There is a rugby league myth that Brisbane captain Adam Reynolds is injury-prone, but statistics prove once and for all that his reliability is better than the best as he prepares for his 313th NRL match.
In completed seasons from 2012 to 2025, Reynolds played 309 games. That's an average of 22.07 per year.
His Broncos colleague Ben Hunt, rightfully regarded as the ultimate pro and one of the game's most durable playmakers, became a regular NRL player in 2010, and from that year until last season, he notched 353 matches at 22.06 each year.
In the case of Penrith great Nathan Cleary, the game's leading half and another consummate professional when it comes to looking after his body, he clocked up 194 matches at 19.4 each season from 2016 to last year.
Reynolds, at 35, only just pips 36-year-old Hunt in games per year, but the facts blow out of the water the narrative that he somehow has a dodgy body as, fresh from yet another top-shelf display against the Dolphins last week, he now prepares to shine again against the Gold Coast at Robina on Saturday night..
In his autobiography, Reynolds revealed how back when South Sydney would not offer him a long-term deal beyond 2021, there was incorrect mail coming out of the club that his body was a liability.
"I don't know who specifically was stirring the pot, but the media had this misconception he was a flight risk because of his body," Reynolds' long-time manager Steve Gillis told AAP.
"The stats show otherwise, don't they? It's conclusive.
"As you get older, you have got to accept soft-tissue injuries will be more likely but he continues to defy everyone. Fingers crossed, he sails through the season without anything major.
"His preparation is second-to-none and he works just as hard off the field as he does on it. That comes with maturity."
The 2014 and 2025 premiership winner's season average at the Broncos would be as high as his career's if not for a biceps rupture -- a contact injury that can happen to anyone -- which cost him 11 matches in 2024.
The barbs are water off a duck's back to Reynolds who agrees with Wayne Bennett's dictum that if you listen to those in the stands, you end up sitting with them.
"If you ask everyone, they will say I am injury-prone. I've had it since I was a young kid, but if you listen to it, you start to believe in it," Reynolds told AAP.
"It doesn't really worry me if they say good things or bad things.
"Thankfully, I am good at blocking out the noise and ignoring the distractions. I know what is right, what is wrong and what is important. I know what to focus on.
"I just turn up at training and do what I am expected to do. It is nothing out of the ordinary."
Canberra Times
