Time to take deep breath

RUGBY LEAGUE: Footy fans most likely missed the report during the week that a six-year major Broncos sponsor renewed their support of the club for a further five years in a multi-million-dollar deal.

Okay, on the scale of monumental events in the club’s 30year history, it’s no major newsbreaking yarn.

But when related to the adverse PR emanating around the new $27 million headquarters at Red Hill since 2018 action stirred, this announcement has been one rare tick.

Those who can recall the birth of the club will be well aware that the Broncos and controversy have been comfortable bedfellows in those three decades.

As new boys on the block, the Broncos were only too happy to stir the pot when it suited them and were never averse to creating niggles, often dividing their own fans.

The sacking of captain Wally Lewis after just two seasons was one; the major role they played in Super League another. And the list goes on.

But these past few weeks, with the blow torch turned on the club over its signing of Matt Lodge and the non-recruitment of potential halfback stars, rates up there with some of the very best sprays to which the club has been subjected. In fact, Broncos fans could be excused for believing some kind of an agenda had been set by certain sections of the media.

No doubt the Broncos have made errors of judgement where recruitment is concerned, and passed over players who turned out to be guns. But what club hasn’t?

That’s the nature of the beast. And irrespective of what we might think of Matt Lodge, he was cleared by the NRL Integrity Unit to return to the game and like all of us, deserves a chance to redeem himself – and make a living from what he does best.

But before the trigger-happy critics throw the entire club under the bus after one poor performance to start the season, it’s time to take a deep breath.

Firstly, the Broncos forwards were totally outgunned last week. Because of a 64 per cent completion rate and 35 missed tackles, rarely was the team on the front foot.

Halves Kodi Nikorima and Anthony Milford have been lambasted for their performance, but when the forwards aren’t dominating the middle, playmakers have no space in which to operate.

And we should not forget that together in the halves for the Broncos last year Nikorima and Milford won 10 of their 12 outings.

The season is but a week old and widespread condemnation following one shocker is absurd, and ill-informed. Even a loss to the all-powerful Cowboys won’t usher in Doomsday.

But with upwards of 32,000 members on board and an expected crowd of 45,000 at Suncorp Stadium tonight, Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s the Night’ is now much more relevant than ‘you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone’, that poignant line from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi that has raged this past week.