{"id":871900,"date":"2026-08-28T21:24:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871900\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:24:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:24:24","slug":"one-nrl-club-is-all-class-in-farewelling-a-star-the-broncos-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871900\/","title":{"rendered":"One NRL club is all class in farewelling a star. The Broncos? Not so much"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 29, 2026 \u2014 3:00am<\/p>\n

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AAA<\/p>\n

A tale of two cities … and two clubs for that matter.<\/p>\n

As the NRL regular season draws to a close, the Broncos and Rabbitohs have two famous players coming to the end of the road \u2013 Adam Reynolds and Jai Arrow.<\/p>\n

\"JaiJai Arrow and Adam Reynolds have been treated very differently by their clubs.Artwork: Monique Westermann<\/p>\n

For Reynolds, it\u2019s a case of age catching up with the 36-year-old: if it\u2019s not his calves being cows, it\u2019s his knees on the blink or his hamstrings on the brink. With Arrow, we all know of his shocking diagnosis of motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n

The interest lies in how the two clubs honour their heroes as the curtain falls on their careers.<\/p>\n

For the last two games, Arrow is going to kit up and walk out with the team for kick-off<\/a> before being replaced in the opening seconds to sit on the reserves bench with his teammates.<\/p>\n

Souths negotiated this with the NRL, to have him as an extra team member to allow him to go from 98 matches for South Sydney to bringing up his century. Great knock, that. Classy. Heartwarming. And appropriate for a great and well-loved servant of the club.<\/p>\n

\"MuchMuch loved South Sydney player Jai Arrow.George Chan<\/p>\n

And what about Reynolds, one of the heroes of Brisbane\u2019s grand final win last year \u2013 the key cog in the driveshaft that allowed the whole team to hum, after years of underperforming?<\/p>\n

The kicking and passing maestro has been around since the Dead Sea was only sick. He\u2019s played some of his best football north of the Tweed.<\/p>\n

Either way, the point remains: the Broncos\u2019 season is gone; they\u2019re third last.<\/p>\n

Was it really going to cost the Broncos anything to have Reynolds come on during the last home game of the season, against the Storm on Thursday night? Did leaving him out help? Nuh.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Maguire has had a challenging year with the Broncos.Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Storm, who have had an historically bad season themselves, put nearly 50 points on them!<\/p>\n

For me, it was emblematic of the obvious. Michael Maguire, a very good coach at first blush with a new team, wears his players out, and in this episode has demonstrably lost the plot, just as he\u2019s lost the dressing room.<\/p>\n

The Broncos can let him go at the end of the season, or wait until he blows the first part of next season, and let him go in May.<\/p>\n

I know what I\u2019d do.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re waiting, Mr Norman<\/p>\n

So where are you now, Greg Norman?<\/p>\n

After all your brio on LIV Golf, all your bravado, all your carry-on about how it was the revolution<\/a> that the game needed, how it was no less than the \u201cfuture of golf\u201d, how it would end up inevitably swallowing the PGA Tour, all your defence of the Saudi backers, even when it comes to chainsaw murders \u2013 \u201ceveryone makes mistakes\u201d \u2013 what did we actually get four years on?<\/p>\n

Such a meek surrender there wasn\u2019t even a white flag, for the fact they probably couldn\u2019t afford to buy one. All the money has gone to you and to players who, all up, delivered three-fifths of bugger all in terms of a sustainable audience.<\/p>\n

Things were so bad that \u2013 stand by for the whimper \u2013 the originally planned season-ending Team Championship in Michigan was cancelled, and this week LIV let the bulk of its 300 employees go.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer LIV Golf boss Greg Norman.Getty Images<\/p>\n

This all because the Saudi Public Investment Fund had withdrawn its backing, and no other investor has put their hand up. In the realms of the pathetic, I put it to you, we have a new post-war record, particularly in the world of sport.<\/p>\n

The whole thing has been a debacle, and was always going to end like this, just as I always said it would<\/a> \u2013 50 times or so. You can\u2019t launch a sport on blood money, built on blokes playing in nonsensical \u201cteams\u201d, rip away all the class of the traditional comps and expect it to work.<\/p>\n

But still not a word from you, Greg. You did this, we were told endlessly by you, to help \u201cthe game of golf\u201d. (The squillion you were paid to so debase yourself was surely incidental.)<\/p>\n

So surely a comment from you about the end of the whole catastrophe would be appropriate?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re waiting, oh Great White Fish Finger.<\/p>\n

Cricket\u2019s hairy problem<\/p>\n

Yes, I know this item is a fortnight off the pace, but I don\u2019t care. I couldn\u2019t fit it in before this because of these tumultuous sporting times. (So many issues, so little space.)<\/p>\n

My question: what\u2019s doing with famous cricketers and their hair? Why the vanity of transplants, toupees and tinting? And why is it pretty much only the cricketers letting the side down?<\/p>\n

\"CommentatorCommentator Matthew Hayden debuts his new hair with his on-air partner and former captain Ricky Ponting in the Channel 7 commentary box.Seven Network<\/p>\n

The latest cab off the rank is Matthew Hayden, who went from bald to hirsute overnight, and unveiled the new look while doing commentary for the first Test against Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

