Broncos Roster, Signings and Rumours Discussion 2025

[john1420]

If it comes down to ability - Cobbo wins hands down but there are so many more factors involved. Talent wise, few possess what Selwyn has but it means little if the work ethic isn’t there.

Spot on, talent without work ethic gets you Dave Taylor

 

[Morepudding]

I honestly don’t think Cobbo or Staggs are worth the circa $700-750k they seem to be wanting. Staggs defensive reads are shocking. One on one he’s a strong defender but he often makes poor decisions and in some games he just doesn’t put his hand up to do any work. He needs to go looking for it more like the good centres do.

If I had to pick between Cobbo or Staggs? I’d go Cobbo. Can play wing, centre and fullback. Staggs is a centre and that’s it. I don’t mind the idea of trying him at second row where the defensive reads aren’t quite as hard and I think he would offer more than Riki, but I think he’s overrated as a centre.

 

[upthebroncs]

We’d save a lot of cap space in order to keep hold of guys like Mozer and Black aswell as improving other areas if we let go of both Cobbo and Staggs.

2026

1. Walsh
2. Vaihu
3. Anderson
4. Mariner
5. New Recruit probs
6. Mam
7. Hunt

I think Vaihu will be a success. Haven’t seen him mentioned that much here but I think he has what Broncos have needed from a winger for quite a while.

I feel like Anderson can somewhat fill that void Herbie left on that edge.

I assume Hunt will move to 7 when Reynolds retires due to the fact that Mozer should be pushing to start by 2026. Black shouldn’t play until 2027 when Hunt is gone.

If it were a choice between Staggs and Cobbo, I’d choose Cobbo any day. QUEEENSLANDER!! And he’s a better footy player.

Not the end of the world if they both go though.

 

[Trill Harrigan]

staggs over cobbo is an easy choice to make, one has ticker and the other doesn't

QED

 

[Hoshsie]

People really underappreciate staggs, however cobbo is just way more valuable with his potential and positions

 

[kman]

I understand the sentiment with Cobbo especially and Staggs but you need strike in your backline still. If we lose both of them, who is that strike? If losing them got us Herbie back, ok great but if it results in no one, we will end up a bit like Parra. Fantastic forwards, top quality spine and no one to score points.

Need to keep at least one of them. Cobbo is obviously the far better player at his best but so inconsistent. Staggs is more consistent but just doesn’t have the work rate Cobbo does even at Cobbo’s worst.

I really like Cobbo on the wing the best and he would be the back I don't won't to lose the most. Especially having his kick returns and his 1st runs inside the first 20.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Cobbo and Staggs both want to stay so it’ll be interesting to hear what offers we’ve made to them if any at all.

 

[Bronco bob]

Going by the CM article where they have guestimated our salary cap for next year, we should be able to keep both Stagg and Cobbo even though CM is trying to say we won't be able to. Koby H will likely leave, there is c.$250k we will free up replacing him with a minimum wage. Reynolds will retire, there is c.$300k we save. Paix will not be resigned, there is c.$150k. Baker can go, another c.$150k. Marty will retire, c.$70k. So even with Walsh going to $1.1m in 26, we could still resign them both, assuming they take similar to what they are on now (I don't think they are worth more unless Cobbo reaches his potential) and upgrade a couple of players.

 

[Foordy]

I have no doubt the above are guesstimates at best ... unless the NRL or Broncos gave Badel a peak at their books, lol

 

[Santa]

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I have no doubt the above are guesstimates at best ... unless the NRL or Broncos gave Badel a peak at their books, lol

Assuming it's somewhat correct, we seem to have a pretty well managed cap. Only overpaid players imo would be Mam and maybe Hass. Cobbo, Riki and Staggs could each do with a 100k cut too, but it's not ridiculous amounts.

Edit: Baker is not worth 300 ...

 

[Finbar]

$4.5 million coming off contract if my maths is good. Gives Madge a decent shot at constructing his own roster pretty quickly. I'm interested to see what kind of pulling power the Broncos will have with Madge at the helm and what players he goes after.

Although looking at the squad it might not need much changing. Things I'll be looking out for are whether he can get Mariner and Piakura up to consistent NRL standard especially defensively. Keeping Cobbo engaged throughout the season is another.

The main thing will be getting Walsh to cut all the stupid shit out of his game, as well as some of the other players that are known to play too loose like Staggs and Cobbo.

