No NRL grand final guarantee: Corey Parker’s brutal warning to Brisbane’s class of 2023

Broncos legend Corey Parker - who suffered grand final heartbreak in 2015 - has delivered a brutal reality check to Brisbane’s class of 2023.

Jordan Riki. Picture: Adam Head

Brisbane premiership legends Darren Lockyer and Corey Parker have warned of the demons Broncos players must confront in their desire to win next year’s NRL premiership.

Kevin Walters’ troops face the mammoth mental task of picking up the pieces from Sunday night’s soul-destroying 26-24 grand-final loss to Penrith and hitting back as a title force next season.

It will be a psychological battle Parker knows well, with the former Broncos skipper recalling the devastation that lingered for months in the wake of Brisbane’s crushing extra-time loss to the Cowboys in the 2015 grand final.

Parker watched Cowboys champion Johnathan Thurston’s winning field goal from close range and says there are no guarantees Brisbane’s class of 2023 will back up to play a second consecutive grand final.

After losing 17-16 in the 2015 decider, the Broncos finished fifth the following season, ironically knocked out by their nemesis the Cowboys in week two of the 2016 playoffs.

“This will hurt for a long time,” said 347-game legend Parker, the most-capped forward in Broncos history.

“Grand finals are so bloody hard to make. There is no guarantee you ever get back to play another one.

Adam Reynolds consoles Ezra Mam after the loss. Picture: Adam Head

“It’s been an enormous year for the club, they should be so proud of their achievements, but the hardest thing to take is losing a grand final after how convincing the Broncos were with 20 minutes to go.

“There would have been players in the team who at 24-8 would have been thinking, boys, we are going to win a grand final. Then in the blink of an eye, they lost the premiership.

“I’ve lost a grand final, in somewhat different circumstances. In 2015, we were never leading 24 points to eight.

“To lose from there, it’s just shattering.”

Parker and Lockyer were members of Brisbane’s most recent premiership team of 2006, when the Broncos shocked Melbourne 15-8 to give retiring prop Shane Webcke the perfect send off.

Parker had won an NRL premiership ring at age 24, but over the next 10 years of his career, he played just one more grand final in 2015 and it was a painful experience.

Jordan Riki. Picture: Adam Head

“It was so hard to get back up the next year,” he said.

“I’m telling you, when we lost in 2015, I would wake up in the middle of the night and run ‘what ifs’ through my head for months and months.

“It was agonising.

“I’m sure there are going to be times in the weeks and months ahead where many of these Broncos guys will say, ‘If I just did this or this, we would have a premiership’.

“They will have to digest it. You can’t just forget about it. You have to confront it and talk about where we need to get better and what do we need to do to come back from this.

“There’s 16 other teams who want to make the grand final next season.

“The Broncos were lucky injury-wise this year, but who knows what happens next year?

“You just don’t know when you will get another chance to win a premiership.

“I didn’t play another grand final for 10 years.”

Lockyer said this loss could be more haunting than Brisbane’s heartbreak of 2015.

The former skipper, now a Broncos board member, also believes Brisbane face additional roster challenges next season following the loss of key duo Herbie Farnworth and Tom Flegler to the Dolphins, while grand-final prop Keenan Palasia will join the Titans.

“Twenty-fifteen was very cruel and I feel like this was even worse,” Lockyer said.

“In 2015, the game was still close and we lost it at the death.

“We had this in the bag.

“I feel for the players and coaching staff. They had it, it was right there, and to get it taken away from you like that is something you never forget.

“I was sitting on the sideline in 2015 and I couldn’t believe that happened.

“Flegler and Farnworth are a big loss next year. They were enormous this season, but the youth is there.

“While Adam Reynolds is still wearing the seven I think there is a window for us.”

Broncos hooker Billy Walters said the squad is determined to channel the pain into a Brisbane premiership in 2024.

“We are going to have to (fight back),” he said.

“We don’t want to make this loss for nothing.

“If we get another chance, which I think we might in the next couple of years with this young, skilful group, we are going to have to get a better start and be better for it.”