NRL 2021: Alex Glenn calls time on career, picks his next Broncos captain

It’s recognised as one of the most prestigious captaincy positions in sport. So has departing Broncos skipper Alex Glenn made the right call on who should be his successor?

Retiring Broncos captain Alex Glenn with his beautiful family. Picture: Liam Kidston

Retiring Brisbane skipper Alex Glenn says rising forward star Pat Carrigan would relish the Broncos captaincy as coach Kevin Walters begins the search for a new leader next season.

Glenn announced his retirement at season’s end on Thursday with the veteran back-rower’s impending departure creating a vacancy for one of the most prestigious captaincy positions in Australian sport.

Marquee recruit Adam Reynolds is the raging favourite to be Brisbane’s skipper next season given his captaincy experience at South Sydney, but Glenn believes Carrigan would be a worthy successor.

The 23-year-old has captained Queensland and the Broncos at under-20s level and has skippered Brisbane five times in the NRL since his senior debut in 2019.

Carrigan, who will return in pre-season from a knee reconstruction, has amassed 46 NRL games and Glenn says the emerging leader would be ready to be Brisbane’s full-time captain in 2022.

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Alex Glenn has named his choice for the next Broncos skipper.

“We have a lot of great future leaders in our club,” said the departing Glenn ahead of Sunday’s clash against the Warriors.

“Patty Carrigan ... the way he led our club when I was missing (due to injury) last year, he stepped up in a position that a kid his age shouldn’t have, but he led from the front and that’s what I stand for.

“I believe a leader is someone who leads through his actions and the way Pat has led this club at his age, he has to be a future leader for sure.

“There are other players I look around at that lead with their actions on the field. Payne Haas (Broncos prop) is leading the way, so is Jake Turpin (hooker) ... when you look at some of the young boys coming through, our club is in great hands.”

Carrigan snapped his ACL in Brisbane’s loss to the Cowboys in round nine, but is progressing well in rehabilitation and will be fully fit for the Broncos’ 2022 pre-season in the post-Glenn era.

Broncos hierarchy have been impressed with Carrigan’s maturity and the former school captain at St Joseph’s College is already a member of Brisbane’s leadership group.

Alex Glenn has backed Patrick Carrigan as the man to replace him. Picture: David Swift

While Carrigan has long-term leadership prospects, Reynolds will be difficult to overlook.

The classy halfback has chalked-up 227 NRL games for the Rabbitohs and the 31-year-old will command instant respect when he arrives at the Broncos given his premiership and Origin experience.

Walters lauded Carrigan’s potential and insists Reynolds was not promised the captaincy as part of his three-year Broncos deal.

Asked if Reynolds will succeed Glenn as Broncos captain, Walters said: “I’m not sure, obviously Adam is captain at South Sydney, but I haven’t discussed that with him.

“I will wait until he arrives here before we make a final decision.

“I’m really excited by the good young group of players coming through. I think Pat Carrigan will have a big season next year coming back from his knee injury, he is an impressive young guy.”

‘I HUNG UP ON WAYNE’: HOW GLENN ALMOST MISSED BRONCOS SHOT

Alex Glenn defied all sorts of odds to live out his professional sporting dream at the Brisbane Broncos.

At 19, he famously hung up on Wayne Bennett, the greatest coach in NRL history.

Bennett merely chuckled, forgave the innocent teen, called again, and signed him to his first Broncos contract.

Three years earlier, battling serious back pain, a medical professional told Glenn he was one misjudged tackle away from life in a wheelchair.

Most would have walked away then and there to pursue a new career, but there was never any quit in the kid whose constitution was too strong to be seduced by a life of gangs and crime in the Auckland suburb of Beach Haven.

Against that backdrop, it explains why Glenn was front-and-centre at Broncos headquarters on Thursday, the Broncos captain drawing the curtain on his remarkable 13-season NRL career at Red Hill on his terms.

Retiring Broncos captain Alex Glenn with his beautiful family. Picture: Liam Kidston

Affectionately known as ‘Lexi’, Glenn was a man of steel on the field but showed he was a sensitive soul off it, breaking down and wiping away tears as he looked to his wife Jemma and their three children, Miller, Gisele and Oakley.

