Petero Civoniceva in action

[GCBRONCO]

Big Civo in action! Enjoy seeing one of the best props in the games history!

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Still the greatest big motor forward the game has ever seen, Petero could hit it up from dusk till dawn if he liked, and a class bloke to top it off.

 

[Morkel]

Still the greatest big motor forward the game has ever seen, Petero could hit it up from dusk till dawn if he liked, and a class bloke to top it off.

IMO he wasn't a "big motor" player. He was a fearless, tough, and consistent 9 out of 10 player. But not a big minute player like Haas or McGuire is, or Lazarus was.

 

[Fernando]

One of my all time favorite players, just a straight up champion!

 

[Kooly87]

One of my favourite (relatively) recent Broncos. You would struggle to find anyone in the game who wouldn't speak about him in glowing terms, which is a very rare thing in Rugby League.

It's amazing when you think back to how bog average he appeared to be in the very early days of his career, then compare him to the player he became by the time he hung up the boots. We have had dozens and dozens of guys come through that looked to be far better than a young Civo ever did, but none of them so far have really come close to becoming the player he ended up becoming.

 

[mrslong]

One of Broncos great tragedies, him being moved on to the Panthers.
I think I teared up reading Locky's book.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

One of Broncos great tragedies, him being moved on to the Panthers.
I think I teared up reading Locky's book.

One of the worst clangers in the clubs history.

 

[Sproj]

Bruno Cullen - one of the worst CEOs in world sport. How he got a gig at Cronulla afterward is beyond me. The club was cleaning up the mess he made for about a decade afterward.

 

[Kooly87]

One of Broncos great tragedies, him being moved on to the Panthers.
I think I teared up reading Locky's book.

It was around the same time Karmichael Hunt left us too. I think for me that was the time the Broncos as we'd come to know them really died, and they've honestly never been the same club since.

 

[mrslong]

It was around the same time Karmichael Hunt left us too. I think for me that was the time the Broncos as we'd come to know them really died, and they've honestly never been the same club since.

Which circles back to the conversation "Bruno Cullen, the wannabe Australian Jerry Jones"

 

[Allo]

that whole 2007-2010 period was fucking diabolical when it came to signing and retention. The only new players that were worth their deals was Te’o and PWal I guess?

The club lost most of the 2006 team and replaced them with barely poor-man versions.

I had personally tuned out of footy altogether for those few years coincidentally. I mean I still watched the team, but am nowhere as invested as I am now

 

[mrslong]

that whole 2007-2010 period was fucking diabolical when it came to signing and retention. The only new players that were worth their deals was Te’o and PWal I guess?

The club lost most of the 2006 team and replaced them with barely poor-man versions.

I had personally tuned out of footy altogether for those few years coincidentally. I mean I still watched the team, but am nowhere as invested as I am now

Are you forgetting the power forward we traded Petero for, Joel Clinton!

 

[Allo]

Are you forgetting the power forward we traded Petero for, Joel Clinton!

Couldn’t forget that, figured the good signings would be easier as there were so few

The fact we had a timeline of Clinton and Sims in our front row makes me so depressed. Followed by that useless idiot Anderpson.

I feel bad for Nick Kenny

 

[Kooly87]

Couldn’t forget that, figured the good signings would be easier as there were so few

The fact we had a timeline of Clinton and Sims in our front row makes me so depressed. Followed by that useless idiot Anderpson.

I feel bad for Nick Kenny

We seemed on mass to be buying up bog average guys out of NSW and hoping they'd come here and instantly play better for some reason. That might have worked if we were Melbourne and we had Bellamy, but we weren't, and we didn't.

Meanwhile we were missing all the good talent coming out of Queensland at the time and honestly I'm not sure even a decade on that we've fully recovered from it yet.

 

[BroncsFan]

We seemed on mass to be buying up bog average guys out of NSW and hoping they'd come here and instantly play better for some reason. That might have worked if we were Melbourne and we had Bellamy, but we weren't, and we didn't.

Meanwhile we were missing all the good talent coming out of Queensland at the time and honestly I'm not sure even a decade on that we've fully recovered from it yet.

I think around that time we may have been banking on the talent within the 08 Toyota cup class coming through and making up the bulk of the squad... basically what we're doing now.

That class had guys like Norman, Beale, Hunt, Glenn, Copley, Moose Maguire, etc. who were highly rated as juniors, but for the bulk didn't really eventuate... there would be forwards in there that I'm missing like Lingwoodock?? (looked like a new Petero), Troyden Watene, Dunamis Lui (hugely rated as a junior), Nick Kenny, etc. but I'm pretty sure Big Pete would know better

We also lost Karmichael who was earmarked as Locky's successor to the captaincy and may have been our focal point in attack for years to come.

Assuming a stable transition... the young guys would've been coming in with some old heads, but generally had an obvious pathway and some very good veterans like Locky and Hodgo and some very good established players like Karmichael and Thaiday (who was established as a 2nd rower at this point).

I think if we kept Petero and Thorn we may have been much better off as the starting pack would be:

8. Petero
10. Solid Vet or a rookie like Maguire
11. Thaiday
12. Thorn
13. Parker

Also noting that we should've kept a decent hooker (Berro, Ennis or even Casey Macguire), but a certain hooker was introduced to the Toyota cup and was killing every team with his show and go from dummy half and looked like he could become our very own Cameron Smith

 

[Kooly87]

I think around that time we may have been banking on the talent within the 08 Toyota cup class coming through and making up the bulk of the squad... basically what we're doing now.

That class had guys like Norman, Beale, Hunt, Glenn, Copley, Moose Maguire, etc. who were highly rated as juniors, but for the bulk didn't really eventuate... there would be forwards in there that I'm missing like Lingwoodock?? (looked like a new Petero), Troyden Watene, Dunamis Lui (hugely rated as a junior), Nick Kenny, etc. but I'm pretty sure Big Pete would know better

We also lost Karmichael who was earmarked as Locky's successor to the captaincy and may have been our focal point in attack for years to come.

Assuming a stable transition... the young guys would've been coming in with some old heads, but generally had an obvious pathway and some very good veterans like Locky and Hodgo and some very good established players like Karmichael and Thaiday (who was established as a 2nd rower at this point).

I think if we kept Petero and Thorn we may have been much better off as the starting pack would be:

8. Petero
10. Solid Vet or a rookie like Maguire
11. Thaiday
12. Thorn
13. Parker

Also noting that we should've kept a decent hooker (Berro, Ennis or even Casey Macguire), but a certain hooker was introduced to the Toyota cup and was killing every team with his show and go from dummy half and looked like he could become our very own Cameron Smith

Good summary, though I am surprised you forgot the textbook example of 'underachieving on your potential' that came through the Broncos during that era... Dave Taylor.

 

[Fernando]

You won’t keep everyone when you win a premiership but the club only had to not massively screw up up that 2006 roster and they’d have won another title before Lockyer retired.

 

[Kooly87]

You won’t keep everyone when you win a premiership but the club only had to not massively screw up up that 2006 roster and they’d have won another title before Lockyer retired.

That's the thing though. It's not like we were really picked apart to a huge extent because of that Premiership by other clubs. We simply made some awful recruitment calls, let the wrong people go, and then underestimated the Coach that bought us our success and let him walk out the door too, which then meant we botched the retention of guys like Hunt, and the rest is history.

Considering the money we outlaid on recruits in the following years, it's hardly as though we couldn't afford to retain most of the talent we had probably with money to spare.