NRL

This time next week the Broncos’ NRL season will be over, and it can’t come soon enough judging by the latest lacklustre performance at Suncorp Stadium.

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With any thoughts of a premiership defence long since extinguished, the fallen giants failed to provide a fitting send-off for departing stars including Payne Haas and Adam Reynolds, slumping to their ninth straight defeat at home, humbled by the Storm 46-20.

Post-game coach Michael Maguire lamented his players once again ‘shooting themselves in foot’ with sloppy errors and 39 misses tackles.

“If you do that at this level, whoever you play, it’s always going to be hard… we need to be smarter and better at times within games,” he said.

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Maguire wasn’t wrong, particularly given the Storm themselves were far from their best with a completion rate of just 68 per cent for the match.

In many ways the Broncos stuttering 2026 season was perfectly summed up by the performance of five-eighth Ezra Mam who scored two tries, yet also missed a whopping seven tackles in another turnstile display.

There was none worse than his tame miss in the 21st minute as a hard-running Nick Meaney strolled past both Mam and Payne Haas to score the Storm’s second try.

They say defence is all about attitude, in which case the Broncos will need to have a long hard look in the mirror during the coming off-season if they’re to have any hope of turning things around in 2027, and likely save head coach Maguire’s job at the club.

The Broncos end their 2026 season from hell in Sydney next Thursday night against the Bulldogs.

NRL

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