Let’s check the stats.
Huh. Interesting.
“Defending premiers.” Just roll the words around for a bit because you’ll be hearing it a lot. Since the last time that tag applied to the Brisbane Broncos, kids have been born and are now old enough to drink, drive and vote. As we are all very well aware, the right to say that about your team does not come along every year. It is precious and should be relished.
Being defending premiers also sucks a lot of the jepoardy out of the coming season. Perhaps I am just speaking for myself, but whether the Broncos win the 2026 grand final or not is not a major concern. We survived 19 years without a title, so expecting two in two years just seems greedy. I’m still savouring the last one.
Undoubtedly, that attitude will wash away with kickoff and a disappointing season would still be a disappointing season and a premiership is still a premiership. Nonetheless, this nonchalance has been the prevailing sentiment of my offseason. Win or lose in 2026, the Broncos still won the 2025 premiership.1
I also refuse to fall into the brainrot that it only “matters” if there’s a dynasty. The Bulldogs fell foul of that last year, wanting to be Penrith instead of just winning what was in front of them. The Blues cannot celebrate a single series victory because 8-in-a-row hangs over them. One is great, and it’s one more than 16 other clubs won last year.
Before the Roosters’ back-to-back in 2018 and 2019, it seemed impossible to defend the premiership. Penrith showed that it is possible but that does not make it easy nor inevitable. The 2021 and 2023 grand finals nearly slipped through their grasp and had that happened, we’d view their run differently. Win now, win often and the rest takes care of itself. Lacking Habsburg jaw, I could not care less about dynastic machinations.2
That nonchalance was tested by the World Club Challenge, in which a team of plumbers, hacks and NRL wash-outs playing in red jerseys defeated the Broncos, 30-24. The stats show what the eye saw, which was the Broncos rolling easily downfield and completely failing to execute.3 If Adam Reynolds goes five-for-five, instead of two-for-five, it’s at least level.
What the stats and eye missed was the hand of god on the ball for Tyrone May’s first try assist. In the absence of divine intervention, that would have been a knock-on or Billy Slater would have to have been involved. Quite what Hull did to deserve miraculous treatment, I can only speculate, but I can also speculate why Canberra, Penrith and Melbourne didn’t get likewise beneficence. Mere mortals can only do so much.
With jet lag and off-season rust shaken off, the Broncos are still likely to be good. How they respond to the premiership will decide how the next 12 months unfolds. Here are some scenarios:
The team is a lot more settled and confident and wins most weeks
The team is a lot less hungry and can be more of a coin flip
Unable to handle the defending premier tag, losing to Hull KR and/or the slow disintegration of the roster, the team is bad
I’d rather they won than not, but I am also not expecting them to run it back.
What then is there to play for? Here are some things I am looking for:
Patrick Carrigan to maintain his production, if not find another, higher gear
Billy Walters’ heroic return in round 20 (yes, that late) to rid us of Cory Paix styming the offence
Josiah Karapani establishing a place in the team so that people remember he exists
Deine Mariner to grow a second brain cell (I have given hope of Jordan Riki doing likewise and it’s not looking great for Brendan Piakura)
Jaiydn Hunt to be moved on
Adam Reynolds and Ben Hunt have a fun time
Is Aublix Tawha anything?
I don’t know when the sense Brisbane have to start building towards a future that involves another premiership will kick in but we’ll worry about that when we get there.
“Defending premiers.”
Thank you for taking the time to share the very rare experience of supporting a premiership winner
Haas
Payne, soon to be known as Hakeem, Haas is leaving Brisbane for South Sydney in 2027:
“The main factor for me was family. Nothing else to be honest. I felt that being a leader for my family is probably the best move for us to have a change and a fresh new start.
“I’ve got lots of support down there as well with my family and my agent as well, he’s down there, he’s like a second dad to myself and I need those kind of people around me especially now for my siblings and my daughter and for my son as well.
“So, I feel like I’m being a leader, I had to lead and make that decision and it was not just myself but my partner as well.
We at the Pony Picayune wish Mr Haas all the best in his future endeavours.
It is far from desirable and extremely unfortunate to lose one of the game’s best players but, between his open flirting with the market in the past, changing personal priorities and the nature of the salary cap, this probably should have been more front of mind for more fans, including here at the Pony Picayune. I got so distracted by how fake R360 was that I didn’t clock that he might leave for another NRL club. With time, the shock will fade and we’ll have moved on.
