Your History with Broncos Grand Finals

92, 93 i was 6/7 so I don’t recall them. I have watched them plenty on replay.
97-vaguely recall watching it at home in Newcastle.
98- watched it at home, one of my mates came over with a bulldogs ball and we played on my front lawn at halftime
00- family came over for a bbq. I really can’t recall any thing other than liking the painted in goals.
06- family and friends came over to watch it. Everyone but me and the old boy were going for storm.
15- watched this in Melbourne at my place with a my gfs friend and her hubby (fellow Bronx supporter). He called imagine us knocking on before that kick off.
23- streamed on my phone from Brazil at 530am in bed, amazingly didn’t wake the missus up on Ezra’s third. Around round 20 I had a feeling Bronx would go all the way to the gf and I would t be around to watch it live. My brother got tickets at the time and ended up taking the old boy so that’s cool.
 
15 - took the New England Highway to Sydney because my bro was convinced it would be faster than the Pacific Highway due to roadworks 🙄 There's some nice scenery but that is a SHIT way to go if you're doing a straight shot to syd in one go. Time gets away from you very quickly.

The whole day seemed rushed and I don't remember much other than Oates going the length of the field and granville putting Tamou on for a very soft try. I was hoping Thurston would just kick the conversion so it would be over. Protecting a 4pt lead was never going to work against them as they'd had a heap of comeback wins that season. Always remember to add a day either side of a trip to the GF if you're driving because it sucks having no time to decompress if you're only there for the day.


23 - a mate actually had free tix to go but circumstances meant I'd have to watch it on TV. Felt like Penrith scored 3 tries in 3 minutes at the death. I had this feeling all season that it wasn't really our time yet as they haven't built up the combinations or been tested enough to really steel them. After this they either learn and get better or go backwards like the 15 squad.
 
92/93. Watched at home as I was in my teens.

97 Super League GF. Worked it, at QEII / ANZ Stadium as a “keg on legs” in the crowd.

1998. No memory of what I did. Watched it on TV somewhere.

2000. No memory of what I did. Watched it on TV somewhere.

2006. Was in America at the time. Watched it in a bar in Palo Alto.

2015. Drove to Sydney with a mate and went to the game. Kyle Feldt scored the winner right in front of us. Was gutted. Thurston missed the kick and went nuts right in front of us. Was elated. Hunt dropped the kick off. Was gutted. Thurston nails the drop kick. Was pissed. Went all the way back to Manly Northern Beaches where I was staying at another mate’s house and every pub was shut due to the stupid public holiday the next day. Slept on my mate’s couch - it was shit. My mate slept on the floor and halfway through the night the tv stand gave way and the tv fell on my mate. Was even more pissed than I already was. Drove back the next day seeing cocky, dickhead Cowboy fans all along the stops on the Pacific Highway. Massively had the shits. Vowed to never go again.

2023. Flew down with the missus and young fella in tow. Dog went to a kennel. Stayed in Sydney CBD from Saturday to Tuesday. Went to the game expectant. The number of Broncos jerseys there was astonishing. Far more than I had seen in 2015 from memory. Lots of people in Sydney telling me how much they wanted the Broncs to smash Penrith. We became a real band wagon team which felt strange given how much Sydney NRL fans usually hate us. Was pleasantly surprised to be on the bandwagon team for once and was quietly confident. I have 2 Broncs jerseys and wore one each Sat / Sun. Letting everyone know my allegiance. Went to the Locker Room bar at Accor and stayed in the outside section til just before kick off. Was pissed by the end of the game and almost got in a punch up with a dickhead Penrith fan. Massively had the shits. Vowed again to never go to another one….

After being back, dog has kennel cough. FML!

Yeah… 🫤
 
Forgot to say, only started watching league in 2008 so I've never seen us win the big one.
I was actually curious about this part-way through the second half. My thoughts turned to BHQ and I was trying to remember if it was 2001 or later because even in 06, Brisbane clearly weren't the best team all year (just the better team when it mattered).

In the end, it's going to be difficult to look back at '23 as anything more than a cruel joke on the Broncos. The season was almost too good to be true, and everything just felt like a build up to one of the most heart-breaking losses in club history.

It is what it is and while I'm not going to waste energy worrying about when the next premiership will come, I know it's going to be a huge impediment for them to get over. I'm definitely not going to make the same mistake in 2016 where it was premiership or bust - just have to accept 2023 is gone and the club was just a footnote in another story.
 
In the end, it's going to be difficult to look back at '23 as anything more than a cruel joke on the Broncos. The season was almost too good to be true, and everything just felt like a build up to one of the most heart-breaking losses in club history.
If that penrith team doesn't exist we romp home the comp in the same way they did last year... both teams are miles ahead of the rest.

Broncos need to take the confidence from this year that they're just better than everyone else and put a target on panthers.

Like the storm from previous years where they would turn up to a game knowing they're better and have the game won within the first half and put it into cruise control for the rest of the game. The more we can put a game into cruise control to get a win the better 'rested' the team will be heading into the bigger games, and also the end of year finals.

