‘Calamitous’: Broncos finals capitulation is all but complete

The Brisbane Broncos season is mathematically still alive but will need an absolute miracle beyond miracles after they were their own worst enemies.

Tyson Gamble was in tears. Photo: Fox Sports

Short of a miracle, the Brisbane Broncos are going to miss the finals for the third straight season after a 22-12 loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons.

The Broncos can still play finals but require the Raiders, who have won six of their last seven, to lose to the wooden spoon-winning Wests Tigers by at least 53 points.

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Despite claiming the club’s first wooden spoon in 2020, the club had never had back-to-back seasons where it’d missed the finals — this year will most likely be the third straight season.

It was a shocking fall from grace for the Broncos who were in the top four in round 19 and lost five from six to finish the season.

CODE Sports’ Lachlan McKirdy tweeted that it makes the Broncos the latest team in the NRL era to be in the top four and miss the finals.

“They (the Broncos) were 4th in Rd 19 and will now finish 9th,” he wrote.

“The Warriors held the previous record in 2015 - top four in Rd 18 and finished in 13th.”

Tyson Gamble was in tears. Photo: Fox Sports

But it was round 23 and 24 losses of 60-12 to the Storm and 53-6 to the Eels respectively, both in front of their home fans.

It left the Broncos outside the top eight on for-and-against, needing to pick up 43 points to raise their differential above that of the Raiders.

It was already a big ask against the 10th placed Dragons, with Dally M favourite Ben Hunt’s last chance to try and secure the award for the game’s best player, which would cap off a remarkable 2022 individually after he had the key moment in the Maroons’ series win.

Hunt had another outstanding match against the Broncos, kicking a massive 40-20 in the first half and leading the Dragons around to a big win.

It was always unfair to say Ben Hunt cost the Broncos a premiership in 2015 but it’s absolutely spot on to say he just cost them a finals spot in 2022. What a performance! #nrl#nrldragonsbroncos

— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) September 3, 2022

For the Broncos, it almost couldn’t have gone more wrong.

Nine minutes into the game and already down 6-0, Brisbane forward Thomas Flegler was sin binned after he was deemed to have hit Dragons centre Mathew Feagai high.

This was despite Feagai running in hunched over and being bounced out of the first contact from Zac Hosking into a bad position for Flegler.

When referee Ben Cummins gave Flegler his marching orders, the Broncos enforcer was stunned — as were the commentators.

“This is just a calamitous start for the Broncos,” Dan Ginnane said on Fox League.

Corey Parker argued Flegler had been hit in the head himself after Feagai was redirected at the forward.

Flegler was blown away. Photo: Fox Sports

The Flegler tackle. Photo: Fox Sports

The Dragons opened up a 16-6 lead just after halftime but failed to put the Broncos away.

When Billy Walters scored in the 58th minute, it was a four-point ball game.

But despite several shots inside the Dragons’ red-zone, the Broncos had no solutions and no penetration as the Dragons held them out.

And Feagai popped up again to all but end Brisbane’s season, claiming a long range try where he beat at least seven Broncos, rubbing salt into the wounds to finish off the 10-point win.

Hey Siri, sum up the Broncos last five weeks in a single try… https://t.co/uvc0m8MlVK

— Chris Coleman (@CJCau) September 3, 2022

Off the next kick off, Kotoni Staggs then flattened Andrew McCullough, seeing him sent to the sin bin as well.

“This is just ending in disastrous fashion for the Broncos,” Ginnane said.

Another lost season for the Broncos. Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Broncos players were in tears at full-time.

Greg Alexander said on Fox League the Broncos’ winning one from six to finish the year “was just not good enough”.

“They have crashed and burned for a lot of different reasons but you look at their individual form and it’s nowhere near where it was in the middle of the year,” Alexander said.

Broncos captain Adam Reynolds cut a forlorn figure after the match.

“There were patches through the year where we were really good, and then back half of the year has been so disappointing,” Reynolds said.

“I don’t know what to put it down to. Obviously as a club it was really disappointing.”

Broncos coach Kevin Walters said he was hurting as much as the players. He also lamented “a few things” such as injuries and suspensions in the back end of the season which left the Broncos on such a slide.

“