Pressure builds on Broncos, Cowboys and Titans to deliver an NRL title

QUEENSLAND: Origin champions one year, Origin champs the next. But not all is well in paradise.

QUEENSLAND: Origin champions one year, Origin champs the next. But not all is well in paradise.

The state that has a mortgage on interstate rugby league supremacy, and is regarded as the code's true heartland, is crying out for a premiership as pressure builds on Queensland's three clubs, the Broncos, Cowboys and Titans to bring the NRL trophy north of the Tweed.

Queensland league fans may be basking in the glory of the Maroons' record seven-year reign under Mal Meninga, but at club level the Sunshine State is feeling the type of pain afflicting the hapless NSW Origin team.

And if there is a “posterboy” for Queensland's flagging success at club level, it is the Broncos, the state's flagship sporting outfit and traditional league powerhouse currently mired in the longest title "drought" in its glittering 24-year history.

Not since 2006, when the Broncos stormed home to upset Melbourne 15-8 in the decider, has a Queensland-based club held aloft the NRL trophy.

It was also the last time a Queensland team qualified for a rugby league grand final.

That six seasons is considered a drought is not only a measure of Brisbane's standards of excellence, but also a compelling barometer that the Broncos, once fuelled by household names like Langer, Renouf and Walters, are not as powerful as they once were.

There is similar expectation building in North Queensland. Once considered a poor relation to the Broncos, the Cowboys are now a bona fide force and enter the 2013 premiership ruing the title that got away last season after the video-refereeing bungle that cruelly ended their campaign against Manly a fortnight shy of the NRL decider.

Throw in the Titans, desperate to hit back after being also-rans for the past two seasons, and it is easy to see why the Queensland league public would demand the individual club success that has oozed from their Origin outfits.

"It does surprise me we haven't seen a Queensland team in a grand final for some time," says former Queensland and Test hooker Kerrod Walters, a member of the Broncos' first premiership side in 1992 and the 1993 outfit which went back-to-back.

"At Origin level we have dominated, and while Cameron Smith and Billy Slater play at Melbourne, you would have thought our Origin success would rub off on the Queensland teams at club level.

"Every club's goal in pre-season is to win the comp and I think the Broncos and Cowboys have the personnel to go all the way this year, so that's what they'd be striving for.

"The Titans recruited well last year but finished well off the mark. The pressure is on them to make things right and I would imagine making the finals is a minimum requirement for the Gold Coast for this season."

Whether the Broncos would accept a similar fate this season is highly questionable. Anthony Griffin's troops were surging in second midway through last season before a post-Origin collapse saw them stumble into the finals, where the Cowboys duly delivered the final blow with a 33-16 drubbing at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

The Broncos are not conditioned to chronic failure after winning titles in 1992, '93, '97 (Super League), '98, 2000 and '06.

Broncos fans are entitled to be growing impatient. And question marks are hovering like debt collectors.

How they will handle life up front without retired prop Petero Civoniceva? Have they yet truly recovered from Darren Lockyer's departure 12 months ago?

Do they have the halves to deliver the Holy Grail? Is Scott Prince past it? Is Sam Thaiday coping as captain?

Perhaps most critically, is Griffin the man to emulate what only Wayne Bennett has done thus far as coach - deliver titles to Brisbane?

"The culture of winning premierships was set from day one, the Broncos believe that every year they should be competing for a grand final and that was the case in the years I was there," Walters said.

"That's the benchmark the club has set. It is hard for the players, but with expectation comes accountability and they need to deliver this year because their fans will expect nothing less.

"The Broncos can't use the excuse they are an inexperienced team. They have the personnel to be a real threat this year.

"It does put a bit of pressure on the coaches and players but that is healthy, it makes you more accountable and makes you work harder."

The Cowboys are perched on a similar precipice. They were a delight to watch last year, but there is a feeling time is running out for some key personnel.

Matt Bowen is getting on. Brent Tate may retire this season. Coach Neil Henry is off contract. And star playmaker Johnathan Thurston, also off-contract at season's end, has failed to reach a decider since steering the Cowboys to their one and only grand final appearance against the Wests Tigers in 2005.

There is every chance Thurston will pilot the Maroons to an eighth consecutive Origin series win this season.

But you get the feeling he might trade it for a watershed Cowboys title, a moment that would give Queensland NRL bragging rights ... until the next Broncos premiership.