Brisbane Broncos vs. New Zealand Warriors - Post-match Review

For the first time in a long time, I turned the Broncos game off around the 60th minute mark. It was too painful to watch. It takes some god awful football for that to happen - in fact the previous time was the mauling in the nations capital last year. So okay, it might not have been that long ago. What's scary is that we were in our usual post-Origin slump at that point, we've got no excuse this time.

I can honestly forgive the Broncos for the first two tries. The first one Izzy was down, the second Kemp was down, both game ending injuries. The Warriors ran the short side and got two easy tries. Where I start to get a bit disillusioned is the next 30 odd points we conceded.

I've played sport before when there were no reserves so I can totally understand how tired and worn out the players must have been. What I am struggling to get my head around is where our heart went. The Broncos are a club that was built on playing hard every second of every game. We shut up shop once the game became out of our reach. Success is ingrained into the Broncos history - 6 premierships in 21 years is the result of that, 18 consecutive semi-finals appearances as well.

I recognise that it's early in the season and all is not lost, I just hope that the Broncos heart didn't leave with Wayne Bennett.