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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3349374, member: 1899"] And finally... [B]2006.[/B] For the Broncos it was a case of something has to give. They had done well to put themselves in premiership contention the past five seasons but come finals they were found wanting. It had become routine in recent years and despite all the talk coming out of Red Hill there was still a lot of apprehension about the year ahead. Outside of the players losing a stack of weight under Dean Benton, the big story around that pre-season was Karmichael Hunt at 7. Hunt found himself in the mix at 7 with the view being long term he'd find himself in the halves. In the short term, the sessions in the halves were intended to influence his play at fullback and to give the Broncos an extra ball-playing option. Otherwise it was business as usual and if there wasn't any panic stations after the 58-10 drubbing against Melbourne, they were well and truly in effect after North Queensland inflicted a 36-4 drubbing and broke a stack of records in the process. It was a demoralising result for the club and serious questions were being asked. Was Darren Lockyer the right choice as captain? Should he still be fullback? Why did Bennett bench both Seymour and Ennis for Perry and Casey McGuire? Why did Bennett make such a big fuss about dropping Brad Thorn and Corey Parker only to recall Thorn? It was a bad afternoon all-round for the Broncos with the Clydesdales going down 36-10 against the North Queensland Young Guns. It was one of those results that hung over the Broncos for the opening half of the season and despite amassing an impressive 9-2 record to lead the competition nobody bought them as premiership favourites. Around the same time, Melbourne had announced themselves as premiership front-runners with Cooper Cronk surprising everyone with a break-out season for the ages and he was in good company with Greg Inglis putting his hand up as the most dangerous player in the competition after filling in for Slater at fullback Still 9-2 was nothing to sneeze at, especially after such a disastrous start to the season. I don't think that performance was really reflective of Brisbane as a team and even on the receiving end of a big drubbing there were some great signs like the form of Justin Hodges who was just out of this world. They were also missing a slew of players like Brent Tate, Tonie Carroll, Sam Thaiday and Corey Parker who would become regulars and it was Darren Lockyer's first game back after breaking his foot in the 2005 Tri-Series. On top of that players like Shane Perry, Tame Tupou, Greg Eastwood and Ben Hannant put their hands up and the team became a lot stronger in the arm wrestle. They weren't as flashy as their 2005 counter-part, but they were becoming more effective at playing the percentages which was illustrated perfectly in the 2006 Good Friday win against the Roosters where they grounded the Roosters down to win 24-6. On top of that, it seemed like the Maroons series win would have a significant influence on the Broncos, but the initial signs were poor. Their opening 10-4 loss to Melbourne in Melbourne was forgivable but then came losses to a Cowboys side that loss Johnathan Thurston during the early stages, an injury plagued out of form Wests Tigers and it just seemed like history was repeating itself. Then came arguably the best loss in club history, an 18-12 loss against Melbourne. The Storm were going from strength to strength at this point and had amassed a 10 game winning streak to put themselves well ahead of the pack. It seemed like this was going to be a repeat of 2004 where Canterbury came into Suncorp and put 48 on Brisbane to effectively end whatever chance they had of a premiership. However Brisbane were the better team for the majority of the game and had it not been for a 20 minute period just after half-time where Melbourne exploited some of the positional play of the Broncos, Brisbane would have won that game. There were a few factors in play here. The intensity of the forward pack lifted with Thaiday coming off the bench into the starting team and feeding off the experienced players. It was such a strong rotation of forwards and Thaiday would handle the initial exchanges and bring on Parker who was given a license to use his skill-set and was able to showcase more of his second-phase which had gone horribly unused. Justin Hodges went to fullback and that allowed him to get more involved and take advantage of the ruck, so if there was a quick play the ball on offer Hodges could exploit the A defenders which allowed Lockyer and Berrigan to use their support game which was still world class. Speaking of Berrigan found his footing at dummy half and was given the simple task of running. Berrigan wasn't great at organising, defending or passing from dummy half but he could run and it just made the Broncos far more potent. Brisbane had found their second wind and despite two stumbles in the final, they managed to overcome a first round loss against St George to inflict a 50-6 smashing of an injury riddled Knights side. Then they came back from 20-6 down to do a Bulldogs on the Bulldogs and come up with a dramatic comeback. The Grand Final was marred by some controversy and Brisbane were fortunate that Cameron Smith picked up an injury early on but what was evident was that Brisbane were the stronger team in the arm wrestle and Melbourne were caught pushing passes. It's a game where Gus infamously said you could throw a handkerchief over the Broncos, but what he didn't note was the effective gains the Broncos were making out of dummy half. Whenever Brisbane were in trouble, Tate, Hunt, Hodges, Berrigan, Boyd etc. would work it out of dummy half and give the forwards a much needed breather while Melbourne would continue to push passes. It wasn't the most glamorous victory, but Brisbane identified the value of the ruck and had two of the best exponents of it in Berrigan & Hodges. That gave them more variety in attack which gave Lockyer a better platform to work off of and the experience of Shane Perry allowed him to pick his moments more carefully. Then in the run home to the finals, the forwards lifted and made a big point of difference. It wasn't going to be a sustainable formation, but on that night, they were the better team and achieved their most unlikely premiership in what had been a rollercoaster of a year. [/QUOTE]

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