Brisbane Broncos: Ben Ikin predicts the glory days to return

Kevin Walters has been charged with returning Brisbane to the playoffs and his new football boss is confident a roster overhaul has them well on track.

Broncos Head of Football Ben Ikin arrives at Red Hill. Broncos back at training at Red Hill. Monday November 8, 2021. Picture, John Gass

Brisbane football boss Ben Ikin says the Broncos must play finals football next season and believes star recruit Adam Reynolds can be as influential as Darren Lockyer, the last playmaking great to steer the glamour club to a premiership.

The Broncos launched their 2022 pre-season on Monday and Ikin will embark on his first full campaign as Brisbane’s head-of-football after his mid-year arrival in June following a staffing shake-up at Red Hill.

The building blocks for a Red Hill revival are falling into place, with the new leadership triumvirate of CEO Dave Donaghy, coach Kevin Walters and Ikin hellbent on reprising Brisbane’s glory days after two failed seasons.

There has been the ignominy of the club’s first ever wooden spoon in 2020. Last year, in Walters’ first year in charge, the Broncos climbed to third last.

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Broncos Head of Football Ben Ikin says the club can play finals in 2022. Picture: John Gass

It was an improvement, but hardly the golden, glorious benchmark expected by former Broncos such as Ikin, who was Brisbane’s five-eighth alongside Walters when Queensland’s sporting flagship charged to the premiership in 2000.

A major part of Ikin’s remit as football-operations chief is to tweak, shape and refine Brisbane’s roster into a 30-man juggernaut that can smash the Broncos’ 16-year premiership drought.

Ikin isn’t promising titles next season, but like Walters and Donaghy, the football boss won’t accept another dismal campaign following the NRL’s most aggressive off-season recruitment drive which has netted Reynolds and Kurt Capewell.

Marquee recruits: Kurt Capewell and Adam Reynolds. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“Next year, the goal is for the Broncos to be playing finals football again,” said Ikin, who won a premiership as a player in his first year at the Broncos after five seasons at the Gold Coast and North Sydney.

“It would be great to play finals footy next year and it would be very disappointing if we missed again.

“More than anything, what you want to see is that the club is moving closer to the ultimate goal, and that is contending for a premiership.

“The great clubs always put themselves thereabouts and every season, they turn up. That’s what we want to keep moving towards at the Broncos.

2022 pre-season, day one ✅ pic.twitter.com/FbqmiMx8Ry

— Brisbane Broncos (@brisbanebroncos) November 9, 2021

“We took a big step away from that in the last few seasons, but we finished last season stronger than we started it and that is a sign we are improving.

“If we improve to the level I expect us to, then the Broncos will play finals football next season.”

Reynolds shapes as the centrepiece of Brisbane’s resurrection. His $2.4 million purchase from South Sydney could go down as one of the most seismic signings in Brisbane’s 33-year history.

Brisbane’s No. 7 jumper is a veritable poisoned chalice. Since the retirement of Allan Langer, the club’s greatest No. 7, in 2002, the Broncos have churned through a staggering 24 halfbacks over the past two decades.

Last year alone, Walters used six playmakers – Brodie Croft, Tom Dearden, Tyson Gamble, Karmichael Hunt, Albert Kelly and Anthony Milford – as Brisbane’s scrumbase musical chairs spun out of control.

Coach Kevin Walters has an experienced playmaking general to work with now. Picture: Annette Dew

But, in the 31-year-old Reynolds, the Broncos have a premiership-winning halfback anchor. If the 231-game former Souths skipper stays fit, Ikin believes he can organise the Broncos in the same authoritative manner as NRL playmaking legends Cameron Smith and Lockyer.

“There is a genuine optimism about Adam Reynolds, Kurt Capewell and Ryan James coming here,” Ikin said.

“Reynolds is a huge signing.

“Cameron Smith was the brains behind the Melbourne Storm and the Broncos had Darren Lockyer at five-eighth.

“Adam is among players of that ilk who can manage a game.

“He is one of the best brains in the game and he is an extension of the coaching staff out on the field, which is what you want out there.

“He knows what it takes to win footy games and beyond the things he has to do himself as an individual, he also has the capacity to get what he needs out of his teammates week to week.

“Watching Souths this year, you just knew the Rabbitohs were going to be doing most of what they needed to do because Adam Reynolds would make it happen.

“The side will be better managed just because of the experience in the halves that Adam Reynolds brings. It’s a better balanced squad and one that should be aiming to make the finals.”

As a player, Ikin was in his pomp when the Broncos were humming as a football club.

During a formidable 14-year stretch between 1992-2006, the Broncos won six premierships as Ikin thrived on the standards set by Lockyer, Walters, Gorden Tallis, Shane Webcke, Wendell Sailor and Michael Hancock.

The current Broncos are miles away from forging another dynasty, but Ikin sees promise in a new batch of young guns headlined by Payne Haas, Kotoni Staggs, Herbie Farnworth and Selwyn Cobbo, rated Brisbane’s version of Latrell Mitchell.

While every NRL club is judged on finals and titles, the Broncos simply needed to find harmony and stability again. Ikin can sense a cultural shift.

“Clearly it’s been a rough couple of years, but since ‘Kevvie’ (Walters) has arrived, prior to me getting here, we all wanted the footy program to be better and we have accepted that responsibility,” he said.

“There is a good energy around the place. The guys are turning up to work excited to be here. In the past, there was an unsettled work environment. That has changed. There is more stability. The staff are energised and it’s finding its way to the playing group.

Jordan Riki all smiles at pre-season training with the Broncos training. Picture: Annette Dew

“Our young guys will be returning to a club that is more stable, has more senior players and a coach who will be better for his first year of NRL coaching. All those little improvements across the footy program will have a compounding effect on how the team plays.

“The Broncos were built on all those premierships in the 1990s and 2000s and there are some lessons from that time that can be dragged into the present.

“The most important thing I’m seeing here is we all want the same thing. All the players want to be better.

“There is this desire at the Broncos and the core of the club when they were at their best in the 1990s, you can talk how they played and how they did their business and how Wayne (Bennett) coached, but the truth of it is everybody was on the same page.

“Everyone at the Broncos in those premiership years wanted the same thing. And if there is one thing I am starting to see here that is slowly evolving, it’s that we are all connected and aligned.

“How we get it done in 2022 will be different from how Wayne Bennett’s Broncos got it done in 1992. Kevvie was part of that premiership team. Kevvie is different from Wayne Bennett. He coaches differently, he is a different person, but Kevvie’s authentic personal style is finding its way into this footy team.

“Adam Reynolds is different from Allan Langer and Payne Haas is different from Glenn Lazarus … but this group wants to be top of the pile, which is great to see.”

Originally published as Brisbane Broncos: Ben Ikin predicts the glory days to return