His fellow brilliant commentator Ricky Ponting made his move in the field as long ago as 2007, which followed the lead of Shane Warne and Greg Matthews \u2013 the latter was doing stuff with his hair in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, following Michael Clarke\u2019s hairstyles and tints over the years had been so exhausting I had to put another man on. See? Always the cricketers.<\/p>\n

Beyond Mat Rogers, leaguies have no such pattern that I can think of, at least not so obviously \u2013 though there has been speculation about Darren Lockyer and Billy Slater, while I find Laurie Daley\u2019s jet black hair … odd.<\/p>\n

\"LaurieLaurie Daley\u2019s hair is very dark.NRL Photos<\/p>\n

Rugby union? Zero. Hole-in-the-donut. Or just about. James O\u2019Connor seemed to change hair colours as often as he changed his socks.<\/p>\n

Personally, I just don\u2019t get it with the cricketers. If going bald troubles them, why can\u2019t they wear red bandanas, like normal people? <\/p>\n

What they said<\/p>\n

Brisbane star Adam Reynolds had hoped to overcome a calf injury and get a farewell NRL game but, on Monday, he broke the news: \u201cI trained today, obviously thought I\u2019d be a chance to play one last home game and then hand it over to the rest of the boys to finish off the season. But it\u2019s not to be \u2026 I\u2019m officially a has-been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter V\u2019landys on more NRL teams: \u201cAbsolutely. Why stop if it is successful?\u201d Fair enough, but what ultimately comes with an enlarged global footprint \u2013 ipso facto \u2013 is culling more teams from Sydney. Which ones will go, Peter?<\/p>\n

Bangladesh Test skipper Najmul Shanto after being rolled inside two days by Australia: \u201cWe\u2019re here after 23 years. It\u2019s not easy to compete in these conditions against this quality of team. So if we are able to come consistently, then the players have their idea, players have their experience and they can be able to adjust these kinds of conditions and play good cricket. So my request is we want to play here, we want to play similar kinds of conditions consistently, not after 23 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teenage Socceroo Lucas Herrington on being part of the Hull City team that defeated Manchester United: \u201cJust buzzing. I\u2019ve been watching the Premier League since I was five years old, waking up at all hours of the morning. So to be out there with some of these lads against Manchester United nonetheless was a great moment for me and something I\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swans skipper Callum Mills after they defeated North Melbourne: \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for the fans sticking with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

England and Wales Cricket Board doing the usual copy and paste as they respond to yet another alcohol incident in their ranks: \u201cWe are aware of an incident, which is reported to have taken place in Derby last night, and are currently investigating.\u201d Seriously, how hard is this? Put it in their contracts, clause 4, paragraph A: \u201cIf you prove to be an embarrassing piss head, this contract null and void.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Root, in his second stint as England captain, on it:<\/a> \u201cIf I\u2019m being brutally honest, I\u2019m really hacked off … It\u2019s not the isolated incident itself. It\u2019s the fact that we continually keep making stupid mistakes away from the game, and it\u2019s detracting from what we\u2019re doing on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Daniel Daneshvar, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and lead author of a study that reveals at least one in four NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE): \u201cWe and others have shown that in NFL players, specifically, there is about a four times higher rate of death from neurodegenerative disease than the general population.\u201d As shocking as that is, he went on to note that the 25 per cent is on \u201cthe low end\u201d, and while the maximum possible prevalence of CTE was about 97 per cent, the true rate \u201cis somewhere in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIV golfer Jon Rahm: \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot that\u2019s surrounded all of us pretty much since we joined, and at the end of the day, when you step on the golf course, it\u2019s just golf. So all the problems and theories go away, and you compete. It hasn\u2019t been any harder or any easier in any way. It\u2019s just, kind of I think, the life of a pro athlete.\u201d Yup. The life of a pro athlete, taking blood money, Jon.<\/p>\n

Golfer Wyndham Clark embracing the role of villain in the BMW Championship as the fans were rooting for Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy: \u201cDarth Vader had more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

UEFA head Aleksander Ceferin firing more shots across the bow of Gianni Infantino, if not straight amidships: \u201cI\u2019m absolutely sure that the [FFE] plan is dead. For me, the most important thing is that we stopped another try to sell the sport. It\u2019s hard to imagine what kind of people would sell the sport that belongs to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team of the week<\/p>\n

Sydney Roosters. Had their first loss in nine games against the Tigers,<\/a> for whom it was their first win in nine games! Honestly, I thought there would have been more chance of Bangladesh beating the Australia Test cricket side in Darwin than the Tigers winning that one, but … these things happen!<\/p>\n

Sydney marathon. Good luck to all competitors on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Essendon. Finished with the wooden spoon after just two wins for the year. These days the Bombers do a victory lap if they win so much as the toss.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Tigers celebrate Jock Madden\u2019s match-winning field goal.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wallabies. Taking on Argentina at 5am (AEST) Sunday.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Starc. First bowler in history to take a wicket with the first ball of a Test match on four occasions. Moved into the top 10 for all time wicket takers. Has done well for a bowler Shane Warne once derided as \u201ca bit soft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic. Up 4-0, they lost their Champions League tie to Austrian team LASK 5-4 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Lucas Herrington. Socceroo starred for Hull City<\/a> in the Carabao Cup win over Stoke City to follow his good performance in the win over Manchester United.<\/p>\n

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\"PeterPeter FitzSimons<\/a> is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 29, 2026 \u2014 3:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-871900","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\/871900","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=871900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}