The 2020 Brisbane Broncos season was the 33rd in the club's history. Coached by Peter Gentle, following the resignation of Anthony Seibold, and captained by Alex Glenn, they competed in the NRL's 2020 Telstra Premiership. The Broncos failed to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2013 and claimed their first ever wooden spoon in a disastrous season, marred by controversy, the COVID-19 pandemic and injuries to key players.
Season summary Before the season had launched for the Broncos, the team already faced controversy after forward Joe Ofahengaue was issued a traffic infringement by Queensland police for being asleep in a stationary vehicle.
The Broncos competed in Pool 4 in the Nines, with club legend Corey Parker coming out of retirement to join the team for the pre-season competition. The Broncos started off their Nines campaign, losing to the North Queensland Cowboys 17–11, and defeated the Melbourne Storm 12-8 the following day. The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles had a better for and against than the Broncos and clinched the second finals spot in the pool, meaning that the Broncos missed out on qualifying for the finals of the Nines.
Two days after the end of the Nines competition, outside back Izaia Perese was stood down from all club duties by the Broncos, after he was charged by police with drug related offences. It had later come to light that Perese was flown to Perth for the Nines competition, and was sent home the day before the tournament commenced once the club was informed of his legal issues.
The Broncos had a shaky performance during the pre-season trials, beating the Central Queensland Capras convincingly, while losing close games against the Cowboys, Titans and Wynnum Manly. Injuries sidelined captain Alex Glenn, Matt Lodge and Joe Ofahengaue for the opening round, with Anthony Seibold choosing young forward Patrick Carrigan and new recruit Brodie Croft as co-captains against the Cowboys. The Broncos defeated the Cowboys 28–21. As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in Australia, the NRL announced that Round 2 would be played behind closed doors, but conceded that they were unsure whether the competition could continue beyond that. Playing in an empty Suncorp Stadium, the Broncos defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs 22–18. On March 18, the Australian government declared a human biosecurity emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which put the NRL season in jeopardy. Two days later on March 20, the NRL announced it would be suspending the season. The Broncos sat at sixth position on the ladder before the suspension of the competition.
After speculation about when or if the competition would resume, the NRL announced its intentions to restart the competition on May 28, with the relaunch being dubbed "Project Apollo". The draw was revised to fall in line with federal and state restrictions, with the NRL eventually releasing a 20-round draw, where each team would play each other once and play five teams a second time. Players were also required to regularly test for COVID-19 and provide the NRL with details about their own wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of others in their household. Numerous rule changes were also put in place by the NRL, with the most significant being the introduction of the "six again" or "six-to-go" rule, where the tackle count would reset for ruck infringements, rather than the affected team receiving a penalty.
Prior to the relaunch of the NRL season, veteran hooker Andrew McCullough was released by the Broncos and signed with the Newcastle Knights for the rest of the season. The short term deal also included a clause that allowed McCullough to return to the Broncos for the 2021 season.
The Broncos opened the relaunch of the NRL season, playing against the Parramatta Eels in an empty Suncorp Stadium. The team trailed 12-6 at halftime, but came up short after conceding four tries in the second half to go down 34-6. Any optimism at the Broncos was quickly fizzled out the following week, with the injury-hit team suffering their heaviest defeat in history, losing 59-0 to the Sydney Roosters, who were without fullback James Tedesco after a high body temperature prevented him from flying up for the game. This marked the first time in club history that the Broncos were held scoreless at Suncorp Stadium. The lack of effort from the Broncos was noted by Andrew Johns and Paul Vautin, who called the Broncos "soft" and "diabolical". Broncos players refused to report to the post-match press conference after the loss, despite being obligated by the NRL to attend.
