‘Trainwreck, no excuse’: Lockyer blasts Broncos

Furious Broncos board member Darren Lockyer has blasted a group of players for allegedly breaching COVID restrictions and putting the NRL season at risk, saying they had ‘no excuses’ and the past week had been a ‘trainwreck’.

Broncos board member Darren Lockyer said news a group of players had allegedly breached COVID-19 restrictions by having a banned pub session was “disappointing” and he had “no excuses” for fans.

Up to 10 Brisbane Broncos are under investigation by police over possible breaches to COVID restrictions after socialising at the Everton Park Hotel the day after the July 31 clash with the Cronulla Sharks.

Among the group were believed to be big name players David Fifita, Kotoni Staggs, Jake Turpin, Corey Oates and Brodie Croft.

It is an incident that could put the NRL season in jeopardy

“It’s been a pretty bad fortnight I suppose, or maybe it’s only been 7 days,” Lockyer told The Courier-Mail.

“I think the breaches from Wayne (Bennett) and (Paul) Vaughan put everyone on notice and I think that now the public are keeping a close eye on all the NRL players.

Darren Lockyer has blasted the players over the breach. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

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“At the end of the day the players know the rules, the staff know the rules, so to break those rules it’s disappointing.”

Asked to respond to criticism the team weren’t treating the season seriously, he said: “There’s 15 other clubs that are treating it like a season, so, it’s been a really tough year and the last seven days have been a trainwreck really.”

He said the club would be able to field a team if a decision was made to bench the 10 players under investigation.

“We’d just have to find 10,” he said.

“I think there’d be enough in the group ... you do something wrong, you pay a price, and that could be the price for us.

“If that means 10 players are going to have to be in quarantine for 10 days, well, you know, we’re going to find out what we’re made of because we’ll be way down on troops.

“There will be some young players that might get an opportunity but, yea, it’s obviously not what you want, it’s not ideal.

“But what’s done is done and you pay a price for it.”

Lockyer said the Broncos had “let the fans down with our results on the field” and with the COVID breaches.

“These breaches, again, you can’t make excuses,” he said.

“You’ve just got to own up to it, we’ve got ourselves in a situation and we’re just going to have to fight our way out.”

He said the game this week could go one of two ways - either the team could be “galvanised and play for each other”, or not.