I would say panthers had a pretty soft draw through origin, which helps a team that is heavily impacted.
Rd 13 (origin 1) - Bye
Rd 14 (backing up from origin) - Dragons at home (bottom 4 team straight after origin at home would be nice)
Rd 16 (origin 2) - Cows... tougher game, especially up in Nth Qld... but cows were expected to have pretty decent representation, so both teams get impacted... Cows are also a darling team, so NRL looking out for them by giving them origin affected panthers at home
Rd 17 (backing up) - Knights at home (expected bottom 8 team and they get them at home... could've expected Ponga to be backing up as well)
Rd 19 - bye
Rd 20 - Dolphins away (expected bottom 4 team)

Broncos on the other hand
Rd 13 - Warriors away mass origin outs for us and zero for them
Rd 14 - Sharks away... sharks barely impacted at all by origin, but we have to travel to Sydney
Rd 16 - bye
Rd 17 - Titans at suncorp... rough and weird scheduling to put a Qld derby game in the middle of origin. Our guys backing up vs expected bugger all representation from titans
Rd 19 - bye
Rd 20 - Dogs in Belmore... dogs fell away, but it would be the second of our three Sydney games backing up from origin... and this was at the spiritual home of the dogs
 
I’ve been 0/2 grand finals now and both heartbreaking endings. I told myself I could do it and it would be different.. oh boy, this heartbreak was even tougher.
 
If that penrith team doesn't exist we romp home the comp in the same way they did last year... both teams are miles ahead of the rest.

Broncos need to take the confidence from this year that they're just better than everyone else and put a target on panthers.

Like the storm from previous years where they would turn up to a game knowing they're better and have the game won within the first half and put it into cruise control for the rest of the game. The more we can put a game into cruise control to get a win the better 'rested' the team will be heading into the bigger games, and also the end of year finals.
It'll be interesting to see how they transition. The one thing with the Panthers is that they've had the same structures for well over a decade now, they're just so well polished in terms of their exit sets and their defence that every other team is playing catch-up.

The Broncos by comparison are still a patchy team that can get on a roll by like the Roosters have some really flat moments and that's ultimately what cost them. It would almost take a complete overhaul to play that style and I don't know if it even suits Kevie's strengths to be that meticulous.

This year I was always trepadacious about the Broncos. I had them finishing behind the Tigers after all. However I think a lot of their success came down to winning big moments that you can't always replicate.

One of the reasons why I was so down on the team was that they had the toughest opening to the season in the Panthers away followed by the Cowboys. In the Panthers game, they received a surprisingly decent whistle from Sutton to score their first and followed it up with a flukey second where Farnworth just got a finger-tip to it. Penrith bombed a number of tries and still nearly won it late only to be bailed out by the officials.

Cowboys were all over Brisbane for 30 minutes, couldn't quite ramp home their advantage when Ezra scored a flukey try right on half-time and then the game completely changed when Drinkwater broke Oates' cheekbone. I think that game changed the trajectory of two teams, similar to the year before where the Cowboys built their entire season on that Suncorp win.

That start just gave Brisbane the mental edge to go 6-0 before they lost an unloseable game to Canberra. From there, the season was unfolding as expected with losses to Souths, Melbourne and Penrith before they pulled off a huge win against the Warriors. Even that win involved so many try-savers, errors and a huge referee call to bail them out.

That was followed by the Cronulla game where Brisbane again scored a flukey try right on half-time, defended their lead and were just able to frustrate the Sharks out of it.

At that point it still felt like a season of inches and even in games like the Dolphins and the Bulldogs there were moments where Cobbo either had to pull something out or the Bulldogs had to bomb a try for the Broncos to go on with it.

They did romp home under a wave of self-belief, but it was built on a lot of those wins. Building that up is going to be so difficult especially as the other clubs make adjustments.

I'm not too worried about next season because we don't know what the Broncos are up against. All we do know is that Sydney whinged so much in the media about playing in Queensland they're sending us half-way around the world to open our season against one of the top teams in a game that's going to be a glorified exhibition and the worst way to kick off a season.
 
It'll be interesting to see how they transition. The one thing with the Panthers is that they've had the same structures for well over a decade now, they're just so well polished in terms of their exit sets and their defence that every other team is playing catch-up.

The Broncos by comparison are still a patchy team that can get on a roll by like the Roosters have some really flat moments and that's ultimately what cost them. It would almost take a complete overhaul to play that style and I don't know if it even suits Kevie's strengths to be that meticulous.
Yeah that's why I hope the next step for this young broncos team is to build on this year and improve their consistency and therefore their ruthlessness.... and that probably comes down to how Walsh develops.

With the platform that Patty and Haas set and the kicking game that Reynolds can bring it all comes down to how focussed and consistent Walsh can become.

In his two origin games he had 1 error across the two games... and that was coming in with huge pressure on him and knowing the blues were coming after him.

If we can get that Walsh 80% of the time... we walk into the top 4 every year and the boys are always giving themselves a chance for a premiership.

Then it just comes down to toppling the panthers... but again if we're in mostly cruise control for the majority of the year, then they can see the panthers game coming and get themselves up for it.
 
Forgot to mention 1 year.

I was there in 2024 when the Brisbane Broncos broke an 18 year premiership drought to start their famous dynasty.

It was an epic night.
I thought you were forbidden to attend GF's from now on 🤔🤔🤔
 
I've recovered, and refusing to believe that i am the jynx!

My wife being the jynx on the other hand...
My reaction when I see someone spell jinx like that:

1696832104535
 

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