The stinging criticism that fuelled Brisbane Broncos’ premiership charge
Immortals, commentators and former players all wrote the Brisbane Broncos off this year with stinging criticism, so we kept the receipts. See what they said.
Where are the critics now?
The mighty Broncos’ NRL grand final win cast aside demons from two years prior, as well as shut down some loudmouths from down south.
Over the 2025 season pundits claimed they were too slow, too old, too cocky, too unfit, too fragile.
In the end, they were too good.
As we wait for an apology, here is what the Broncos’ critics had to say >>>
January: Former NSW enforcer Willie Mason
“They still think they should have won that grand final (in 2023).”
“I am worried about the halves, when Ezra Mam comes back.
“The knock on (Reece Walsh) is his fitness level … sometimes you see him on his haunches.”
January: Former Eels forward Justin Horo
“The Broncos are their own worst enemy.
“They turn the ball over so much. They made some really bad errors in games (in 2024) and lost momentum and lost faith. It almost looked like they gave up at times.”
May: Former Tigers player Elijah Taylor
“A lot of people are asking me what’s wrong with ‘Madge’ (Maguire), what’s wrong with the Broncos.
“One, his intensity. I’ve never seen a coach ride the game so hard.
“After a win, the world is a better place. After a loss, you’re off to a funeral and someone will be getting cooked at the video session.
“Two, training methods. Ninety-five per cent of the time on the field it’s full contact. The hardest pre-season I have ever done is with Michael Maguire.
“You haven’t done an NRL pre-season until you have done a Michael Maguire pre-season.
“Three, time efficiency. Let’s have a meeting for a meeting for a meeting. I’d get home from training and the kids don’t know who I am anymore. Hardly home.”
June: Former NSW coach Phil Gould
“The body language of the players is not so much despondent … it’s just they look a little bit helpless at the moment as to why it’s going the way it is.
“At the moment, they are playing without confidence, without cohesion and without direction. “That’s not a (swipe) on the leaders of the team, they’re just too frantic in what they’re doing. “They’re trying to solve problems instantly instead of taking a longer term approach to it and it kind of spirals out of control for them.
“When things go against them, they just don’t know how to handle the setback. They don’t know how to handle the scoreboard, that’s what they don’t know how to handle.”
June: One-time Blues half Greg Alexander
“Don’t let me think that Brisbane players are whingeing because Michael Maguire is too hard on them. Cry me a river, you little wusses.
“If that is true, none of them deserve to be playing NRL.
“I can’t believe it’s true because I can’t believe that experienced NRL players would be bitching and whingeing because Michael Maguire keeps them there too long.
“They’ve won one game in their last seven. A number of those have been at Suncorp Stadium too … Brisbane have got some problems.”
June: Immortal Andrew Johns
“At the moment they want to trick shot their way to victory, they don’t want to do it with hard work.
“I think maybe when Ben Hunt and Reece Walsh come back it could be different … but I feel sorry for Payne Haas and Patty Carrigan. They get the ball and it’s like, ‘OK, run here and get me a quick play of the ball’.
“The halves and the fullback are back standing, waiting on the big plays.
“It’s up to your halves and your fullback to support your big men, to get forward, to get the one-on-one tackles or an offload.
“At the moment they just don’t want to get down and dirty.”
June: NSW great Brad Fittler
“They don’t work hard for each other at all. They look so isolated.
“Everyone is hitting the ball up on their own. If the ball goes through or someone makes a line break, there is no one there. They’re on their own out there.”
July: Leading commentator Andrew Voss
“I have not hopped on the Brisbane Broncos bus at all this year.
“I still think they are absolutely capable of torching sides between now and at the end of the season.
“However, it’s not consistent and I don’t see any resilience. I do not see the top four toughness.
“I see them as pretenders.”
August: Former hardman James Graham
“The reason they are not going to play top four is because of other results at the start of the season. It’s not because they lost three players in Melbourne.”
August: League journalist Paul Crawley
“The cockiness and arrogance against Souths, I thought there was a bit of karma,” he said after three hamstring injuries a week later.
“How does it feel now?
“Their cockiness a week earlier bit them on the bum and made them pull their hamstrings.”
September: Storm star Stefano Utoikamanu
“There’s going to be a lot of people I want to run at. There are a lot of people I don’t like in this team. I’m keen to go out there and run someone over.
“I don’t want to name names but, yeah, there’s a lot of people I think are a bit stuck-up, and I’m pretty keen just to run at and do a job for our team.”
Sorry and sunburnt Poms scorched as ‘champion’ flashes beach bling
