Anthony Milford and the Brisbane Broncos need to face facts, this relationship is going nowhere
Anthony Milford is in his sixth year at the Broncos. If the magic chemistry was going to happen it would have by now. An amicable divorce is the best they can hope for from here, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.
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They say there is only one thing more stressful than the parting shots of an angry divorce - that's a loveless marriage which stays together.
Like Anthony Milford and the Broncos.
The once happy couple are tied together until the end of next year when a split shapes as the best option for both parties exhausted by the strain of it all.
This is Milford's sixth year at the club. If the magic chemistry was going to be cracked surely it would have happened by now.
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Milford has barely spoken to the media for nine months yet in some ways he doesn't have to.
The pained expression on his face says more than anything he could tell us about his state of mind.
You see it on game days and at training, that despairing look of a man arriving back to his parked car to notice a ticket under the windscreen wiper.
He looks like a man with a lot on his mind probably because he is.
His million dollar contract - the biggest in Broncos history - has become a millstone rather than a milestone. That of course is no fault of the player who simple gets what he can and what the club will pay.
But Milford, at 25, should be approaching the peak of his career yet the stats tell us we have probably seen the best of him.
If you want to be brutal about it you could say the peak came five years ago in the 2015 premiership when the Broncos were feathered out of grand final glory by the North Queensland Cowboys.
Johnathan Thurston got the Clive Churchill Medal for the best player on the day but many thought Milford was the standout.
That year, when Milford and Ben Hunt were tutored at the Broncos by Kevin Walters, was a massive one for both players as they jinked and jived their way to the brink of grand final glory before Hunt famously dropped a kick-off and Thurston potted a field goal.
But Milford has been in decline for much of the past few years to the point where he is now on the brink of being dropped.
It's an especially chastening prospect given this year was tipped to be his winter of rediscovery.
After accepting Milford was a free spirit rather than a leader, coach Anthony Seibold dropped him from the Broncos leadership group and gave halfback Brodie Croft the responsibility of being the prime backline voice in the hope of letting Milford run of the leash and, hopefully, run wild.
The Broncos even shifted him wide in defence – out of the path of big men who target him - in the hope of freshening him up to strike in attack.
But, the problem is, he is leading neither by word nor action.
His run tally against the Knights on Thursday was just nine miserable metres, this in a season where a rule change has the big men tiring and the little snipers primed to strike.
Where is he? A brilliant individual try against Souths before the COVID-era set in teased us into thinking he was about to set the competition ablaze but it has been nothing more than smouldering embers ever since.
There is a theory that the lack of performance by Brisbane’s forwards is totally stifling Milford but former champion Peter Sterling just does not buy it.
He claims while nothing enhances the work of a great playmaker than a forward pack on the front foot, the best normally find a way to work some sort of magic even if they are being beaten upfront.
This challenge seems to be beyond Milford. And the tough news is that the challenges seem to be getting bigger by the week.
THE GOOD:
The wave of goodwill which followed the Gold Coast Suns epic victory over West Coast last week. Everyone likes to see a battler get the bickies. Hopefully there are more good times ahead.
THE BAD:
Cricket Australia setting off their legal hounds to try and shut down Rob Moody’s fabulous collection of entertaining You Tube clips. They retreated in the end claiming it was an error. Not sure about that. Legal threats rarely are.
THE UGLY:
The unfortunate handling of Kevin Roberts sacking as Cricket Australia chief executive where he was one of the last people to find out about it and was only alerted when news stories appeared online. The COVID era has drawn the rugby league and AFL world’s closer – cricket has been torn apart.