The bigger shock is not that Haas is leaving but rather that the media were completely in the dark on the signing. It was very funny watching them scramble to make up post-facto fantasies to explain what happened, much of it contradictory, when it was plain to see that they had no idea. It turns out if the agents, players and clubs all shut up, the journalists are incapable of delivering any news.
This led to some weak attempts at criticism from spurned reporters trying to make it about them, as a means of passing the time until they board the plane for Vegas. It’s not really clear to me what the expectation is, especially given no one seemed to know this was happening, or how the club could have kept him if all he wanted was to leave. Locking him up in the dungeon under Red Hill wouldn’t have worked. Haas would snap anchor chains.
Reynolds and Pezet
In a significantly less surprising turn of events, Adam Reynolds is retiring:
Brisbane Broncos Club Captain Adam Reynolds has confirmed he will retire at the end of the 2026 NRL season.
Reynolds joined the Club in 2022 and was appointed captain in his first year at Red Hill.
Since arriving in Brisbane, the halfback has played 78-games, including 22-games in the 2025 premiership winning campaign where he scored four tries, kicked 81 conversions and had 17 try assists.
The old man, who is younger than me by three years, is ready to move on to the next phase of his life. Reynolds can claim a large amount of responsibility for the club getting back on its feet after the Seibold era, for which we thank him.
We at the Pony Picayune wish Mr Reynolds all the best in his future endeavours (coaching at the Broncos as a salary cap dodge).
The man he will likely be working closely with signed on for three years earlier in the off season:
The Brisbane Broncos have signed exciting young playmaker Jonah Pezet on a three-year deal, beginning in the 2027 season.
The talented 22-year-old has shown enormous promise since making his NRL debut for the Melbourne Storm in 2023, going on to make 18 first grade appearances across two seasons.
After overcoming an ACL knee injury in 2024, Pezet worked his way back to the NRL through consistent performances in the Hostplus Cup, earning praise for his resilience and maturity.
I have held some quiet reservations about Pezet: I didn’t think he looked all that spectacular in Cup in 2023, maybe a touch slow, but that was a while ago now and he did win that grand final. His performance for the Storm during the finals allayed that somewhat. Pezet will spend the next season at Parramatta learning what a terrible club looks like before he feels the relief of returning to a good club.
There’s the rub. Even if the premiership wasn’t a clue, the Broncos were able to go on to a market desperate for playmakers and get the hottest one without breaking a sweat.
We at the Pony Picayune welcome Mr Pezet when he finally gets here. We’re so back.
New logo
This isn’t the lede I would’ve gone with:
The Brisbane Broncos have charged into a bold new era, transforming Brisbane with s [sic, I probably would have corrected this too] surge of maroon and gold pride that stretched from Red Hill to Roma, and even to the very first babies born in the city today.
The Broncos have a premiership and a new logo and accosted some new, presumably extremely confused, parents with Broncos swag. I didn’t have strong feelings about the old logo and I don’t have particularly strong feelings about the new one. It’ll take a little getting used to but that’s fine. I wrote about it in June and I see no need to revise my thesis that it looks like a French apparel range that you’ve never heard of but sells 45% of all tracksuits in Romania.
The Broncos were there at the end and so are you…
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Brigginshaw retires
We’ll talk more about the NRLW team, probably in largely similar terms to the men’s team, later in the year but Ali Brigginshaw has finally called time at the end of 2026:
The enormity of the season ahead is not lost on Brigginshaw.
Her one-year contract extension will mark the final chapter of a decorated career before retirement at the end of 2026.
“My biggest thing was making sure the Broncos were in a great place before I hung up the boots,” she said
Brigginshaw will not play Origin this year but goes out as one of the greatest players of all time.
We at the Pony Picayune wish Ms Brigginshaw all the best in her future endeavours.
What’s that? We’ve already signed Jesse Southwell to replace her? What a club.
Notes
Signatures: Georgia Bartlett, Amanii Misa, Lillian Yarrow, Shannon Mato (!)
Extensions: Brianna Clark, Bree Spreadborough, Shalom Sauaso, Destiny Brill, Lauren Dam
Departures: Hetherington (Sea Eagles), Baker (Bulldogs), Hufanga, Nuuasala, Waaka (Warriors). Oh but you won’t hear about it!
Injuries: Brendan Piakura (back in ~4 more weeks)
If this seems bizarre, perhaps your club could try winning and you see how it fits.
Penrith Panthers: well, well, well, it’s not so easy to not suck shit isn’t it?