When it comes to Bennett's second tenure, it's important to remember where the club was at before his arrival. It was mid-2014 and the Broncos were barely clinging to a spot inside the 8. At the time, it was actually a decent result for the club as they had completely bungled the Anthony Milford deal and left themselves with no recognised five-eighth for the upcoming season. However, it appeared the Broncos were never in the premiership race and were never going to be under Anthony Griffin.
So the board made the decision to secure Bennett's services in 2015. The move disappointed a lot of fans in club-land, including some at the Broncos because Bennett said he wouldn't join a club that already had a coach. Some found those comments disingenuous and gave fans the distinct impression that Bennett would put his own interests ahead of the clubs. The relationship grew more tense when he revealed in his first official press conference his desire to sign Russell Packer after Packer had served his sentence. In recent times the Broncos had employed strict guidelines to help improve culture and his criminal history would go a long way to jeopardizing that culture.
Ultimately the Packer deal didn't work out and Packer went onto become a valuable contributor at Saints and Wests. However that didn't stop Bennett from making changes to the roster. In perhaps the busiest off-season recruitment drive in Broncos history, the Broncos released star signing Ben Barba, reliable backline utility Josh Hoffman and troubled signing Martin Kennedy and brought in Darius Boyd, Adam Blair, James Gavet, Travis Waddell & Joe Boyce.
Again, this decision split the Broncos fanbase. On one side many felt the changes were necessary to move forward and on the other many felt the replacements were hardly better or unnecessary. Boyd vs. Barba specifically was the most pressing matter and many felt Bennett had completely screwed up when Boyd did his achillies in the 2015 pre-season.
After all the conjecture and speculation, Brisbane surprised everyone by going within seconds of winning a premiership. While the result was heart-breaking for the club, no one could deny Bennett was an upgrade on previous head coaches and Brisbane were better off with him in the position. Everyone will have their own different interpretation on what he brought to the club and how the Broncos went from making the numbers to genuine competitors. From my point of view, he recognised the base he was working with and what needed fixing. Specifically they needed a fiery forward in the middle, somebody who didn't play in a dinner suit and did those 1%ers like Blair. Brisbane also needed somebody with Darius' professionalism and ability to organise the team in both attack and defence. Furthermore, Bennett was prepared to use the bench more effectively than previous coaches and wasn't afraid to give players like Wallace, Ofahengaue, Nikorima, Dodds etc. time in the middle.
The future was looking bright at the club, especially after another busy recruitment drive. The Broncos brought in a lot of blue chip prospects like Herman Ese'ese, Tevita Pangai Jr, Jamayne Isaako, Marion Seve, Salesi Funaki, Sam Scarlett among others. These signings were quite exciting for the club, as it demonstrated that Bennett was willing to look towards the future and wasn't going to make the same recruitment decisions that plagued Hook's tenure as coach. The only sore point (or points) for fans was the loss of Ash Taylor, Jayden Nikorima and Matt Parcell. The reasoning was sound, when Bennett released Taylor Milford/Hunt were playing sensational football but many felt Taylor had too much talent to be released prematurely. Furthermore, while Taylor wasn't as instinctive as others, he was already a more skillful player with a better kicking game than both players. Given Bennett's desire to play 'boring' football, Taylor seemed like the better long term option.
Regardless, whatever anxiety was felt over the Taylor situation quickly evaporated after the Broncos signed James Roberts. Jimmy the Jet had an off-field reputation, but there was no denying his speed and his presence on the field gave the Broncos two strong attacking options on both sides of the field.
Unfortunately by the Origin period, the honeymoon was over. Unlike last year where the Broncos were able to survive without their Origin players, in 2016 they completely dropped their bundle and at one point appeared set to miss the finals altogether. Again, there's many theories about what happened, but from my perspective, the Broncos found out about the old addage 'if you're not moving forwards, you're going backwards.' Bennett's decision to bring in new faces like James Roberts, Tevita Pangai Jr, Herman Ese'ese and Jai Arrow was smart but his inability to evolve Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt's game had a flow on effect. As opposition defences became more familiar with Milford and Hunt's game, the Broncos potency diminished and the club struggled to overcome it.
In the end, the Broncos finished the season strongly with good wins over Canterbury and Melbourne but their 5th place finish proved their demise. Once again they found themselves against the Cowboys in extra time, except this time the Cowboys had the benefit of playing inside a stadium with 20,000+ fans cheering them on. A dire situation indeed and one I would have been keen to see Cronulla or Melbourne come up against just to see how they would have handled it. Certainly the Cowboys side the Sharks faced a week later was different to the one the Broncos faced.
Never the less, 2016 turned out to be a real disappointment for the club, but an understandable one. Despite going so close the year before, the reality was the Broncos were still a young side and there was a transition taking place between the remnants of the 2006 squad to the current day one. There was still plenty of optimism surrounding 2017, albeit not as much as 2016. After the strong recruitment drive in 2016, the 2017 drive felt meager by comparison with only Korbin Sims, Benji Marshall, David Mead & Tautau Moga joining the club. Certainly not a bad list, but there wasn't a lot of upside there either. In fact I would contend that Tautau Moga proved the most valuable since he filled the troublesome left centre position and gave the Broncos reliable metres inside their own half.
However, that list couldn't make up for the signing of Ben Hunt who announced before the season 2017 would be his last at the club. Maybe this is a topic for another thread, but I really dislike a system that allows players to sign on with a club that far advanced before a ball has even been kicked. I would have thought the Anthony Milford debacle would have seen an end to that trade window since it effectively ruined two club's seasons but that's just the lay of the land.
Point being, Hunt's decision to depart the club was a significant blow because it meant that the Broncos couldn't afford to commit to the Milford/Hunt halves combination which was always going to be the key to potential premiership glory. This anxiety manifested itself when Hunt returned from injury, had two mediocre games in trying conditions against the Warriors and the Roosters and was dumped to reserve grade and the bench.
2017 wasn't a bad season, but the Broncos never seemed to be in the hunt. Whether it was injuries, player movements, a tougher draw the Broncos couldn't generate enough momentum to be a genuine contender. They did well to finish inside the Top 4, but it was at this point, some serious questions were being asked of Bennett.
As 2018 pre-season commenced, the Broncos had lost Ben Hunt, Tautau Moga, Jai Arrow, Herman Ese'ese, Benji Marshall & David Mead. To make matters worse Darius Boyd, Anthony Milford, Kodi Nikorima and Andrew McCullough spent the majority of the pre-season rehabbing injuries and star-signing Jack Bird came to the club in worst shape than they had anticipated. It seemed like the pre-season from hell and given every year two former top eight teams drop out of finals contention the following year, the Broncos seemed to be ideal candidates.
