Broncos finals success was always a losing bet, writes Mike Colman
Brisbane’s culture is under the microscope after news broke that players were out in Sydney prior to their demolition by Parramatta, but it wouldn’t have changed the result, writes Mike Colman.
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And the hits keep on coming.
Just when the Broncos thought that things couldn’t get any worse, along come reports that six of Brisbane’s finest were spotted playing poker machines, downing soft drinks and staying out to almost midnight a mere 16 hours before being thrashed 58-0 by the Parramatta Eels.
One can only imagine the effect this had on their performance the next day, but I venture if they had all gone straight to bed after dinner like their captain Darius Boyd, the final score could have been as low as 52-0, or even 48-6.
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Sorry to appear flippant, but on the scale of pre-game player misbehaviour is this really at the top end?
Okay, so they didn’t ask permission from their coach Anthony Seibold before hitting the world-renowned hot spots of Surry Hills night-life and if they had he probably would have said “no” (and taken 385 words to say it) but let’s keep it in perspective.
You’ve got six fit, reasonably intelligent young men cooped up the night before a big match. They’re pumped, anxious, edgy. They want something to take their minds off the next day’s events. The bright lights of Hotel Harry, the Caesar’s Palace of Sydney’s inner-west, beckon.
So they put a few bucks through the pokies. Looking at the list of the names involved it’s not as if they can’t afford it. There’s no alcohol, drugs or even unhealthy food choices involved – and they’re all back home in bed by 12.15am.
This is a players-break-team-rules-before-big-match scandal? Sorry, in my book it doesn’t even come close.
It was hardly Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson spending a day on the sauce before the 2017 Origin decider or eight players copping 12 month suspensions for breaching the no-alcohol ban on the 2016 Emerging Maroons camp.
It wasn’t Mark Gasnier and Anthony Minichiello sacked by the Blues for making obscene early morning phone calls in 2004.
It wasn’t even Phil Daley breaking curfew to go see his pregnant wife in 1988, because no specific rule was broken.
And besides, what’s so bad about players going out the night before a game anyway? Sometimes it can actually be beneficial.
The late great journo, punter and raconteur “Break Even” Bill Mordey once told me of the time he backed St George to beat Souths at the Sydney Cricket Ground and then bumped into Dragons’ great Johnny Raper staggering out of a nightclub, very much worse for wear, in the early hours of match day.
“Chook,” bemoaned Mordey, “How could you? I’ve put my house on you.”
“Don’t worry, Bill,” slurred Raper as he poured himself into a cab, “Sin the bag …”
Mordey immediately changed his bet to Souths.
That afternoon, the Dragons won, with Raper man of the match.
As Mordey walked into the winning dressing room Raper, bottle of champagne in hand, shouted, “See Bill, I told you I’d win your bet for you.”
“I never had the heart to tell him,” Mordey told me.
And then there was the attitude of Wayne Bennett who was once asked if he was opposed to players having sex the night before a game.
“It’s not the sex that’s a problem,” he answered. “It’s running around all night trying to get the sex.”
Originally published as Broncos finals success was always a losing bet, writes Mike Colman