{"id":769891,"date":"2026-06-30T12:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769891\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:48:10","slug":"whats-going-on-ugly-recruitment-question-laid-bare-as-brutal-reality-looms-for-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769891\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019: Ugly recruitment question laid bare as brutal reality looms for Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Broncos\u2019 recruitment has come under fire following the signing of veteran centre Dane Gagai, a move that has left some observers puzzled.<\/p>\n

Gagai will rejoin Brisbane for 2027 in what will likely be his final season in the NRL.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gagai signed a cut-price deal with the club he debuted and played six games for in 2011.<\/p>\n

Several players are set to leave the Broncos at season\u2019s end, including Payne Haas and outside backs Jesse Arthars and Gehamat Shibasaki.<\/p>\n

While the Broncos didn\u2019t break the bank to ink Gagai, The Daily Telegraph\u2019s David Riccio is confused as to why the club have had to resort to signing a player of Gagai\u2019s age given how strong the Broncos\u2019 nursery is.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are they here? How are they here where the world\u2019s best front rower walks out on the club and they\u2019re losing other players,\u201d Riccio said on NRL360.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant Anderson, Gehamat Shibasaki, Jesse Arthars, Payne Haas leaving, Adam Reynolds leaving. OK, they aren\u2019t world beaters but it\u2019s the core of your roster. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say this about the greatest respect to Dane Gagai as he\u2019s having an incredible season. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a champion but the Broncos do not need to sign 36-year-olds. The Brisbane Broncos should never have to sign 36-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should never have to. They spend close to $1.2-$1.5 million in pathways and development. Double that of rival clubs \u2026 What is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

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It was a point that foxsports.com.au\u2019s Paul Crawley agreed with, noting the success of the Penrith Panthers\u2019 all powerful pathways program.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at their process for recruitment and retention as opposed to the Panthers and how that system just continues to regenerate player after player,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n

Gagai isn\u2019t the only player over 35 that Brisbane have agreed to a deal with in recent weeks,<\/p>\n

36-year-old Ben Hunt signed a one-year extension with the club despite some recent spotty form although he has taken a significant pay cut to go around one more season.<\/p>\n

Hunt will be tasked with stepping up as a leader next year with Haas and Reynolds out the door.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Crawley says the Gagai signing makes sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re lacking leadership. They\u2019re lacking that senior figure with Reynolds and Haas leaving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broncos\u2019 recruitment has come under fire following the signing of veteran centre Dane Gagai, a move that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-769891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}