Busted Broncos

Corey Norman makes a break against the Cowboys

The Brisbane Broncos are not very good. This is not new information or something no one else is saying, but rather an accepted reality in 2013, albeit one we are not used to. We are used to the Broncos being perennial contenders or at least making the finals, as well as Suncorp Stadium being a near impossible place to go and win for an away side.

Obviously with Wayne Bennett now a few years removed from the club and the retirement of Darren Lockyer, that wasn’t going to last forever. It is a transitional phase for the club but Anthony Griffin had seemed like a good coach and they always have a factory of young players to call on to keep them competitive.

However, this season the wheels have completely fallen off. Now you might argue that it has only been three matches and for all we know they will win every game from now until September, but that still doesn’t change my mind.

One thing the Broncos have always done well is develop talent and typically be able to keep that talent at least until salary cap pressure from too much success forces them to make tough decisions. But in 2013, the Broncos are letting their best young player leave at the end of the season with no real foresight or long term plan.

Basically every footy fan I know believe that Corey Norman is the best young player on the Broncos, as well as one of the best young talents in the game. He is clearly at his best with playing his natural position of five-eighth, but due to the signing of Scott Prince he has been put at fullback so far this season. Now that would be fine, even if I disagree with it in the short term, if it simply ended there. Young players have often had to wait their turn while a veteran filled their best position. But now Corey Norman has signed to play for the Parramatta Eels in 2014 and the Broncos do not seem to be all that fussed by it.

The fact that Norman was available and that the Broncos didn’t seem all that intent on re-signing him was an open secret and the Eels were constantly rumoured to be his destination, especially after missing out on Josh Papalii. It is a fantastic signing for the Eels and gives them a long term spine to build around with Hayne, Norman and Sandow in three of the four key positions.

But why would the Broncos simply let him go without a fight? Do they genuinely believe he isn’t that good, do they honestly believe they are set with Scott Prince and Peter Wallace? Or is there more to Corey Norman that we simply don’t know and they didn’t want the headache anymore?

As far as I can tell, Anthony Griffin is simply choosing to build around the newly returned Scott Prince at five-eighth, despite the fact he is 33 years old and already seems to be a shell of his former self. Prince and Wallace together simply do not have enough attacking skill between them at this stage to lead a team to win more than they lose. They are both solid defensively, Wallace in particular, and overall the Broncos are still a good defensive side. But that isn’t going to do all that much when you quite simply cannot manufacture points.

It is a very similar situation to the one the St George Illawarra Dragons find themselves in. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you have try scorers and game breaker on the edges or wings, if you don’t have the halves to get them the ball in the right situations you will never get the chance to use those weapons.

But let’s say Scott Prince was playing at his best right now. It is still a horrible decision to let Corey Norman leave. No one beats Father Time and Scott Prince is not someone you can build around at this juncture. Even if you continue to play Norman at fullback, until you decide Prince can’t go anymore, fullback is still a vital position and one worthy of paying Norman the money he received from Parramatta.

The problem is that Griffin has a different mindset to the fans/club at this stage. Griffin needs to think short term because his job is on the line right now. I disagree he is making the correct decisions even in the short term, but even if he was right, it still is valuing short term competitiveness over long term success, which often ends in disaster.

I also do not understand playing captain Sam Thaiday at prop. The guy has been one of the best back rowers in the league for a decade or so and the club is not short of props anyway. I understand that they want to play Glenn, Gillett and Parker and therefore figure they can just put 10 on Thaiday’s back, but it isn’t a best use of their squad in my eyes.

I would move Gillett back to the bench to be the most damaging of impact players and let Thaiday go back to his natural spot at 12.

Broncos’ fans expect success because they have grown accustomed to it and I understand there is a lot of pressure on Griffin to be in “win now” mode. Also, despite the fact that they are Queenslanders, I give Broncos fans just enough credit to understand that they are rebuilding and need to develop their young players for the next golden era.

But there is no rhyme or reason to what the Broncos are doing right now and with this current strategy I can’t see success in either the short or longer term. When Corey Norman is killing it in blue and gold next year, I imagine Anthony Griffin will be shaking his head and wishing he was still coaching in the NRL.