The Brisbane Broncos' premiership defence is the worst since Wests in 1953, and last season's top four will all finish outside the NRL finals for the first time since 1992.
With one round to go, the Broncos can finish no worse than second-last, a small mercy for their fans. The loosening of their grip on the competition is not the only slip made by a club this year, as the game has entered a period of rapid change.
Top four titans humbled
The quartet are the titans of the competition – the Broncos, Raiders, Storm and Bulldogs. Each is overseen by one of the game's luminaries in Michael Maguire, Ricky Stuart, Craig Bellamy and Phil Gould, although the latter is in a general manager role rather than a coach. Humbling seasons for these proven greats highlight the game's rapid change.
Finals hopes for reigning premiers Brisbane have long been shredded, and two Broncos favourites have already said their farewells. So dire are things at Red Hill, the glamour club's chief executive made an unusual appearance in front of the media this week.
Broncos' farewell botched
Maguire is set to continue his role in Brisbane despite the club's dramatic decline this season, and a conclusion to the season that has somehow become even uglier. The Broncos botched the farewell for retiring halfback Adam Reynolds last week, while the departure of Payne Haas to the Rabbitohs remains awkward.
Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy described the club's underwhelming send-off for Reynolds at Suncorp Stadium last week as a "missed opportunity". A car ad for a sponsor interrupted his lap around the ground with three other departing teammates. The club was forced to apologise for its lack of tact last week, and on Monday Donaghy said it was "disappointing" but not all the club's fault.
On losing the game's best forward at age 26, Donaghy said he did not want to go into Haas's reasons for leaving, instead telling reporters it was up to Haas himself to explain if he wanted to. The prop, appearing in front of microphones moments later to promote his final match against the Bulldogs on Thursday in Sydney, declined to elaborate.
"I think I've answered this lots of times, I'm not going to say it again, so I've already said my part, and that's it," he said with arms crossed. Responding to a follow-up question on whether he wanted to share anything about why the club has struggled this year: "No, not really."
Bulldogs and Storm struggles
The Broncos' opponents on Thursday, the Bulldogs, have also been a huge disappointment after they looked like premiership contenders midway through last year. Their struggle to score points while Lachlan Galvin finds his feet in the NRL could not be fixed by Stephen Crichton's move into the halves, and a late-season resurgence petered out.
Under Ivan Cleary's former assistant at Penrith, Cameron Ciraldo – considered one of the game's leading younger coaches – the club's fortunes had been steadily trending up. But it appears to have led them to a place they no longer want to be.
The increase in the speed of matches fuelled by set restarts, which has remained a point of contention amid an avalanche of blowouts this year, has been identified as one factor to have foiled the rebuild, even if the rule has been in place in some form since the pandemic. Gould used the changing game to justify their struggles this year in comments on his podcast in May. "We've really backed our defence, and in the game today it's hard to do that, it just hasn't suited us," he said.
Leading players remain unconvinced of this new-look NRL, even if Peter V'landys extols the entertainment value of the modern game, which underpinned its $5.3bn broadcast payday. The NRL used last week's Broncos v Storm clash to test a new rule designed to prevent runaway momentum and blowouts by having, after a try, the conceding team choose who should receive a kick-off.
Melbourne's respected hooker Harry Grant – who is also part of the Rugby League Players' Association player advisory group – told Channel Nine afterwards changing kick-offs wasn't the answer. "I love the game, I've loved the game for a long time, but personally I don't think we need it, I think if we need to bring in a rule to counteract a rule, maybe we should look at going back on that rule."
Before this season, his club had not missed finals since 2010, when salary cap breach sanctions barred them despite a winning record. Put that year aside, and the Storm have not missed a finals series since 2002. Bellamy flagged last month that 2027 will likely be his last as coach, as the once-stubborn cycles of rugby league quicken.
