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
As Shakespeare said, better to have seen the Broncos humiliated and then bounce back stronger than ever, than to never see the Broncos humiliated at all.
matth
Roar Guru
Yes he only proposed entry of a Brisbane club. Nothing more than that was ever proposed as far as I’m aware.
thomas c
Guest
It's harder said than done. If they make the right decisions, they have advantages. But I'm not sure if every all the key aspects are predictable. Can you produce or headhunt a top tier coach, playmaker and fullback? Is the NRL in a period of upheaval where premiership hopes are bound up in working out what's going on in terms of player injuries? We're at a point where a lot of clubs have recent histories of firing coaches and are stuck with teams that are short on talent or otherwise don't make sense. A lot of people with expertise are failing at the same tasks. Getting things to gel seems nearer to alchemy than science.
Brett Allen
Guest
For the record, I am not a Broncos fan, I'm an Eels tragic who lives in Brisbane. It is a lot to digest because the problem is a complex one. No one person is to blame. The players, both past & present, the coach, GM, CEO, board, ownership, former coaches, including and especially Bennett, former administrators right back to John Ribot & Porky Morgan, the Thoroughbreds, successive NRL/ARL administrations, the Brisbane media especially Channel 9, all have some level of culpability in where the Broncos are now. The reality is that the Broncos in the first 15 years of their existence never had to struggle for their success, because, and let's cut the crap here, they were never salary cap compliant. You can't roll out a team on a weekly basis with 15 Origin & International players and tell me you're cap compliant. So, because they could just out talent their opponents up until about the turn of the century and the NRL / ARL did their best "see no evil, hear no evil" impersonation, the Broncos didn't have to struggle. They didn't have a premiership window, they had a premiership convertible with the top down !!! Now that the NRL enforces the cap much more stringently, although not as much as they could or should, the result is the Broncos now have to compete on the level playing field, and they don't know how to do it, because they never had to. But one premiership, and a lucky one at that, in 20 years speaks volumes. Welcome to their new reality.
Brett Allen
Guest
What success has Walters had as a head coach ? Two Origin series wins.
Brett Allen
Guest
When it comes to expansion there is only two factors that matter, corporate support & media market size. Any new club must be in a big enough media market to generate the necessary corporate support to ensure the new club is commercially sound. All other factors are irrelevant. A 2nd team in SEQ has to be in Brisbane and play out of Suncorp Stadium. Anything else simply does not have the necessary commercial muscle to be viable long term. If I'm looking 20 years into the future, this is what the NRL should look like. NSW Conference National Conference North Division North Division Manly Broncos Newcastle Titans Canberra Cowboys Central Coast Brisbane 2 West Division East Division Parramatta Warriors Penrith Waikato Canterbury Wellington Wests Tigers Christchurch South Division South Division St.George Storm Cronulla Melbourne 2 Roosters Adelaide Rabbitohs Perth Teams play their division rivals twice each, home & away (6 games) Teams play the other 8 teams in their conference once each, home or away (8 games) Teams play the four teams in one of the three divisions in the other conference on a annual rotating basis once each, home or away (4 games) Teams play the two teams in the opposing conference that finished in the same spot in their respective divisions, once each, home or away (2 games) A regular season total of 20 games. The three division winners in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs, with the best 2nd place finisher winning the wild card spot. Playoff to be single elimination tournament, no bye weekends, no 2nd chances, you lose, you go home. Three weeks of playoffs, Conference semis, Conference finals, GF. That's it. That leaves plenty of time, (in a normal non COVID season), for both Origin & a meaningful mid season & end of season international rep seasons, as well as a better organised & commercialised preseason.
Rob
Guest
That’s a lot to digest. Bennett was certainly the driving force behind Milford, Boyd, Lodge, Birds and TPJ’s signatures, along with Roberts. Bennett over saw Arrows, Hunt, Blair and Marshall’s departures. Think the way Bennett went kicking and screaming would have put Seibold in a precarious position should he not win immediate support from the high paid players Bennett had been instrumental in signing. Unfortunately a few injuries resulted in a few losses and as confidence dropped the high paid players turned against Seibold IMO. If you actually think McGuire is a missing link in the Broncos squad I’d gladly give him back because he certainly is getting paid well above his football ability in North Queensland.
Bee bee
Guest
Agree Tim. Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Redcliffe, Logan. All make much more sense than another Brisbane team. Brisbane is full of Boomers and white collar hipsters. The talent and passion is all around Brisbane not in it.