Plenty was written about the Broncos’ lack of forward depth before ’23 and that was proved woefully wrong. Since day dot the Broncos have found plenty of success by promoting from within while in the last year Mam, Walters, Riki, Hetherington and Piakura have all gone from bit part players to having major roles in one of the competition’s dominant sides. Meanwhile in the backs Farnworth is a huge loss but there is still depth aplenty with guys like Sailor, Periera, Houter, Mariener and Oates battling it out for a run-on spot. And while ’23 Farnworth was incredible, no one mentions that ’22 Oates outdid him for tries and metres, but was largely waylaid with injury for much of last season. I think the Broncos will go alright this season

Too many expansion sides focus on potential junior numbers, while the genius of the Dirty Reds’ bid is their potential niche focus on senior/geriatric/centenarian numbers, a truly untapped market, which let’s face it, is where much more of the money is tied up. The rivalry with Balmain and Souths will be electric, I just fear there could he some competition with Annandale fans looking to resurrect their side after 104 years out of the comp, surely they’ve suffered long enough

Some colourful reporting back in the day. Reminds me of some of the stories about the ’97 WCC with some of the English clubs treating it as a bit of a junket, some things never change, thankfully the malaria episodes aren’t so common anymore

Darren Smith’s got to be up there for me – only played 4 seasons for the Broncs but formed an imposing centre combo with his headgeared partner in crime, Steve Renouf, outscoring him with 23 tries in Brisbane’s champion ’98 side

Easy to focus on who’s going but Brisbane’s squad stability, particularly in the spine, is a big thing in their favour – it’s been a long time since Brisbane have started a season with the same fb, 5/8, hb and hooker as the previous year and this cannot be discounted. Oates was also a big out for much of last year, he averaged more metres in ’22 than Farnworth in ’23 and posted 5 additional tries in that year – if he can regain some of that form that can really soften the blow of losing Farnworth

I’m tipping Hetherington for a breakout year, assuming Carrigan goes to prop then Hetherington with another year under his belt gets a shot at cementing the 13 as his own, he’s probably one of the best defenders in the side and has the extra mobility with a lighter frame

The Broncs might’ve lost Herbie but for much of ’23 they were playing without the one guy who makes even more of those tough meters – Corey Oates. His 2022 figures were 169.6 metres a game, a shade more than ’23 Herbie at 168.3 a game. That’s a huge loss for any team but the Broncos’ backs performed so well that it went largely unnoticed. Corey might be turning 30 next year but he’s still got plenty of footy in front of him as long as he can stay fit

Couldn’t agree more Stuart. Another extreme example is the Portugese league – 88 years of competition and only ever 5 different champions. What’s worse is if Bayern win again this year they’ll outright beat St George’s 11 in a row

Tbh as a youngster who started watching the NSL in the late 90s I actually had no idea about the ethnic ties for most NSL clubs. I knew Melbourne Knights and Sydney Utd were Croatia but I just knew the Adelaide clubs as the Sharks and the Zebras, South Melbourne were the Lakers, Marconi were the Stallions and then there was Sydney Olympic – I figured they just really liked the Olympics or something. I think for a lot of casual football supporters a lot of these things would go over their heads today as well. If it’s done the right way acknowledging a team’s ethnic origins can also be a plus – going to watch Brisbane City was the best because the Italian food served there left any other food you’d get at a sporting event in its tracks. But of the NST sides I’d love to see Wollongong brought back most if it was viable – they gave the old NSL some brilliant moments, especially that 2000 grand final against Perth – that’s the sort of heritage the A-League needs to build on

Yes mate fully aware of Brisbane Roar’s history and how the Roar broke away from Qld Lions upon entry to the A-League. My point is I don’t think ethnic ties necessarily have to be a road block to becoming a successful and inclusive A-League side, teams can acknowledge their roots while also being a club for all – I think you’ll find plenty of examples of that in world sport. At the moment however we have a lot of teams in the A-League without that colourful history or deep rooted supporter base and it’s not to the benefit to the league

Soft diplomacy via sport clearly doesn’t count for nothing – just ask Qatar which was willing to spend over $300 billion to stage a world cup. $60 million a year for an NRL side really is a drop in the bucket compared with an annual defence budget of $52.5 billion which will increase substantially if China is allowed to build a military base in Australia’s vicinity. The $60 million will also make zero difference to the cost of living crisis, primarily shaped by international events beyond any government’s control and affecting a lot more countries than just Australia, but also decades of housing policy failure with the coalition asleep at the wheel for most of that

would the casual football fan have an interest in a match between, say, a “Greek” heritage team and an “Italian” heritage team?
I think it depends – we have a “Dutch” heritage team in the A-League with the Brisbane Roar which still sports the ‘Oranje’ who replaced the Brisbane Strikers – a team without any ethnic heritage. Nevertheless fans, at least for the first decade of the A-League, got behind the club in numbers that the Strikers could only ever dream of. On-field success and some semblance of professional off-field management can go a long way to winning over fans

