The Anti-Bronco Conspiracy

[Big Pete]

Nah nah nah ... haven't you heard around here to be the best you have to beat the best.

So that should be every week... every week we should have to play the best... because NSWRL... even when we get a shit team there's usually an attempt to make it hard... like having to play in Canberra at night in winter... or playing Warriors during an origin affected week... like um ... both those games this year.

A couple years back .. maybe 2021 ... it would've been nice to be allowed to ease into the season coming off a wooden spoon and having a new coach, but nah Parra x2, Panthers, Souths and Melbourne in the first 7 rounds.

We didn't even get the cows vs broncos derby at Suncorp until Round fucking 20... that is typically a curtain raiser for us and used to be our season opener every year, but cows were a shit team at that point so don't want to give them an opportunity to get a win.

We had a new rivalry, the biggest local derby in Rugby League with the former Broncos Big David Fifita walking away from the Broncos to start a new dynasty at the Titans. Younger Brother vs. Older Brother, in the next chapter of a historic rivalry.

How could the Titans afford their ridiculous Dr Evil esque contract for Fifita? Simple, the NRL let them clear space in their cap.

'The worst thing you can do is sign the wrong player and have them taking up space' Dawn of the Dolphin

Thankfully that didn't apply to the Titans who were able to snap Shannon Boyd and Bryce Cartwright's contract out of existence.

 

[BroncsFan]

We had a new rivalry, the biggest local derby in Rugby League with the former Broncos Big David Fifita walking away from the Broncos to start a new dynasty at the Titans. Younger Brother vs. Older Brother, in the next chapter of a historic rivalry.

How could the Titans afford their ridiculous Dr Evil esque contract for Fifita? Simple, the NRL let them clear space in their cap.

'The worst thing you can do is sign the wrong player and have them taking up space' Dawn of the Dolphin

Thankfully that didn't apply to the Titans who were able to snap Shannon Boyd and Bryce Cartwright's contract out of existence.

Ahh yes... was wondering why they had us up against titans in round 2... why would they give us a chance against a perennial under achiever.

Don't get me started on old mate Boyd walking away from his $600k a year contract to go back to the farm and Bryce walking away from his massive contract to take up a minimum deal contract in Sydney.

 

[LittleDavey]

Ahh yes... was wondering why they had us up against titans in round 2... why would they give us a chance against a perennial under achiever.

Don't get me started on old mate Boyd walking away from his $600k a year contract to go back to the farm and Bryce walking away from his massive contract to take up a minimum deal contract in Sydney.

View attachment 21590

Dude on the left looks a bit like a young Kempy haha!

 

[BroncsFan]

Dude on the left looks a bit like a young Kempy haha!

Needs more beak to be near the great Kempy!!

 

[Mum-the-meatloaf]

Wether it be the on field ref, the video ref, the judiciary, the media, the draw schedulers, the salary cap, covid, it seems as though a lot of BHQ believe in some level of conspiracy against the broncos.

I personally don’t really see it but I’m genuinely interested to know what posters here think are cases or evidence of the broncos being unfairly treated? Beyond the base level NRL incompetence

I started pointing out inconsistencies to friends and they saw it.
For while there it's like we continually got shitty MRC calls. There were games that it was clearly bias, but that happens to plenty.
I held a view the NRL wanted to bring the broncos down before the Dolphins started or they believed the dolphins would fail.

 

[Mum-the-meatloaf]

I think what is clear, is when the NRL has agendas. The panthers were carried to the 2022 premiership. They were fined $25000 for cheating the trainer rules in the preliminary. Trainer stopped the game, for a rolled ankle, when eels were about to score.

Any team pays 25K for a premiership.

Same as when the NRL used to help the Rorters. Let them sign SBW outside the window. Then storm tried to sign and player and got told no, so threw SBW in the NRLs face and they had to cave.

anyone who doesn't believe a billion dollar sport is rigged to some degree has their eyes closed.

 

[Morkel]

As much as the "conspiracy" thing is such an interesting (for some of us anyway) topic to discuss, it misses the point.

There are very obvious inconsistencies, and it goes beyond incompetence. There is too much of a pattern for it to be random chance.

