Crash Tackle: Second Brisbane team will cause Magic Round fixture chaos

Melbourne Storm are renowned for their brutal pre-seasons. Players vomit in anticipation of it. A couple have been carted off in ambulances. You’ve been warned, Broncos players.

A 17th NRL will cause Magic Round chaos. Picture: Steve Pohlner

That heavy breathing you hear over the next few months coming from Red Hill will be the sound of Broncos players groaning from a brutal pre-season.

There is a massive push at the club for the players to be fitter than they have ever been.

We know that one of rugby league’s favourite cliches but the Broncos effort to win four games in the last two months of the competition correlated to renewed fitness push at the club.

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Brisbane Broncos can expect a torturous pre-season. Picture: Liam Kidston

It’s no coincidence that the best team of the past decade, the Storm, has also been the fittest.

Cameron Smith tells stories of players being so anxious in what lay ahead of them in pre-season training they vomited before the sessions.

On at last two occasions players were taken from Storm sessions in ambulances.

Second Brisbane team will stain NRL Magic Round

It’s full steam ahead for Brisbane’s second rugby league team but there’s a tiny pebble in the shoe of those about to take the giant leap forward … Magic Round.

The annual celebration of every team going to Suncorp Stadium for eight rounds of football is perfect when you have 16 teams, but not 17 as it appears the case will be in 2023.

Deciding which team misses the party and has the bye could be a ticklish issue.

Surely it couldn’t be one of the four Queensland teams otherwise it would defeat the purpose of having a Brisbane based round.

A 17th NRL will cause Magic Round chaos. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The temptation is to say the name should be randomly chosen but what if the premiers, say the Melbourne Storm, were plucked out of a hat?

And if you chose a battling team like say, the Wests Tigers, you’d be accused of kicking the club while they are down.

THE GRIT, THE GRIND

Rugby league’s head honchos are obsessed about creating tries but Saturday’s epic 8-6 win by Penrith over Parramatta was a reminder that some of the best games of all are bare-knuckled slugfests.

Many are calling it the game of the season and just watching as an emotionally uninvested neutral fan was exhausting after one of the most relentlessly brutal contests for years.

Phil Gould reckons the game will harden the Panthers and they can beat the Storm. Another theory has it that it may knock them around too much. If this exceptional group of Panthers don’t win at least one premiership they will feel short changed. The pressure is mounting.

HE’S LAZARUS

Blake Ferguson’s ‘jack in the box’ recovery, from the agony of an apparently sore neck to bouncing up looking for trouble once he milked the penalty, highlighted an aggravating trend which has become a blight on the game.

It took an extreme case like that from the Parramatta veteran against Penrith to spotlight how farcical players pretending to be injured has become.

Blake Ferguson clutches his neck.

Blake Ferguson miraculously bounces up.

Senior NRL officials are desperate to address the issue but privately admit they don’t have the answer.

“You say take action against players milking penalties but let’s say you do and the player turns out to be injured and suddenly it is the referee who is in a world of pain,’’ one NRL official said.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

The Dolphins franchise are the team to beat for the 17th NRL team and, if successful, will attempt to cast their net much wider than their home city of Redcliffe.

In fact Redcliffe, while being their home base, would not appear anywhere in their name.

Modern trends dictate that non-animal names like the Storm, Heat, Power etc are preferable but the dolphin will be retained in the name somewhere as research has shown, from ages seven to 70, who doesn’t love a dolphin?

The Dolphins would play the majority of their games at Suncorp Stadium with others shared between Redcliffe and the Sunshine Coast.

Originally published as Crash Tackle: Second Brisbane team will cause Magic Round fixture chaos