Brisbane’s desire to back up its 2025 NRL premiership has been questioned by club legend Darren Lockyer and fellow league icon Billy Slater.
The Broncos are essentially out of the finals race after losing to North Queensland on Saturday, less than a year after claiming their first title in 19 years.
Ezra Mam and Reece Walsh react after Brisbane’s loss to the Cowboys. Getty
They will be the first team since the 2006 Tigers to miss finals the season after winning a premiership.
Lockyer – a club icon and current Broncos director – admits he was “nervous” before the season even started.
“There’s been turning points in games where they haven’t, in my opinion, had the same desire as last year in winning the moments that matter,” he said on Nine’s 100% Footy.
“It’s obviously been very disappointing.”
Brisbane’s failure to match the feats of last year has come in a season of turmoil with injuries to key players.
But there’s also been the impending departure of Payne Haas to South Sydney and Ben Te’o’s fallout with coach Michael Maguire which led to him quitting as assistant coach.
The Broncos are now four wins outside the top eight and their slight mathematical chance of making finals has become unrealistic.
Slater says he saw danger signs at the start of the season.
He compared the attitude of Brisbane players to that of Penrith’s, given the Panthers won four NRL premierships in a row and are once again at the top of the ladder.
“I could see at the start of the season that they, individually and collectively, they didn’t have a great pre-season. That’s where it all starts,” he told Nine’s The Billy Slater Podcast.
“The game is too hard to play when you’re not fit, and there were too many individuals that, whether the success got to them a bit, whether they relaxed a little bit… that’s why what the Panthers have done is incredible.
Broncos veteran Ben Hunt and his teammates during a loss. Getty
“The Panthers have held this hunger and drive to succeed year after year, week after week, and I feel that’s what the Broncos struggled with over pre-season, and you saw it at the start of the year.
“They were playing catch-up the whole year and now they’re in this situation. I really feel something happened in the pre-season.”
League icon Phil Gould suggested there could have been a struggle for the Broncos to get themselves motivated physically and emotionally after the highs of their 2025 grand final run and asked Lockyer if he saw anything in the players’ attitudes that could have foreshadowed this season’s misfortune.
“I’m always nervous when the Broncos are getting a lot of pats on the back because it’s amplified in Brisbane because of the following of the Broncos,” Lockyer replied.
“There’s also a lot of people critical of them when they’re not going well. I think this has been a learning curve for the players this year because you can’t just turn up, even when you’ve got a talented team. You’ve got to put the effort in every week.”
The Broncos will play their next three matches at Suncorp Stadium against the Knights, Dolphins and Warriors.