Is there a deliberate conspiracy? I don't know, there are times when it definitely feels like there is. It may just be subconscious bias, I can't rule that out.

If there is a deliberate conspiracy, I have gone to great lengths to point out how, during a game, it wouldn't need more than one complicit person to make it happen, and that is whoever is in charge of giving the video ref directives. One person. It may be more, it probably would be more (because a rogue video-refs boss would be extremely unlikely), because the results we see always seem to be bent towards whatever would be commercially beneficial for the NRL. The argument of needing 10, 50, 100 people to be complicit is ludicrous, because it ignores all of the work that has been put in to make the video ref the undisputed controller of games. They are able to, and have been caught out on many occasions, dictating when the dominant team is about to switch, when to call people off-side, when the 10 metre should be shortened or lengthened, when to blow 6-again, and just about every critical call in the game that will either hamper or aid one team over the other.

The fact that the judiciary and the "Integrity Unit" (lol) have been showing the same favoritism (or disfavour) to the same teams as what occurs on-field suggests that either there is a unified conspiracy, or at the very least, any subconscious bias is ingrained in the overall NRL administration itself, not just a single department.

Why the Broncos have been on the receiving end of consistently damaging treatment has also been hypothesised at length. It could be anything from:
* The Broncos rating well amongst their fans whether winning or not, but the engagement of fans of other clubs is significantly higher when the Broncos are failing or seen to be doing something wrong.
* A lingering disdain from the majority NSW-based league powerbrokers due to our early success and therefore "robbing" NSW teams of their own success.
* Disenfranchising Brisbane-based league fans so that when the Dolphins would enter the competition, there would be large numbers of people who would embrace a second Brisbane team.

And whether there is the possibility of the Broncos owners deliberately sabotaging the Broncos from within, we have a very simple means-and-motive when we know that the majority owners not only profit from league-based media attention, but particularly from negative attention, none more so than when the Broncos are perceived to be in some form of crisis. And we even witnessed a power move by the Broncos board in white-anting Wayne Bennett, who had a massive amount of control over the playing group, the recruitment and retention, as well as vast experience on these matters, in favour of the board itself having much more control over these factors (and the coach having a much more limited scope).

All of the above about a potential conspiracy, whether simply within the NRL itself, or also within the Broncos organisation, or, it simply being a matter of subconscious bias, doesn't actually matter. It is the fact that there is clear favouritism for other teams, and poor treatment of the others, that makes it an unfair playing field for what is supposed to be the highest professional level of an international sport. So it absolutely needs to be exposed in order to correct it.

So far this year, it has appeared to most Broncos fans that we are not receiving the same negative treatment of previous years in this 2023 season. And as a result, we are at the top of the table (which blatantly flies in the face of the idea that the sort of calls we previously received should not have hampered us any more than it does any other team). But who knows, maybe that was just another NRL scheme in order to make the Broncos vs Dolphins match such a massive occasion (and you'd be naïve to think that the club's standings on the ladder at the time would not have made the event more successful commercially). But again, regardless, it is not acceptable for a club to be merely a pawn used to assist in the commercial success of the NRL, even if that means we are actually being promoted on this occasion. The mere existence of bias in a professional sport like ours needs to be exposed and eliminated, wherever it is that it is originating.

 

[Mustafur]

At first I thought this thread was going to be pure drool but those that have brought out actual stats to back their argument actually have my attention, the draw can be explained quite easily though, the game is at mercy to the TV companies untill NRL management feel they can be in a position where the game can be more fair we will continue to be the money sponge to help the overall game.

The Penalties statistic as well has me intrigued, but I would need to see other seasons to have a picture.

 

[Skathen]

At first I thought this thread was going to be pure drool but those that have brought out actual stats to back their argument actually have my attention, the draw can be explained quite easily though, the game is at mercy to the TV companies untill NRL management feel they can be in a position where the game can be more fair we will continue to be the money sponge to help the overall game.

The Penalties statistic as well has me intrigued, but I would need to see other seasons to have a picture.

The problem is time and availability of data. It's really tough to gather meaningful data across many seasons into a single coherent post.

