March 2025

Redemption: the Gehamat Shibasaki story

Welcome to Pony Picayune, a monthly newsletter about the Brisbane Broncos.

I was mix of pissed off and mystified - this is something close to my ground state, to be fair - when Gehamat Shibasaki’s name was thrown into the mix of the Broncos’ potential starting line-up before the season started. This looked like an easily avoidable error. I had some paragraphs in the chamber.

Maguire flubbed player selections in his recent representative career. The 2022 World Cup Kiwis and the game 1 2024 Blues were odd teams. But he eventually got it right and Maguire handed the Kangaroos their biggest loss ever in 2023 and took the series for the Blues in 2024.

Part of Maguire’s job is to shape what he has into something resembling chicken salad and, it may take time, but seemingly he can do it. There is no better demonstration than the rise of Gehamat Shibasaki to a level of play heretofore unknown.

Shibasaki was one of that generation of Broncos players who simply arrived in the NRL at the wrong time. Jaydn Su’A, David Fifita, Tesi Niu, Xavier Coates and Ethan Bullemor might also fall into this microgeneration of 2018-21 prospects, depending on your views of their respective capabilities. While a player could succeed at the Paul White Broncos, it was easier to do it elsewhere.

Shibasaki debuted under Wayne Bennett but played a dozen games in 2019 under Anthony Seibold. It didn’t go particularly well, becoming a target for my increasingly frustrated ire (by which I mean I yelled at the TV and tweeted a lot). “Clueless” is the adjective that springs to mind. That could be applied to multiple players and those two facts have several clues embedded within about what was happening at the time. By the end of the season, Alex Glenn was starting in the centres and Shibasaki was coming off the bench. One wonders how Parramatta did not score more points that day. 58-0 seems unders in retrospect.

That entire era reached its pathetic nadir in 2020 under Seibold, a man intent on smashing the biggest club in the league into a brick wall, despite numerous off-ramps and warning signs, foot pressed firmly to the floor to guarantee arriving at the scene of the accident as fast as possible. Some players who might have otherwise became first graders looked completely unable to cope with the sport.

Shibasaki wandered the earth, ending up in Newcastle in 2020, then Chiba at some point during covid, before returning home to North Queensland in 2022. He slid off the Cowboys’ roster into the safe harbour of the Townsville Blackhawks and earned a surprise call-up to the Rabbitohs last year, a route that could only be established thanks to internecine North Queensland rugby league politics. I figured his return to the Southeast was a train and trial at best before being claimed by a Queensland Cup team for the year. He did the off-season, showed more of what Maguire wanted and now he has the position in the starting team.

In four games, Shibasaki has been pretty good. He’s not Herbie Farnworth or Kotoni Staggs, and can still make poor reads, but he has three tries, a Battle medal (for what that’s worth) and shown a greater willingness than Deine Mariner to do what Maguire wants. His reward is the jersey, and the trust that comes with that, and a development deal for the 26 year old:

“When I did come back the game had gotten too fast and the prep to come back into first grade was too different.

“I got injured and was lucky to be back home (in Townsville) to get my head space right. I had a year off and I thought I’d give it one more crack.

“From ringing Wynnum up and getting a train-and-trial to getting selected for round one (for the Broncos) was a long shot, but all the hard work I did is now paying off.”

Shibasaki plays his 35th NRL game against the Wests Tigers this Saturday night and says the penny has dropped.

“I am a bit older now,” he said.

“I have realised the change (needed) in my preparation, my responsibilities at home and at training.

“I am one of the older ones now (at the Broncos).

“We have a lot of young boys at training so I want to show a good example with my prep and what it takes to be a professional athlete.

“I am truly grateful for coming back. I am back this year and I don’t want to let go of it. I missed this joint.”

Similar to last year’s re-evaluation of the career of Tesi Niu, I am not expecting Shibasaki to become Gene Miles but if he can hold down a Jesse Arthars-level of play in the backline, then that will be good enough for a team that features Haas, Carrigan, Hunt, Reynolds, Walsh, Staggs, Cobbo (when he deigns to turn up), fifteen hooking options, including a similarly revitalised Cory Paix and Ezra Mam still to return. If Deine Mariner can’t exceed that expectation, that’s disappointing for him and his potential.

The lesson here is not just the redemption arc, although that and his heritage (“his grandfather was a Japanese pearl diver, you say”) both make for good copy, but the influence of coaching on players’ careers. Stars will be stars in almost any scenario - Payne Haas is not on the same trajectory - but for the fringe guys, whose grasp on first grade can be tenuous at best, coming in under the wrong dipshit at the wrong time can derail their career¹.

We should all be grateful for the opportunities we get because we don’t always get a second shot.

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