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Broncos great Andrew McCullough has offered an insight into the intense scrutiny faced by the Brisbane club, and taken aim at “ridiculous” criticism that came their way earlier this season.
Brisbane broke a 19-year premiership drought last year, winning the grand final in Michael Maguire’s first campaign as head coach.
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Yet despite that ultimate success in October, by March the team and the coach were under the pump and facing ongoing attacks from people outside the club, led by former player Gorden Tallis.
Tallis went on a crusade against his old team, Maguire and the captain Adam Reynolds over a number of weeks on his media platforms with Fox League and Triple M.
It started when superstar prop Payne Haas announced he would leave Red Hill and join South Sydney at year’s end. That fed a narrative that Maguire overworked his players and was on the nose with many within the squad.
Michael Maguire and Adam Reynolds address the media. Nine
The team then flew to England and were stunned by Hull KR in the World Club Challenge.
After returning to Australia the Broncos were flogged by Penrith in round one, then suffered a shock loss to the Eels in round two.
After three consecutive defeats the knives were out for Maguire, but since then they’ve won five of six games even in the midst of a crippling injury crisis.
While missing basically an entire starting team in the past two weeks Brisbane has beaten the high-flying Tigers and the Bulldogs.
Now, Broncos backers are taking aim at those who doubted Maguire and his men just a few weeks ago.
“I for one have never heard any rumblings about in-fighting or any of that sort of stuff,” Nine commentator Peter Psaltis said on Wide World of Sports’ QLDER.
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Andrew McCullough playing for the Broncos. Getty
“I think what’s occurred in the last couple of weeks should just shut up a few of those down south that suggest it’s a club in turmoil, players are off the coach and all that.
“I think the team has done enough to prove, through all the adversity they’ve faced in the last couple of weeks, to say yep, you know what, this is a club that’s hell bent on going back to back (premierships).”
McCullough started his NRL career with the Broncos in 2008 and played 260 games for the proud club before leaving in 2020 for a short stint with the Knights, then two seasons with the Dragons before retiring.
Having endured tough times, as well as relative success like making a grand final in 2015, he knows all too well what it’s like wearing a Broncos jersey and the spotlight that comes with it.
He is now working with the club and tries to help young players understand and deal with the high level of scrutiny.
“That’s the education part now, with young players understanding what Brisbane can be like and in particular the Broncos,” McCullough told QLDER.
“You are either going really good or really bad, there’s not much in between.
“The wave is there. You get the pats on the back… but you’ve got to be able to cop a fair few hits when you do lose because that’s just amplified, because we know how big the club is.
“When I have been at other clubs the cameras at training, the media speculation is definitely not the same.
“There’s good and bad, it’s being able to judge that at the time and get through that.
“But it was quite ridiculous at the start of the year to have that much speculation about a club that had just won the competition, I’ve never seen that before.
“It may be good for media outlets but it certainly wasn’t warranted.”
The battered Broncos head south to Sydney to face the Roosters in round nine.
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