Phil Gould says Brisbane Broncos can win NRL premiership in 2025, gives assessment on Michael Maguire, Ezra Mam and more
Bulldogs football boss Phil Gould has declared the Broncos are a genuine title threat in 2025 and a chance of creating their own dynasty. Hear from Gus as he assesses Michael Maguire, 2023 mental demons, Ezra Mam and more.
Bulldogs football boss Phil Gould says the Broncos can dethrone Penrith and urged Brisbane stars to buy into Michael Maguire’s “make-or-break” methods to snap the club’s 19-year title drought.
One of the code’s sharpest minds and most powerful figures, Gould watched the Broncos closely as Brisbane won the NRL Pre-Season Challenge title with a 30-14 defeat of his Canterbury club last Saturday night.
On the eve of the 2025 premiership, Gould delivered a candid assessment of the Broncos, declaring Brisbane a genuine threat to ending Penrith’s golden dynasty and potentially creating one of their own.
“They can win the comp,” Gould said. “The Broncos are one of the top sides in the competition.
“They are one of the sides that can win this if they get everything right, which is why Maguire is there I guess.”
MIGHTY ‘MADGE’
The Broncos are banking on Maguire to finally deliver the club’s first title since 2006 following the off-season departure of his predecessor Kevin Walters.
Maguire has wasted no time putting his stamp on the Broncos. He has presided over a punishing pre-season where players have vomited and nearly passed out at training, but the results so far seem promising.
The Broncos won all three pre-season trials and go into Thursday week’s round 1 opener against the Sydney Roosters looking as fit as any team in the league.
Gould, whose Bulldogs are chasing a second consecutive finals appearance and will be vying with the Broncos for a top-four spot, believes Maguire has the talent and tools to emulate Wayne Bennett by winning a title at Brisbane.
“Michael Maguire will make them or break them, put it that way,” ‘Gus’ Gould said in his Channel 9 podcast analysing the 2025 premiership contenders.
“Those that go with him and come out the other side will be better for it, so they may as well all get on board.
“If they get on board, they can win a comp.
“If you look at the trial games, which (saw) a lot of their emerging kids coming through, it’s a good sign in their physicality and fitness and how they handled it.
“They were absolutely brilliant which is often a reflection on how the whole club is going to look heading into the (premiership).”
MENTAL DEMONS
Walters went agonisingly close to break Brisbane’s title drought. The club legend took the Broncos to within minutes of glory in 2023, only for Gould’s former club, the Panthers, to produce the greatest fightback in grand-final history to break Brisbane’s hearts.
Many wondered how on earth the Broncos lost the unlosable grand final. Gould, a two-time premiership coach, explained the reasons for Brisbane’s downfall – and their subsequent freefall to 12th place last season.
“There was a reliance on talent,” he said.
“There was a reliance on the talent of the individual player and not so much on coming together as a group and having a system for their football.
“There’s a saying that coaches use these days: that the system beats the talent. Talent can win because that’s what talent does. Talent got the Broncos to the grand final the previous year but the lack of a system meant that they fell apart under pressure in 2024.
“In 2023, they were two minutes away from winning a premiership, like two minutes away from carrying the shield. They led by enough to win a Melbourne Cup with 20 minutes to go in that game before (Nathan) Cleary pulled their pants down and got them.
“That last 15 minutes of that grand final has a massive effect on the psychology and the mentality of the team.
“Whether they just kissed it off and thought they would bounce back and everything would be OK and they get that grand final right in September, we won’t let that happen to us again.
“Well, they didn’t get anywhere near the grand final in September, they didn’t even get to September football.
“It’s bad when you lose your coach.”
ALL SYSTEMS GO
Maguire broke South Sydney’s 43-year premiership drought in 2014, implementing a blueprint based on hard work, a relentless drive to be the best and upholding standards across the group.
Gould says Maguire’s appointment could be a case of planets aligning for a supremely-talented Broncos roster screaming out for a coach to get them to their title Everest – just as Paul Green did at the Cowboys in 2015.
“With Michael Maguire, he is all system,” Gould said.
“He is all about the effort areas of the game and he is all about the team mindedness and all that.
“I would imagine that for a lot of their young fellas, they wouldn’t have experienced an off-season like the one they’ve had under Michael Maguire. Early signs are good, but it has to transition into a long season.
“I’ve got some friends who are big on football ratings and they have rated the top three teams in this competition – Melbourne Storm, Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos in that order, and then a huge gap to the rest. They rate the next 12 or 13 (teams) pretty much equal.
“They clearly have Melbourne, Penrith and the Broncos on top, it’s not often you have a team that runs 12th the previous year that is selected in the top three for the following year.
“They are the big question mark, of course, but they are good enough to win the comp.”
MAM OH MAM
Gould is no stranger to club controversies. Last year, his Bulldogs club sacked Josh Addo-Carr over an off-field cocaine saga. The Broncos had their own problems just weeks later when Ezra Mam was charged with drug driving and subsequently banned for nine games by the NRL.
Gould says Mam owes the Broncos and is no guarantee to walk back into the Broncos’ starting side if new recruit Ben Hunt and Adam Reynolds fire in the halves.
“He owes himself, his family and he owes the game,” Gould said of Mam.
Asked if Mam, who scored a magical hat-trick in the 2023 grand final, should reclaim his No.6 jumper, Gould said: “I don’t know, I can’t answer that. What do you do with Reynolds and Hunt if you bring Ezra Mam back in?
“I don’t think Hunt wants to play hooker. It will be interesting to see how things go there.
“Ezra Mam is obviously a talent, but he stepped out of the crease last year and he has paid his penalty for it.
“I’m sure it’s been highly embarrassing for him and hopefully he learns his lesson. But the game has given him a time to come back in and the Broncos will bring him back in. They haven’t sacked him, they’ve decided to persevere with it, let’s hope he turns his life around and gets it right and doesn’t go down that road again.
“Because he is a football talent, there’s no risk in the world. The Broncos have got to help there.”
IGNITING REECE
Gould lauded the acquisition of Hunt and believes the former Dragons skipper and Reynolds’s scrumbase partnership can elevate superstar fullback Reece Walsh to another level.
“They have the flair and the attack,” he said.
“In Adam Reynolds and Ben Hunt … those two boys will drive Reece Walsh mad.
“They will keep putting him (Walsh) in good positions and he can win games for them, it’s as simple as that.
“The Broncos are loaded with talent and Michael Maguire gives them the hardness and the system.
“If they don’t break down and buy in with what the coach says, they are a genuine top-four contender.
“Premiership contender? Twelve months ago they were … that’s where they should be.”
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