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Sport Nation
2025 Mid-season review: Brisbane Broncos
Charles Goodsir • June 17th, 2025 1:39 pm
The Brisbane Broncos parted ways with club legend and coach Kevin Walters following a bitterly disappointing 2024 season. It was clear that the Broncos needed a cultural reset and who better to enact that than Michael Maguire who was fresh off an astonishing State of Origin series win as NSW Blues coach.
The Broncos instantly rebounded to start the year and won four of their first five games. Seemingly out of nowhere, Brisbane proceeded to lose six of their next seven games. An easy kill against the Gold Coast Titans has them in the top eight temporarily but the Broncos need a big second half of the year. Otherwise, more scrutiny will fall on an underperforming roster that is littered with stars.
Ladder: 7thRecord: 6W, 7L, 2 Byes
Positive: Broncos bully the Bulldogs
The Broncos had suffered consecutive defeats when they hosted the ladder-leading an undefeated Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night in Round 8. The Broncos blew the early Premiership favourites out of the water in a first half blitz with five tries to none.
Brisbane led 34-0 at the main break to leave the Bulldogs shellshocked. The Bulldogs may have scored the first three tries of the second half to add some respectability to the scoreline but the Broncos sent a clear message to the rest of the competition that they were good enough to beat anybody.
Negative: Dismal return to Brookvale Oval
There were a number of poor losses to choose from including the home loss to the Dragons in Round 11, the South Sydney loss in Round 10 and the Magic Round disappointment against Penrith.
However, the biggest indicator of how far the Broncos were from being a competitor was their Round 13 performance against Manly. Brisbane returned to Brookvale Oval for the first time since 2014, had lost their last three matches, were coming off a bye and facing a Manly side who were also under pressure to perform.
An early try to Ezra Mam was the only bit of joy as the Broncos put together one of the most error riddled, unenthusiastic and uninspiring 80 minutes of football you’ll likely see.
Best Player: Payne Haas
Arguably the best forward in the competition and Haas has led the way for the Broncos this season when a number of his teammates haven’t. The 25-year-old is second in the competition for post-contact metres (920), first for tackle breaks amongst forwards (75), second for offloads (35) and has only missed eight tackles from 447 attempts. A workhouse and competitor in every sense of the word.
Biggest Moment: Ezra Mam’s suspension
The biggest moment of the year for the Broncos occurred before the year even started when Mam was driving unlicensed and under the influence of narcotics when he collided with an uber which injured the driver and his two passengers which included a young girl.
Mam was later fined in court and suspended for nine matches by the NRL. As a result of what has been perceived as a lenient punishment, Mam has received plenty of boos and jeers from the crowd since his return in Round 11.
Maguire was hired to fix a ‘rockstar’ culture at the Broncos and it got off to the worst possible start following Mam’s indiscretions and it has been a dark cloud over the Broncos all season.
Grade: D
