{"id":871810,"date":"2026-08-28T19:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871810\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T19:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:38:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-brisbane-broncos-apologise-for-botched-adam-reynolds-farewell-letter-to-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871810\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Brisbane Broncos apologise for botched Adam Reynolds farewell, letter to members"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Broncos<\/a> have apologised to fans after a calamitous attempt to farewell premiership captain Adam Reynolds<\/a> at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Broncos\u2019 final home match for the year<\/a>, the retiring duo of Reynolds and Corey Jensen were joined on-field by the departing Jesse Arthars (Super League) and Delouise Hoeter in a lap-of-honour around the stadium.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Adam Reynolds was one of four Broncos players farewelled on Thursday night.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The lights on the ground were briefly dimmed as the players were introduced by the ground announcer.<\/p>\n

But fans and league greats were left fuming by a perceived lack of effort by the Broncos. The farewell did not include any highlights packages on the big screen, or even any music as they made their way around the ground.<\/p>\n

To rub salt into the wound, the quartet wasn\u2019t even halfway around when the big-screen cut to a Kia ad, with the ground announcer presenting a member with a new car. The club had dubbed the game \u201cThank You Members Round\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the match, Reynolds and Haas were involved in a separate presentation, but it did not take place until about 10pm \u2013 well after most fans had left the ground.<\/p>\n

In a letter to members on Friday morning (AEST), the club blamed an earlier power outage for throwing the entire pre-match schedule into chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Brisbane Broncos apologise to our members and fans for not showing Adam Reynolds\u2019 full lap of honour on the Suncorp Stadium screens last night,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

\u201cA power outage affecting the stadium screens earlier in the program, for which Suncorp Stadium has apologised and are investigating, occurred without a contingency in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meant we were running behind schedule and were also unable to show some of the planned tribute content.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile trying to get the game-day program back on track, a decision was made to proceed with a scheduled Kia giveaway member activation. We got that call wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam\u2019s lap of honour was a significant moment for our club and our fans, and it should have been prioritised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sincerely apologise and thank everyone who came to Suncorp Stadium and stood by the team, our captain and our other departing players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are particularly grateful to everyone who stayed after the final whistle to join us in recognising Adam and our departing players.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the ABC, Maroons<\/a> legend Billy Moore said fans in the stands would barely have known what was going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t even know there was a send-off, that\u2019s how bad it was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The quartet were barely halfway around the ground when the big screen switched to a Kia promotion.\u00a0X\/@zanofc<\/p>\n

On Fox Sports\u2019 coverage, Eels<\/a> legend Nathan Hindmarsh said the Broncos should have done more to farewell a premiership player.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless whether he was playing or not, the Broncos could\u2019ve done something to send him off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a bit of a clap pre-game in the middle of the pitch and that was about it. There was no fanfare. It just doesn\u2019t seem there was enough build-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a champion player and to not really have a big build-up \u2026 there needed to be something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Maguire and Adam Reynolds after Thursday night\u2019s loss to Melbourne.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

The departures of four other players in the game day squad \u2013 Payne Haas (Souths), Gehamat Shibasaki (Perth Bears), Grant Anderson (Warriors) and Jaiyden Hunt (Raiders) \u2013 at the end of the year has been confirmed. Jack Gosiewski is expected to be a fifth.<\/p>\n

The flat farewell came after a week of criticism aimed at the club for not giving him the opportunity of a farewell game in the dead rubber clash.<\/p>\n

Reynolds had been pushing to return from a calf injury for the final two rounds, but was ruled out of the Storm clash on Monday. <\/p>\n

Reynolds initially said the decision was made by coach Michael Maguire and the club\u2019s medical staff, before he backflipped and said the final call was his.<\/p>\n

Rumours of a factional divide in the dressing room were sparked when Reece Walsh \u2018liked\u2019 on Instagram a Fox League post<\/a> critical of Maguire\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n

It has since been deleted.<\/p>\n

Fans and former players were adamant the 36-year-old should have been afforded the opportunity of at least a brief cameo off the bench to farewell his adopted home.<\/p>\n

Reynolds is expected to remain at Red Hill next year as a halves mentor working under Maguire, but this week\u2019s back-and-forth has left that in some doubt. <\/p>\n

A contract was expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Reynolds retires from the NRL having played 323 matches \u2013 231 for the Rabbitohs and 92 for the Broncos \u2013 including two grand final victories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broncos have apologised to fans after a calamitous attempt to farewell premiership captain Adam Reynolds at Suncorp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-871810","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\/871810","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=871810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}