If Glenn hasn’t been the most passionate Bronco, he is in the grand final. Ever since his mother Ann won a raffle ticket for a family holiday to the Gold Coast, and never looked back, Glenn had his heart set on cracking the big league.

“I remember in primary school in Beach Haven in Auckland, our teacher asked us, ‘What do you want to be growing up’ and I always wanted to be a professional athlete,” Glenn said.

“I loved rugby league ever since I could walk and run. Rugby league was in my blood.

“I played it at school but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would fulfil a dream that I wrote out on that piece of paper.

“I came to the Broncos in 2008 and the journey just to get here was a hard one. My family made sacrifices for me. I had some setbacks in my life.”

The major ruction came when Glenn was just 16. His back injury was so crippling he took a three-year break from rugby league.

Teammates get around their retiring captain. Picture: Liam Kidston

“It was pretty bad, I saw a chiropractor,” he recalls.

“We got some scans done and he said if I got caught in a bad tackle and landed in the wrong spot, there was a high chance I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

“As a 16-year-old kid, you take a step back and think this is some serious business.

“Anything could have happened to me, but I believe things happen for a reason and the time out was a blessing.”

The ray of hope arrived three years later. His back injury healed, Glenn took up park football with his mates at Burleigh and was painting houses for a living when the mobile phone buzzed in his pocket.

An emotional Alex Glenn tells the world he is done with NRL. Picture: Liam Kidston

Glenn at Broncos training following his announcement. Picture: Liam Kidston

“I was Picasso,” Glenn joked of his painting prowess.

“I was painting residential houses and I got a call from Wayne Bennett. I thought it was someone geeing me up from the Broncos, so I hung up on Wayne the first time.

“I don’t think that has happened before. He rang me straight back and said, ‘Mate I’m being honest, this is Wayne Bennett’.

“I had to put the brush down. I was very nervous to talk to a super coach like Wayne. He said wanted me to come to the Broncos and play in our under-20s competition.

“Fast forward to where we are now. If you told me I’d be in this position, I would have laughed it off because you never think it will come true.

“It (Bennett’s call) changed my life in so many ways.”

Durability, reliability and consistency defined Glenn’s career.

By the age of 22, he was Brisbane’s youngest captain, leading the famous club out against Canberra in 2011, and he was the back-row glue that provided the defensive starch in Brisbane’s charge to the 2015 grand final against the Cowboys.

The Broncos fell just short of a premiership, but for 11 consecutive campaigns since his debut in 2009, Glenn chalked-up more than 20 games a season.

A veteran of 12 Tests for New Zealand, he plays his 283rd NRL game this Sunday against the Warriors. If he stays fit, he will finish with 285 games and walk into the sunset as the fourth most-capped Bronco in history.

Alex Glenn played in the 2015 grand final but fell just short of winning the NRL trophy.

Glenn endured some tough losses as Broncos skipper over the past two seasons.

In an age of off-field NRL scandals, Glenn is the code’s Mr Spotless. No Broncos coach ever sweated on Glenn’s activities after midnight. Clean cut, polite and well-manicured, right down to the slick haircut that rarely changed, Glenn was the low-maintenance professional who relished the Broncos captaincy he inherited last season.

“I believe I know what a real Broncos player looks like and Alex fills those shoes admirably,” Broncos coach Kevin Walters said. “He has given nothing but his all for the club. He came here as a young boy in the under-20s and he is leaving as a man with a great family.

“Once you get to the stage he has, 280-plus games, he is (a Bronco) for life. We love him and we love what Alex has brought to the club.”

Glenn will move into a full-time ambassadorial role working with kids next season and insists he is retiring at the perfect time.

“It was my body to be honest,” he said. “The game is getting faster, I am still competing as hard as I can be, but the weekly struggle, it was getting harder and harder.

“Although I know I am still competing well, could I do it for one more year? Probably not.

“I didn’t want to be the player that played one year too long. I wanted to hang the boots up on top and that’s been the biggest decision for me.

“When you wear this jersey with the Broncos label on it, you bleed for your brothers out there.

“I watched the greats wear this Broncos jersey with pride and that’s everything I have tried to do when I put that jersey on ... to make sure I did my job for my mate next to me.”