Are the Broncos an illusion or the greatest escape act since Houdini?

Was the Broncos’ Magic Round win the start of the greatest escape act since Houdini or just smoke and mirrors? MIKE COLMAN reports.

Jack Bird’s season-ending injury could re-open the door for James Roberts. Picture: AAP/Darren England

Roll up, roll up. Magic Round might be over for a year folks but you don’t want to miss the biggest attraction on Sideshow Alley – Seibold’s Believe It or Not.

That’s right folks, with The Great Seibs you never know whether what you are seeing is real or an illusion.

Is he a figment of his own imagination or the greatest escapologist since Houdini?

Think about it folks, Houdini only got wrapped in chains, locked in a safe and lowered into a freezing river. That’s nothing. Seibs has to get the Broncos into the top eight after losing six of the first nine games.

Anthony Seibold ... watch me pull a finals berth out of my hat. Picture: Adam Head

But if anyone can do it Seibs can. Sure you can’t understand a word he says, but you’d be speaking in tongues too if you’d just spent the past three months riding round and round on the Wall of Death.

Besides, Seibs is no one man show. Just look at his support acts.

There’s The Mighty Haas, the world’s strongest 19 year-old who can bend defensive lines with his bare hands.

There’s Milf, The Incredible Shrinking Man, a contortionist who can slip his body through the tiniest of holes (once the Mighty Haas has made them).

Anthony Milford, The Incredible Shrinking Man, squeezes through a tiny hole against the Sea Eagles. Picture: AAP/Darren England

And of course there is the one and only legendary magician Darius who on Friday night performed the most amazing trick ever seen at Suncorp Stadium – making 40,000 people eat their own words.

But if you think that’s good just wait until you see what is yet to come: Jimmy the Jet, right before your very eyes, will attempt to come back from the dead.

Yes, I know it sounds impossible, but with another of his most astounding acts, Bird Man (you never know whether he will fly or crash) off the bill for an extended period Seibs might have to give Jimmy a start.

Talk about pulling a Rabbitoh out of his hat.

Still, that’s how it goes at Siebold’s Believe it Or Not. Nothing is as it seems. Now you see them, now you don’t – and just when you think they’re gone forever, they come back.

Except in the case of Kodi Nikorima of course. Trust me, he’s disappeared for good.

Ex-Bronco Kodi Nikorima, in action for the Warriors, has disappeared from Red Hill forever. Picture: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

As for whether Friday night’s performance is the start of something big or just another illusion, well, who can say?

It sure looked good, but that’s the thing with magic tricks. They always do. It’s only when you look closely and try to work out how they did it that you start to have your doubts.

It’s like when a magician cuts his assistant in half (a trick that the great Wayne Bennett has done so many times in his career that it’s a wonder anyone still wants to work with him).

Have you ever noticed that there’s always a false bottom underneath the box?

Wayne Bennett with Kevin Walters ... expert at the old “cut the assistant in half trick”. Picture: Darren England.

That’s how it is with the Broncos. Milf, the Incredible Shrinking Man, can make the ball fly through the air like doves from a magician’s hat as long as his forwards are dominating the middle of the field.

But in the three matches Brisbane has won, the opposition forwards have been decimated with injuries either before the start of the game or soon after kick-off.

The sceptics among us might suggest that that is the Broncos’ false bottom.

And then of course, on Friday night the Sea Eagles were performing their own trick: the one in which they try to see how many times they can get over the Broncos line in the first half without scoring.

Still, that’s the beauty of magic. You never want to look too closely or it wrecks all the fun. It’s best just to suspend belief and accept what your eyes are telling you.

Because let’s face it, there’s nothing ordinary about this season. It’s a genuine sideshow roller coaster.

So it’s all aboard the Anthony Seibold Wild Mouse – and make sure you fasten those seatbelts nice and tight folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.