At 24-8 with 20 minutes to go, the script was already written for the Brisbane Broncos.
The Brisbane Broncos began at the bottom. After losing the NRL grand final to the Panthers, they must feel like they’re back there.
It’s a rare reversal of fortune to go from winning the wooden spoon in 2020 to being on top of the rugby league mountain in just three years.
Unfortunately for them, the remarkable comeback swung the other way in the NRL grand final of 2023, thanks to a Nathan Cleary performance like no other.
Finishing last is painful, especially for a team as successful as the Broncos.
It can feel hopeless and helpless at times, but after a while, there’s a resignation and numbness that nothing can be done.
The team was built incorrectly, and there was simply too much to overcome. The rebuilding process has begun. You have a world of opportunities ahead of you.
Things can only get better from here.
This time, Brisbane’s pain is extreme and hyper-specific for each of those Broncos, because it’s impossible not to consider how one play could’ve changed things.
If Herbie Farnworth had caught the dropout instead of batting it into the path of Mitch Kenny for the opening try. Reece Walsh should have seen Ezra Mam on his left when he scored in the 71st minute. If Sunia Turuva had been penalised a minute later for knees in Walsh’s back on the tryline. If Jordan Riki hadn’t been so eager to chase Kenny right with Cleary on the short side before the match-winner.
But none of those things happened, and the Broncos have no recourse now.
After all of that,
work and brilliant play to make it to the last day of the season, it’s back to square one to try and make the grand final again, which despite what Penrith may make you think, is actually very hard.
A Sisyphean struggle in the extreme.
To put it another way, if the wooden spoon season was like getting hit with 20 bricks, one at a time, week after week, then Sunday night was like getting all 20 dumped on them at once.
Mam’s hat-trick in the grand final came the same year he turned 20, Walsh is the league’s presumed best fullback at 21, running mate Selwyn Cobbo is only a month older, and 23-year-old back rower Riki is destined for a Kiwis jersey this summer.
Five highlights from a memorable NRL grand final.
Penrith mounts a legendary comeback, Brisbane is forced to pay for botched drop-outs, and Ezra Mam lights up the grand final. These are the five biggest plays from Penrith’s third consecutive premiership victory.
In the grand final, a Brisbane Broncos NRL player scores a try.
Learn more
Then there’s Payne Haas, the senior member of the forward pack, who was born 29 days earlier.
The Y2K Bug did not appear, nor did Pat Carrigan, 25.
Two more players who are in the running for best in their respective positions, despite being closer to 20 than 30.
The brilliance of those players is perplexing in the same way that people talk about Cleary’s abilities in his mid-20s (he was born a month and a half before Carrigan).
Aside from the championships, the main distinction is the position they play.
Great halfbacks are difficult to find, and having one in your system is a huge step towards greatness. Without a star in seven, very few teams win the championship.
Brisbane has one as well, but the age issue comes up again.
