As soon as it was revealed that Bennett had planned to leave the Broncos at the cold of night to join the Roosters in 2007, the end was nigh. The fans realised how close Bennett had come to calling it a day and despite going onto coach Brisbane to premiership glory, it wasn't enough to sway them. There had to be some major anxiety over the future of the club for Bennett to consider his options and while the premiership bought him some time, his days were numbered.
This came to a head in 2007 where the promises of a Brisbane dynasty were greatly exaggerated. All the problems that existed in 2006 reared their ugly head the following year and it appeared the Broncos needed a change.
The way things unfolded with Henjak felt like a compromise from the club. Plans to sign Bellamy had fallen through and when they couldn't sign Henry, they had to settle on the assistant coach. It was far from a vote of confidence for Henjak, exposing that the problems ran deeper than the coach. This was the Brisbane Broncos we were talking about, the powerhouse that threatened to be bigger than the competition itself, how could they miss their man?
Still, as you pointed out those initial few months with Henjak in charge were uncharted waters. There seemed to be this philosophy of out with the old and in with the new. The Broncos weren't going to have to rely on players like Nick Emmett, Kaine Manihera, Michael Roberts, Isaak Ah Mau, Clifford Manua etc. they were going to be trendy and give their young players the opportunity to impress.
It was like music to fans ears, but when the Broncos hit a wall during the 2009 representative period, suddenly those unfashionable QCup players didn't seem so bad. It wasn't long before Guy Williams, an honest toiler from the Central Capras, was given an opportunity. When that wasn't enough, Hodges got onto the blower and rung up his old mate TC to show these young forwards how to tackle.
The Broncos endured a lot of short term pain with the view that in the long term they'd reclaim their throne as one of the most dominant clubs in the game. Then just as Brisbane made their way through the worst of it and appeared to be turning a corner, Henjak was let go. To an extent it was disappointing that Henjak was never able to see the end result of his long term vision of the club. Henjak had to eat a lot of crow to get the squad he wanted and right as it was time to feast on his spoils, he was moved on before a ball was even kicked.