The following week, the Broncos looked to bounce back against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in a limited capacity crowd at Central Coast Stadium. Brisbane got off to a good start, leading 18-0 after the first 30 minutes of the game. However, a try that would've put Brisbane up 24-0 was controversially disallowed when it was deemed that the Manly defenders were obstructed. The disallowed try appeared to change the momentum of the game, as Manly piled on 20 unanswered points to come back and defeat Brisbane.https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/06/11/sea-eagles-fight-back-to-beat-improved-broncos/ Ben Te'o also made his return to the club, playing his first game for the Broncos since 2012, and his first NRL game since the 2014 grand final.https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/12000318/ben-teo-makes-rugby-league-switch-with-brisbane-broncos
With starting hooker Jake Turpin injured and the Broncos releasing Andrew McCullough before the season restarted, former Kiwis hooker Issac Luke joined the club mid-season from the St. George Illawarra Dragons and made his club debut in Brisbane's 27-6 defeat against the Knights. The club's decision to recruit Te'o and Luke drew criticism.
The Broncos' Round 7 clash against the Gold Coast Titans was clouded with negativity, with the home crowd booing Brisbane off the field at half-time, where the Broncos were down 22-0.https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2020-brisbane-broncos-v-gold-coast-titans-live-stream-live-scores-updates-round-7-live-blog-supercoach-scores/news-story/ec272a6b9c134189f3950438930ba9e7 Media pundits and fans also took aim at the Broncos players for laughing and socialising with Titans players after the game had ended, with the Broncos going down 30-12.https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/broncos/nrl-2020-brisbane-broncos-roasted-by-legends-after-gold-coast-loss-issac-luke-laughing-smiling/news-story/4f5994a166cbcc04bd27e8cb435e3e5a
Brisbane's woes continued, picking up their sixth straight loss against the New Zealand Warriors after leading 10-0 at one stage, before conceding a 26-16 defeat.https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/07/04/gutsy-warriors-hand-broncos-a-sixth-straight-defeat/ Broncos players, such as Alex Glenn and Brodie Croft, were pictured crying after the loss and being consoled by sympathetic Warriors players.https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/broncos/broncos-players-cried-at-full-time-these-schoolboy-errors-would-make-the-coach-cry-too/news-story/9796a3ed4b21863ceeb37fd53ac22dfa Media pundits were skeptical of the legitimacy of the emotional out-pour from Broncos players, as they had faced backlash the prior week for laughing with Titans players at full time.https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/broncos/nrl-2020-news-brisbane-broncos-players-crying-anthony-seibold-laurie-daley-crocodile-tears-team-news-round-9/news-story/6ddc6aed7de45e2e46cb001a906b5749
Squad information