 

[Alec]

Don't think you can keep both Staggs and Cobbo for salary cap reasons. Dunno what the rookie stocks are looking like these days but Broncos have always seemed to have a huge production line of promising backs and backs seem to be able to be able to become first grade standard faster than forwards and certainly way faster than spine players.
Hopefully there still are backs coming through because Broncos will need cap space to improve other positions.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Cap is actually 11.8 mill with allowances next year.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Edit: Baker is not worth 300 ...

That depends, is the NRL paying us to play him?

 

[Finbar]

Hopefully there still are backs coming through because Broncos will need cap space to improve other positions.

We'll have Grant Anderson joining 2026, could be the cheap option we need to replace either Cobbo or Staggs if they won't accept our offers.

Not sure what our outside backline is going to look like between Staggs, Cobbo, Anderson, Arthars and Mariner. Besides Staggs being a centre only, the rest have all shown they can play both positions so I'm looking forward to seeing who Madge rates higher at each position, though Mariner would really have to up his game in preseason to prove he can be our centre.

Really hard to know who to go out of Cobbo and Staggs if we can only keep one. Both can struggle with consistency and errors. If you could get the best out of Cobbo, you'd pick him but whether that's possible or not is an unknown. Staggs I feel Madge will be able to get more out of with a more structured attack and defense as well.

 

[BroncsFan]

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I have no doubt the above are guesstimates at best ... unless the NRL or Broncos gave Badel a peak at their books, lol

Some stats from these numbers

Starting 13 $7,650,000 67.1%
Best 17 $8,775,000 77.0%

Spine $2,500,000 21.9%
Starting Middles $2,225,000 19.5%
Outside backs $1,975,000 17.3%
Starting Edge $950,000 8.3%
Bench $1,125,000 9.9%


Depth
- Hookers x3 $780,000 6.8%
- Halves x3 $510,000 4.5%
- Middles x2 $500,000 4.4%
- Edges x2 $350,000 3.1%
- Centres x2 $260,000 2.3%
- Wingers x1 $130,000 1.1%
- Fullbacks $- 0 0.0%

Off Contract Values
2025 $4,495,000 15 39.4%
2026 $2,785,000 7 24.4%
2027 $1,850,000 5 16.2%
2028 $775,000 1 6.8%
2029 $1,400,000 2 12.3%

Position	Player	2025 Value	Contracted to
1	Reece Walsh	$650,000​	2029​
2	Jesse Arthars	$325,000​	2026​
3	Selwyn Cobbo	$600,000​	2025​
4	Kotoni Staggs	$700,000​	2025​
5	Deine Mariner	$350,000​	2027​
6	Ezra Mam	$750,000​	2029​
7	Adam Reynolds	$550,000​	2025​
8	Xavier Willison	$350,000​	2027​
9	Ben Hunt	$550,000​	2026​
10	Payne Haas	$1,100,000​	2026​
11	Brendan Piakura	$400,000​	2027​
12	Jordan Riki	$550,000​	2027​
13	Pat Carrigan	$775,000​	2028​
14	Blake Mozer	$200,000​	2025​
15	Corey Jensen	$300,000​	2025​
16	Martin Taupau	$225,000​	2025​
17	Kobe Hetherington	$400,000​	2025​
18	Billy Walters	$300,000​	2026​
19	Cory Paix	$300,000​	2025​
20	Jock Madden	$250,000​	2026​
21	Fletcher Baker	$300,000​	2025​
22	Ben Te Kura	$200,000​	2027​
23	Jaiyden Hunt	$200,000​	2025​
24	Tyson Smoothy	$180,000​	2025​
25	Jack Gosiewski	$150,000​	2025​
26	Coby Black	$130,000​	2026​
27	Delouise Hoeter	$130,000​	2025​
28	Israel Leota	$130,000​	2025​
29	Josh Rogers	$130,000​	2026​
30	Josiah Karapani	$130,000​	2025​
	TOTAL	$11,305,000​
	CAP	$11,400,000​
	Diff	$95,000​

 

[Dylan S]

What is everyone’s thoughts on Jordan Riki? In 2023 his kick chase pressure was the best in the comp and had solid defence, this year that went missing plus he barely gets through any attacking work, for someone so athletic and big, he struggles to run a good line in attack posing not much of an attacking threat.. hopefully Madge can turn this around and if not, wouldn’t mind going after a bloke like Joe chan, way cheaper, exceptional line runner and aggressive

 

[Johnny92]

Good news the Roosters won't be making a big play for Mozer because they've just signed Reece Robson.
I do think the Mozer contract is just getting the finishing touches because there hasn't been much talk of clubs chasing him.