Broncos 30 years: The 30 biggest moments in Brisbane’s club history
Celebrating 30 years of the Broncos, The Courier-Mail this week counts down the 30 biggest moments in the club’s history, as voted by our sportswriters. Here’s No. 30-25, writes Paul Malone.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Courier-Mail will this week counts down the 30 biggest moments in 30 years of the Brisbane Broncos, as voted by our sportswriters.
30. Bennett’s mass sackings, 1996
Premiership winners Kerrod Walters, Michael Hancock, Alan Cann and Willie Carne were told they couldn’t be guaranteed first grade spots after Brisbane’s 1996 season meant a third straight year without a grand final.
Coming on top of Bennett’s axing of “the Axe’’, Trevor Gillmeister, at the end of 1994, the changes reinforced in the minds of players that loyalty to the club would not necessarily be returned by the club.
Hancock stood his ground to stay at Red Hill and win three more premierships, becoming one of only two Broncos to be a five-premiership player.
Walters played two more years, for the Adelaide Rams, who Cann, a two-try hero in the first grand final win four years earlier, also joined. Carne turned to rugby union.
“Looking back I should have stayed and fought for the spot _ you take it personally,’’ Walters said.
29. Women’s team entered, 2018
The Broncos are one of four teams to contest the first NRLW competition, which will go for four weeks ahead of mooted future expansion.
This new competition will become more important in years to come. It gives the sport a high-level opportunity to attract and retain female athletes, taking on football, Australian football and cricket and also more established women’s sports which have national competitions.
“It is something I have always dreamt of,” said Jillaroos five-eighth Ali Brigginshaw, who resumed playing league as an 18-year-old after a five-year break from the game.
“We have the skill that the men do and we proved that in the Origin (game in 2018). We can put on the hits that the men do.’’
28. Bennett sacks big names on coaching staff, 2005
In October, assistant coaches Kevin Walters and Glenn Lazarus and performance director Gary Belcher were sent packing by Bennett even though all had been long-serving players for his teams.
In their places came Ivan Henjak, Paul Green and Allan Langer as coaches and Dean Benton, who had a rugby union and athletics background, as performance director.
Friendships were strained, but as Bennett reasoned publicly, “if you can’t do it, you need to find a new profession’’.
The Broncos won a premiership against the odds the next year, in 2006.
Walters set off on a journey of education which took him to France, Ipswich, Melbourne and back to Red Hill, where the ever-intriguing relationship with Bennett took another turn when the 2000 Broncos premiership captain resigned from an assistant coach job during the 2018 season.
27. Lewis leaves to join Gold Coast, 1990
Wally Lewis had lost the captaincy in 1989 and been moved to lock in 1990 and it became obvious as the season progressed that the Broncos would, to twist the adage from The Godfather, give him an offer he couldn’t accept.
In a turn of events made sadder by how long it took to play out, Lewis was told by Broncos CEO John Ribot that due to salary cap considerations he could be offered no more than $50,000 to stay.
Lewis played a further 34 games for the Gold Coast Seagulls, underlining his pride in performance by boosting Queensland to a swan song Origin series win in 1991.
He accepted a Seagulls captain-coach role for 1992, his last year in the NSWRL.
26. Broncos finish 12th, 2013
Darren Lockyer and Petero Civoniceva had retired in the previous two seasons, but no one saw coming Brisbane’s crash to their worst end-of-season placing.
Between May and June they won just two matches out of 10 to be well off the pace from finals contention.
Justin Hodges’ Achilles tendon injury in Round 22 didn’t help.
Past captains Gorden Tallis and Kevin Walters called for changes after Brisbane lost a home game in Round 25 to Newcastle after being ahead 14 points. Two tries in the last 20 minutes were scored by Darius Boyd, a future Broncos captain.
Sam Thaiday lost the captaincy in the foremost off-field change, but Anthony Griffin, who ordered a co-captaincy arrangement for 2014 for Hodges and Corey Parker, retained the coaching job for one more season.
25. Gorden Tallis sits out a season
Footballers, we are often reminded, have only a short career span.
So it was a major sensation when Tallis sat out the 1996 season when he was unable to force a way for him to play for the Broncos that year.
Tallis’s relationship with St George coach Brian Smith had deteriorated and he would not countenance playing for Smith again.
“I was not one of the big money men when it comes to Super League,” Tallis said.
“Your word is your bond.
“For me Super League wasn’t a money thing, which people might think it was. All I wanted to do was come home and play for Brisbane.’’
Tallis’s stance underlined what being a Bronco meant to some players.
Tomorrow: No. 24-19
Originally published as Broncos 30 years: The 30 biggest moments in Brisbane’s club history