Cap. Nat. Player Position Broncos debut Previous First Grade RL club 141 Darius Boyd 2006 Newcastle Knights 171 Ben Te'o 2009 South Sydney Rabbitohs 172 Alex Glenn (c) 2009 199 Jordan Kahu 2013 North Queensland Cowboys 201 Corey Oates 2013 209 Anthony Milford 2015 Canberra Raiders 212 Joe Ofahengaue 2015 224 Tevita Pangai Junior 2016 232 Jamayne Isaako 2017 233 Matthew Lodge 2018 Wests Tigers 234 Jack Bird 2018 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 236 Payne Haas 2018 238 Kotoni Staggs 2018 239 David Fifita 2018 240 Jake Turpin 2018 242 Thomas Flegler 2019 244 Patrick Carrigan 2019 245 Tom Dearden 2019 247 Richard Kennar 2019 South Sydney Rabbitohs 248 Sean O'Sullivan 2019 Sydney Roosters 249 Herbie Farnworth 2019 250 Xavier Coates 2019 251 Keenan Palasia 2019 252 Rhys Kennedy 2019 South Sydney Rabbitohs 254 Jesse Arthars 2020 Gold Coast Titans 255 Brodie Croft 2020 Melbourne Storm 256 Jamil Hopoate 2020 257 Ethan Bullemor 2020 258 Tesi Niu 2020 259 Cory Paix 2020 260 Issac Luke 2020 St. George Illawarra Dragons 261 Tyson Gamble 2020 Wests Tigers 262 Jordan Riki 2020 – Ilikena Vudogo Yet to debut – Pride Petterson-Robati Yet to debut
Squad changes
Transfers in Date Position Player From Year/s Ref. 10 July 2019 Jesse Arthars Gold Coast Titans 2 Years 1 November 2019 Jordan Kahu North Queensland Cowboys 1 Year 26 November 2019 Brodie Croft Melbourne Storm 3 Years 4 June 2020 Ben Te'o Sunwolves End of season 13 June 2020 Issac Luke St. George Illawarra Dragons End of season
Transfers out Date Position Player To Year/s Ref. 15 August 2019 Troy Dargan South Sydney Rabbitohs 2 Years 5 October 2019 Shaun Fensom Retirement 5 October 2019 Sam Tagataese Retirement 31 October 2019 Matt Gillett Retirement 6 November 2019 George Fai Northern Pride 6 November 2019 Patrick Mago South Sydney Rabbitohs Train & Trial 6 November 2019 James Segeyaro Released 5 December 2019 Gehamat Shibasaki Newcastle Knights 3 Years 17 February 2020 Izaia Perese Released 21 May 2020 Andrew McCullough Newcastle Knights End of season
Coaching staff Name Position Ref. Peter Gentle Head coach (interim) Peter Ryan Defence Coach Kurt Richards Assistant Paul Devlin Head of Performance Andrew Croll Conditioning Coach Peter Nolan General Manager - Football Operations
Anthony Seibold was sacked as Head coach, with Peter Gentle filling the role on an interim basis Defence coach Ben Cross was made redundant due to the financial impacts of COVID-19 on the club Forwards coach Corey Parker was unable to join the bubble due to Fox League commitments.
Pre-season
Perth Nines
Squad No. Player Broncos Nines debut Previous Nines NRL club 1 Jamayne Isaako 2018 2 Herbie Farnworth 2020 4 Jesse Arthars 2020 5 Kotoni Staggs 2020 6 Anthony Milford 2015 7 Brodie Croft (c) 2020 Melbourne Storm 8 Thomas Flegler 2020 9 Jake Turpin 2020 Melbourne Storm 10 Payne Haas 2020 12 David Fifita 2020 13 Ethan Bullemor 2020 14 Tom Dearden 2020 15 Cory Paix 2020 16 Tesi Niu 2020 17 Ilikena Vudogo 2020 18 Corey Parker 2014
Assistant coach Kurt Richards coached the side for the tournament. 2006 Premiership-winner Corey Parker came out of retirement for the tournament. Captain Alex Glenn and Xavier Coates were originally named but withdrew prior to the tournament due to hamstring tightness. Izaia Perese was originally named but was stood down by the Broncos prior to the tournament.
Matches Date Rd Opponent Venue Result BRI OPP Tries Conversions 14 Feb 1 North Queensland Cowboys HBF Park 11 17 Turpin, Arthars Isaako (1/2) 15 Feb 2 Melbourne Storm HBF Park 12 8 Isaako, Staggs Isaako (2/2)
Pool ladder
Trial matches Date Rd Opponent H/A Venue Result BRI OPP Tries Goals FG Ref 15 Feb 1 Central Queensland Capras H Browne Park 36 18 – 21 Feb 2 Wynnum-Manly Seagulls A Kitchener Park 12 16 – 22 Feb 2 North Queensland Cowboys A Barlow Park 16 18 Arthars (2), Milford Staggs (1/2), Isaako (1/1) – 29 Feb 3 Gold Coast Titans H Dolphin Stadium 22 28 Coates, Turpin, Flegler, Farnworth Staggs (2/3), Isaako (1/1) –
Forwards coach Corey Parker took the coaching reigns for the trial match against Wynnum-Manly.
Regular season
Result by round
Matches