Broncos’ culture under fire

BRISBANE’S founding father Barry Maranta claims the Broncos’ famed culture has been destroyed and fears the club’s young guns could be scarred by the Roosters debacle on Thursday night.

Maranta watched Brisbane’s shocking 59-0 capitulation at Suncorp Stadium and believes the playing group are unfair targets for a deeper cultural problem at Red Hill.

Maranta, Paul Morgan, Steve Williams and Gary Balkin were the quartet who built the foundations of the Broncos in 1988 and a key principle under inaugural coach Wayne Bennett was playing for the jumper until the 80th minute.

Reflecting on the 10-try hammering – the worst loss in Broncos history – Maranta turned up the heat on Brisbane chairman Karl Morris and chief executive Paul White.

“The poor players aren’t the problem, it’s bigger than that,” he said.

“I can’t imagine Lachlan Murdoch (co-chairman of News Corp, a majority owner of the Broncos) would be happy – he would be furious with this.

“This is not the Broncos I know. The culture has changed.

“What we see now is what I saw in other struggling teams when we first set up the Broncos.

“We made up our minds at the time that we would never be like the battling clubs and we put a lot of emphasis on loyalty, support and team camaraderie.

“The problem at the club has existed long before (Thursday) night’s performance.

“Paul Morgan wasn’t the only one who would have turned in his grave, Gary Balkin would have as well.”

Maranta is concerned by a leadership void that has exposed emerging rookies such as Payne Haas, Tom Flegler, Pat Carrigan, Cory Paix, Tesi Niu, Herbie Farnworth and Ethan Bullemor.

“This young Broncos squad does not deserve what is happening,” he said. “I felt terrible for the young fellas out there.”