NRL 2024: Brisbane Broncos facing decisions over $8 million salary cap crunch, players fighting for their futures

A massive salary cap battle is on at the Broncos as they face major decisions on who they will and won’t re-sign in an $8 million salary cap crunch.

Brisbane Broncos facing decisions over $8 million salary cap crunch, players fighting for their futures

Brisbane coach Kevin Walters concedes more big names could be squeezed out of Red Hill as the Broncos face a looming $8 million salary-cap crunch.

As Walters’ troops prepare for Friday night’s derby against the Dolphins, an investigation of Brisbane’s roster shows 24 players in their 30-man full-time roster will become free agents at some point over the next two years.

That will present an enormous challenge for Brisbane’s recruitment-and-retention committee as they brace for one of the biggest salary-cap battles in the club’s 36-year history.

Brisbane bosses face reviewing an estimated $8.59 million worth of player contracts over the next two years.

Premiers Penrith have been victims of the price of success, with salary-cap pressures forcing Matt Burton, Api Koroisau, Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau out of the club, while star pivot Jarome Luai will link with the Tigers next season.

Now the Broncos, Penrith’s 2023 grand final opponent, must confront a delicate juggling act with the salary cap to prevent their star-studded roster being torn apart.

There are some big decisions to be made for Kevin Walters ahead of a salary cap crunch. Picture: Liam Kidston

The Broncos have already suffered casualties in their bid to snap an 18-year title drought, with key quartet Tom Flegler and Herbie Farnworth (Dolphins), Kurt Capewell (Warriors) and Keenan Palasia (Titans) leaving after last year’s grand final.

Walters remains confident the Broncos’ premiership window is well and truly wide open, but says there is a possibility the salary-cap will continue to bite hard at Red Hill.

Asked if the Broncos could lose more top liners in the next 12 months, Walters said: “It could be (a reality).

“It depends on the players here, how they perform and whether they want to be here or not.

“I’m assuming they want to be here.

“We’ll do our best in that (salary-cap) space to keep the players and keep the club moving forward.

“To do that you need good players.

“We’ve got good players here and we want to make sure that maintains in the next two or three years.”

Brisbane’s roster is largely settled this season. Only six full-timers are off-contract, including three regular starters in Corey Oates, Billy Walters and Martin Taupau.

Veteran prop Taupau, 35 in February, is unlikely to be retained.

Hooker Walters is believed to be close to inking a two-year extension, while Oates, the sole survivor of Brisbane’s 2015 grand-final team, remains in limbo after subsisting in recent years on a series of 12-month deals.

But the Broncos’ real headaches will begin from November 1, the NRL’s annual new contracting period, when almost half Brisbane’s 30-man squad becomes free agents.

At least 13 Broncos are off-contract next year, including star centres Selwyn Cobbo and Kotoni Staggs, valuable utility Tristan Sailor, skipper Adam Reynolds and forwards Fletcher Baker, Corey Jensen, Kobe Hetherington and Xavier Willison.

A 14th player, superstar fullback Reece Walsh, is technically off-contract, but the Broncos are expected to announce a five-year extension for the Queensland Origin pin-up boy later this month.

The following season, 2026, the Broncos must find more money to retain their No.1 prop Payne Haas, who is already on $1 million.

Monster 205cm prop Ben Te Kura, who debuted on Thursday night, ultra-reliable winger or centre Jesse Arthars and Reynolds’ halfback deputy Jock Madden will also come off-contract in the same season as Haas.

In the past year, the Broncos have already forked out big bucks to retain Ezra Mam, Deine Mariner, Jordan Riki and vice-captain Pat Carrigan, whose $4.2 million, five-year extension represents one of the richest deals in the club’s history.

Patrick Carrigan is contracted to be at Brisbane until the end of the 2028 season. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Broncos recruitment boss Simon Scanlan accepts rival clubs are a threat but is backing Brisbane’s development system.

“Whenever you have your team performing well then your players will become targets for rival clubs,” he said.

“The salary cap is an equalisation mechanism which is designed to prevent clubs from maintaining the same team for any period of time.

“That’s a reality we all have to live with but that does not stop us from trying to keep the core of our team together, particularly when we are a club that has developed the majority of those players ourselves through our Academy system.”

By next year, Brisbane will become one of the few clubs in the league to have not one, but two $1 million players on their books in Haas and Walsh.

Manly boast a quinella of $1 million franchise stars in Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic. Cameron Munster is on $1 million at Melbourne and teammate Harry Grant is nudging that figure.

Are the Broncos in danger of losing another big name or two? Former Broncos skipper Corey Parker believes Brisbane’s bean counters will need to work salary-cap miracles to prevent more departures.

“The reality is the Broncos face losing someone, they won’t be able to keep everyone,” Parker said.

“Reece will be upgraded, Ezra has been upgraded, Patty Carrigan has been upgraded, Payne Haas has been upgraded and Adam Reynolds has signed on for another 12 months.

“You only have to look at the Penrith Panthers. Go back to their premiership-winning side from three years ago and they have absolutely been pulled apart, but that’s what the salary-cap is designed to do ... to even out the competition.

“It’s the juggling act every NRL club is doing and the Broncos are no different.”

Leading player managers contacted by this masthead believe the Broncos won’t be totally decimated, but certainly risk losing another big name or two.

“I don’t see how they keep their current squad together,” one agent said.

“Reece Walsh joined the club on $400,000 and they will almost have to triple his salary with his new deal, so they’ve got some big decisions to make.”

Penrith have shown a robust grassroots program can keep a successful club strong and Scanlan says Broncos hierarchy have already planned for salary-cap pressures.

“Succession planning is crucial to keep evolving your team into the future,” he said.

“We are trying to give ourselves a chance to win now but also remain competitive into the future. “As players develop and mature into regular first graders and representative players, then their market value rightfully increases.

“The Academy is the primary source of players at our club and we have a long list of those players who have stayed with us and become life-long Broncos.

“At times, you have to see some of those players go and that is difficult because they have come through your system from a young age and might not want to leave.

“But that is the nature of the system our game has in place and why succession planning is so important to us as a club.”