Agreed an NRL team won’t change the region, but it’s got to form part of a broader strategy of diplomacy to help maintain Australia’s influence in the region. The bridge rugby league provides between Australia and PNG is something that China can never hope to replicate and Australia should be taking full advantage of this

Sounds like a lot of debt but PNG is actually towards the middle/lower end of debt per GDP, outranked by most OECD countries, 3.75 billion is probably not as powerful a bargaining chip as you might suspect

Tony, you need to ask why the federal government is currently proposing such an initiative – it stems from a decade of neglect in engaging with the Pacific region from the previous Liberal government. The fact is China has in the meantime taken on an active role in the region while also looking at establishing military bases around the world, including the Pacific. When you talk of cost, I don’t have an exact figure, but defence analysts such as Malcolm Davis have noted that if China were to establish a base in the region Australia would need to “fundamentally change” its military operations. When we’re talking about a defence budget which currently costs the tax payer $52.5 billion a year you can bet it won’t come cheap. If $60 million a year, or 0.1% of our total annual defence budget, is the cost of decreasing Australia’s security risk while promoting development in the region then it seems like a smart investment at some low hanging fruit given PNG’s thirst for rugby league. While there are no doubt many aspects to still nut out, the lack of a clear framework behind an announcement is certainly nothing new from either side of politics and it is certainly something that will require some nuance and consideration to get right, but one thing is clear – the federal government is willing to pump $600 million into the game we love, and that is something we should be at least a bit more positive about

Been a bit surprised at the lack of attention given to Tristan Sailor in the media, in the opportunities he got in first grade during ’23 he had some very big moments. Will be interesting to see how he’s used in ’24 but could see him coming on as a 14 against tiring defenders at the end of each half and wreaking havoc

“with McKay reportedly running in a try after beating nine defenders” – that really is the nadir as far as defensive efforts go. In fairness under the 3 point try rule this defeat was still slightly worse. Another top article!

I don’t have an issue with Mal staying on after one very ordinary result. Lam and Hagan are probably more up to speed tactics-wise but Mal provides the last link to an era when a Kangaroos jersey was the pinnacle of the game, he’s clearly passionate about international footy and can show the players what the jersey means (even if we didn’t quite see that on Saturday)

Interestingly it’s an issue that still persists to this day with Brisbane still lacking a 20 000 seat rectangular stadium in an accessible area, ideally with a goat track around the perimeter for the halftime show

Another excellent article, David. Interesting that the BRL took a decidedly different approach from the Sydney competition by calling itself ‘Amateur’ from the outset. Was this possibly owing to the scarcity of suitable playing fields in Brisbane at the time (the boggy Ipswich magic round certainly makes you appreciate the players’ commitment)? – I remember reading that at the time Sydney and NZ rugby leagues could often be barred from certain grounds based on their ‘professional’ status

Awesome read David, that Rickety Johnson in the thick of things again! Mike provides some decent analysis but it’s articles like this tucked away after the first 10 or so which make the Roar worth reading, looking forward to your next ones in the pipeline

Yeah having St Helens over for this year’s preseason really added to the spectacle, you could see how much it meant to the St Helens boys mixing it and getting on top of their Aussie counterparts in what would have been otherwise run of the mill preseason trials. People bemoan the decline of the English game but when you look at the ill-fated ’97 WCC, St Helens despite being English champions were getting spanked by the 50 against the Broncos. In ’23 St Helen’s were undefeated against NRL clubs. Imagine what the English clubs could manage with similar funding to NRL sides. Would be great to see an expanded format with possibly Wigan and Catalans included

I get the feeling that the kangaroo tour horse has long bolted, but what if you made it the other way around and had a British Lions team touring Australia and playing the top NRL sides? For a British rugby league fan that’d have to be the dream, and if St Helens managed to bring 1000 tourists down under, you’d have to think you’d wind up with a few more with a united GB team and the chance to escape the winter gloom of Britain for a month if you played over January/February

Hard to compare, not everyone does their job with millions scrutinising your every move in one of the most punishing contact sports

I rate Hetherington very highly but he’s 15 kg lighter than Flegler so we’d lose some impact if he was used at prop. One option would be to put Carringan in the front row and start Hetherington at lock but given how well Carrigan’s developed that ball-playing lock side to his game you’d have to think twice before tinkering too much with it