PRE-GAME [Round 1, 2026] - Broncos vs Panthers

[BroncosFever]

WCC was 2 weeks ago, if you can't get motivated for 50 thousand of your own fans, it's time to give it up.

 

[Mightybroncs2k17]

I certainly wouldn't be suprised with a heavy defeat at the hands of the Panthers tonight.

Penrith are still a very good team and will be chasing revenge after last year.

Brisbane had a shortened pre season after playing until the first week of October then plenty of guys playing rep combined with a little junket over in the UK. I fear we could be well underdone or we could be over cooked from trying to cram so much into a shortened pre season? Despite what the players say, you also need to question if we have the hunger to go and do it again?

In saying all of that, knowing how anal Madge is and we have retained most of last year's squad, I'm trying to convince myself we'll come out and win in a professional reining premiers fashion.

We won the premiership last year with still alot of improvement in us. I think that's where alot of media scepticism comes from is that we were never really dominant all year like the panthers of years gone by.

It feels werid to say there's alot of question marks just 5 months after winning a title, but here we are. I think one big plus is the continued dilution of tallent will continue to make the competition much closer. Alot of games could be decided by individual brilliance of which we have.

Anyway here we go again.

 

[Santa]

Round 1 seems to be following the same script as round 1 in 2025. Knights win, Bulldogs beat the Dragons, Storm score 50+...

Seems like we're destined to smash Penrith tonight.

 

[GCBRONCO]

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Hunt starting and Mam to the bench.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Hunt starting and Mam to the bench.

Not too shocked given Hunt was named on bench. Madge looking for X factor injection from Mam

 

[Santa]

Hunt starting and Mam to the bench.

Well it worked well last time we played them :)

 

[jd87]

dont like it. mam should be starting if fit.

hunt should either be starting 9 or bench hoooker.

doing it this way just adds to many moving pieces.
so now hunt plays 6. thenn moves to 9 once paix goes off?.
but then maybe also plays 7 if reyno doesnt last.

i feel maquire is being to cute.
i get why he did it last year as mam didnt have the miles in the legs.

 

[Battler]

Madge probably gambling on hunt and Paix being stronger defenders. The game is going to be a war at the start, so Mam coming on at the 25ish min mark will be devastating (assuming we don’t leak tries ofc).

It worked in the finals so why try and fix it

Edit: could also be a bit of a rocket up Mam’s ass after his wcc showing

 

[GCBRONCO]

Madge probably gambling on hunt and Paix being stronger defenders. The game is going to be a war at the start, so Mam coming on at the 25ish min mark will be devastating (assuming we don’t leak tries ofc).

It worked in the finals so why try and fix it

Edit: could also be a bit of a rocket up Mam’s ass after his wcc showing

That is how I see it.

 

[_wwong]

Still can’t get over the grand final…

 

[Brocko]

The new city run on shirt is beautiful

 

[KateBroncos1812]

since everyone is ignoring me I am in the best seat in the house

 

[Brocko]

Looked like Patty did 90% of the talking if not more in the end of warm up huddle.

 

[Foordy]

The new city run on shirt is beautiful

I want one

 

[ningnangnong]

Match thread here - https://broncoshq.com/threads/round-1-2026-broncos-vs-panthers.47879/