In early 2017 when Ben Hunt’s first contract with the Dragons was announced, a lot of people were stunned at not only the rumored amount, but by how the Dragons were able to lure away a key player from the Broncos.
Since the Broncos were established, they have been a behemoth of rugby league that seemed to exist in a league all their own.
The Broncos won six premierships in their first eighteen years. Before 2020, they had missed the finals only twice since 1992. They are the only NRL team publicly traded on the ASX, and they are majority owned by Newscorp, one of the largest companies in the world.
For younger fans, or fans who may be a little hazy on the history, it is hard to overstate just how domineering the Broncos were for the first thirty years of their existence.
This presence in the rugby league landscape gave them incredible benefits, and their huge nurseries gave them access to talent the cramped Sydney clubs could only dream of.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
They could grow, develop, and, most importantly, retain talent whenever they wanted. You didn’t sign a Broncos player; the club released them and let you take them. If they wanted someone, they got them.
Cut to early 2017. The Broncos lost a grand final by the closest margin you can a bit over a year ago, and in 2016 they again had a respectable semi-final finish.
A bevy of talent is on the horizon, with rumblings of generational players coming up through the ranks with names that will soon be all too familiar: Payne Haas and David Fifita.
The Broncos’ well-oiled machine is working as intended, with Wayne Bennett back at the helm, when all of a sudden, their soft-spoken and diminutive number 7 signs a ludicrous offer with the St. George Illawarra Dragons.
Make no mistake: although Ben Hunt has proven in the past six years that he is more than worth that contract, at the time, it was crazy money for a player who most believed was second fiddle to Anthony Milford in the Broncos then-recent successes.
Hunt has had a turbulent time in the Red V. He’s made the finals even less than the Broncos have since his change of colours. But there is a case to be made that this was the end of three decades of Broncos dominance as the dynasty came to a screeching halt.
In the first year of the Broncos without Hunt, the Dragons played the Queenslanders in the first game of the finals. It could not have been scripted better.
Unfortunately for the more-than-a-little cocky hosts, the Dragons blow them out of the park 48-18 in front of their own home crowd.
In 2019, the Broncos scraped into the finals and got absolutely incinerated by the Parramatta Eels 58-0. The following year they start the year with two wins and then win just one more game to finish last and claim their first ever wooden spoon.
New coach Anthony Seibold, who had been hailed as a prodigy two years ago, is sacked midway through the season. The club is at its lowest point ever, and the rest of the NRL pounce. A lot of talent departs the Broncos.
Some, like Reece Walsh, return in the future. Others, like David Fifita, Jaydn Su’a, Anthony Milford, Josh McGuire, James Roberts, Andrew McCollough, and Kodi Nikorima, never do.
Now, not all of those players were huge losses for the Broncos, but a lot of them did have deals on the table from the club that they rejected for other opportunities.
The Broncos’ downfall was sudden, nasty, and very unexpected. It soured Bennett’s relationship with senior management probably for good, which is sad considering his history with that club.
It delayed Seibold’s career for at least a couple of years. But, perhaps most importantly, it let everyone know that no club is infallible in this game, and everyone is a season or two away from complete and utter disaster.
The Broncos have rebuilt equally quickly, but they no longer have that similar aura, and winning a wooden spoon before the Wests Tigers has got to sting a little.
With the appearance of cross-town rivals and more money on the cap than ever before, it seems hard to see the Broncos re-establishing themselves to the point where they were in the past.
Who knows if keeping Ben Hunt would have papered over these cracks for long, but in this humble author’s opinion, his departure certainly sped things up and changed the Broncos’ position forever.
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