Perhaps it would be best to start a section on here containing all of our games since x date, into tables we could grab as CSV or similar.

So often we break into discourse on data, it's hard to know if we're all working from reliable sources or if the data is even able to be easily located for the discussion.

Would love to see it include:

Team played, Ref(s), Penalties for, Penalties against, Six Agains for/against (since it came in), errors, and other pertinent game stats.

We are already gathering a fair chunk of this data on the match threads.

 

[mrslong]

Every team thinks they’re hard done by. Look at the cowboys.

I do however 100% believe there are those at NSWRL headquarters that would still harbour hatred of the broncos for the super league war and that this would no doubt play into the psyche of the media and faceless men in charge.
As for the refs, there’s no way they’d be involved. They’re the bottom of the nrl food chain and are inadequately provided for, which leads to general incompetence. They do have an inner circle and that’s why numpties like Klein get origins and GFs.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Referees are easily manipulated by a sheet of paper that says "Thomas J. Flegler always hits the oppositions head".

Thomas J........?

Wasn't that the kids name from the movie "My Girl"........and wasn't he also a red head.......?

Tomas J Flegler....is actually

Macaulay Culkin

 

[tommy]

Thomas J........?

Wasn't that the kids name from the movie "My Girl"........and wasn't he also a red head.......?

Tomas J Flegler....is actually

Macaulay Culkin

didnt he get killed by bees?

 

[Cult]

Thomas J........?

Wasn't that the kids name from the movie "My Girl"........and wasn't he also a red head.......?

Tomas J Flegler....is actually

Macaulay Culkin

I don’t actually know what his middle name is but I went the Homer Simpson route. Also ****, that movie still gets me in the feels

 

[TimWhatley]

Not sure if this falls under conspiracy but I thought the 'City Jersey' situation was quite interesting. Our marketing campaign for these jerseys was pretty epic in lead up to the Battle of Brisbane, even including hanging a 20m version off kangaroo point. Judging from people complaining about a lack of stock on social media I think it's safe to say we sold shitloads.

I haven't heard a thing about the jersey or the clever marketing from the media, all I keep hearing about is how great the marketing has been from the Dolphins and how much money they've made from selling their gear.

 

[Organix]

The problem is time and availability of data. It's really tough to gather meaningful data across many seasons into a single coherent post.

Perhaps it would be best to start a section on here containing all of our games since x date, into tables we could grab as CSV or similar.

So often we break into discourse on data, it's hard to know if we're all working from reliable sources or if the data is even able to be easily located for the discussion.

Would love to see it include:

Team played, Ref(s), Penalties for, Penalties against, Six Agains for/against (since it came in), errors, and other pertinent game stats.

We are already gathering a fair chunk of this data on the match threads.

At first I thought this thread was going to be pure drool but those that have brought out actual stats to back their argument actually have my attention, the draw can be explained quite easily though, the game is at mercy to the TV companies untill NRL management feel they can be in a position where the game can be more fair we will continue to be the money sponge to help the overall game.

The Penalties statistic as well has me intrigued, but I would need to see other seasons to have a picture.

Rugby League Tables / Penalty Counts

Rugby League Tables - NRL Stats & Tables

afltables.com

 

[Mr Fourex]

didnt he get killed by bees?

OMG....you're right !!

We're in through the looking glass now Tommy.......

 

[mrslong]

didnt he get killed by bees?

He can’t see without his glasses!

(feel good movie of the year)

 

[LittleDavey]

Rugby League Tables / Penalty Counts

Rugby League Tables - NRL Stats & Tables

afltables.com

Holy shit...

Least penalties awarded in 2022 by a large margin.
Second least in 2021.
Least in 2020 again by some margin.
Third least in 2019.
Least in 2018.
Least in 2017.
Second least in 2016.
Third least in 2015 and 2014.

That's pretty damning to be honest. An again, no real explanation for those stats - this is penalties AWARDED to the Broncos so should not be too different from any other team. Why and how do teams play so cleanly against us - consistently, for the last decade? Compared to literally every other team in the comp?

Coupled with the very hard draws compared to the rest of the comp...how are we ever competitive??