Bold, brave and simply crazy: How Broncos broke the Panthers’ dynasty

Bold, brave and simply crazy. Is there any other way the Brisbane Broncos would book their place in the NRL grand final, and at last end the Penrith Panthers’ dynasty?

Based on the first half, this never should have happened. They had butchered several opportunities in the opening 40 minutes, chances the four-time defending champions had gifted them, and headed into the break trailing 14-0.

But this Broncos side, as they showed against the Raiders two weeks ago, just never say die, and after clinching the 16-14 triumph in the most dramatic of circumstances, this Suncorp Stadium crowd could not have appreciated it more.

Such was the volume of the more than 52,000 people who filled the stands, the media box shook. For each of these moments, they rode the wave of emotions.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s like a rock concert,” Broncos coach Michael Maguire said.

Early chances go begging

Conquering Penrith is all about taking advantage of every moment presented to take away everything that makes them so lethal.

It looked as though the Broncos would be left to rue their inability to do so.

From the opening set, Brisbane appeared on the ball defensively – keeping their four time defending champions pinned within their own 30-metre line and forcing a hurried kick out of Nathan Cleary.

But a lack of urgency from the back three to get to the ball, ultimately rolling back to within their own 10-metre line, cost the Broncos a chance to gain the early ascendancy.

It is not as though Penrith were faultless. By halftime, when they took a 14-0 lead into the sheds, they had only been tackled inside the enemy red zone twice more.

The difference was when those moments came, they capitalised for Paul Alamoti to cross for double.

On the other side of the coin, three mistakes coming out of trouble and a penalty gifted Brisbane the opportunity to strike, only for the hosts to come up with two knock ons of their own, as well as butchering a set which ended being dragged into touch.

They were all chances they needed to take, with the Panthers running for nearly 400 more metres than the Broncos to put themselves in the box seat.

But there was more to the script.

Another resurgence

Pundits would have been forgiven for believing they would witness another Panthers decider, when Deine Mariner came up with a knock-on coming out of his own end early in the second half.

But the Broncos were up for the fight in defence, with Jordan Riki coming up with a clutch tackle on Nathan Cleary to keep them at bay.

They earned a penalty on the back of that, and just needed a bit of luck – Adam Reynolds’ ricocheted grubber scooped up by Kotoni Staggs to score.

Twice again the Broncos let the Panthers off the hook – a Blaize Talagi knock on at halfway unpunished by their attack, nor was the territory gained for a penalty against Liam Martin for escalating Cleary and Ezra Mam’s brief brouhaha.

But as they have done in the second half of the campaign, Brisbane did not deviate from the plan.

They continued to build pressure and field position, with the back five combining for 749 running metres, while Payne Haas (186 metres, 46 tackles) and Xavier Willison (151 metres) bounced off their back of that work.

On the other side of the ball, they continued to diffuse raids on their line, coming up with 40 tackles inside their own 20-metre line across the clash to set up the grandstand finish.

“It just shows we stay in the fight and get it done. The belief from the moment Madge walked through the doors, he’s been instilling that in the group for a hell of a long time now,” Reynolds said.

“To buy into that, see it on the big stage, it’s a good feeling. To have that belief we know we can come back is pretty special.”

Some dummy-half deception from Ben Hunt then forced a luckless knock-down out of Cleary – one Willison was happy to accept to score.

But there was a final twist to come – one of redemption for one man, and an unsurprising source who triggered it.

Reynolds’ demons buried

Trust Reece Walsh to be the man to come up with the match-winning play. After Reynolds opted to run the ball on last play, a Talagi knock down gave them a last chance to sink the reigning premiers.

That was the opening for the marquee fullback to shine – his darting run ending with the most desperate of offloads for Mariner to level the scores with four minutes on the clock.

But while the standout No.1 – who finished with 137 running metres and 12 tackle busts – had taken the goal kicking duties up to now, Reynolds was the man who took the decisive kick.

This conversion would be about more to the skipper than extinguishing the heartbreak of the 2023 grand final, but also the 2021 decider, when his shot to level the scores while playing for South Sydney hit the posts.

There would be no repeating those mistakes, Reynolds icing the shot and showing the rugby league world what they had been missing while he had been sidelined with a hamstring injury.

“I knew once we scored the try I had to separate the emotions with what was going on - the crowd was amazing, they were so loud, so it was good to just sit back and take that in, then completely shut off from everything,” Reynolds said.

“I’ve been practising that since I was a little kid and have replicated that in my mind a thousand times. I wouldn’t say I put to bed a few demons … they’re moments in your career you learn from, and I certainly learned from that a few years ago to separate the emotion from the actual kick.

“It’s something that’s been going over my head for a long time, if I ever got that moment again to shut off completely and focus on the basics.”

One final scramble to thwart the Panthers again and deny a two-point field goal attempt sealed it, to once again show these Broncos can win from anywhere - this the fifth time since ending mid-year four-game losing streak they have overcome a deficit of 14 points or more.

“The scramble was excellent, there are times when everyone feels the team can’t pull it off, but within this group there’s a lot more in this team,” Maguire said.

“The work their doing, ingraining what they’ve been doing, there’s so much more.”

Now, attention turns to Melbourne.

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