How did we seriously get in this position where we don't have any good depth in a number of positions?
It's a question I've been pondering since Nikorima was installed as the first string halfback. The depth in key positions hasn't been there at the Broncos for years and it's an area Bennett wasn't able to rectify.
I look at Melbourne as the standard bearers. They've got Cameron Smith, Brandon Smith and Harry Grant. If they lose Harry Grant, they have Tyson Smoothey to join the rotation, and if he doesn't develop into a good dummy half, they'll just bring somebody else in.
At the Broncos, they don't even have a specialist #9 in their extended squad. It's a far cry from years like 2012 or 2013 where they had players like Jake Granville and Kurt Baptiste in the squad waiting around rarely getting an opportunity.
The question is, what happened?
In 2012, Baptiste officially graduated from the Holden Cup opening a position up at 9. Instead of playing a natural #9 in Billy Brittain, the Broncos opted to move ball-playing lock forward Chris Binge into the position. Binge was a talented player who was rated highly by the club, but he failed to make that transition from junior football into senior and his career fell off a cliff. In the final game of the season, junior representative Jayden Berrell made his debut and he'd go onto become the most capped Broncos 20s player in the history of the competition.
Berrell was a star player of the competition, but he wasn't viewed as a genuine NRL prospect. His time in the top squad was short lived and he now finds himself playing for the Seagulls in a utility capacity where he fills a variety of roles. Along the same time, the Broncos brought Kalolo Saitaua off the bench and he was one of the stronger dummy half runners in the competition. However after undergoing a shoulder reconstruction Saitaua wasn't invited to any NRL training and he's spent the majority of his time playing BRL for the Seagulls. It's only been recently that he's secured a spot on their bench as a loose forward.
After Saitaua the Broncos rotated through several hookers including Brent Woolf, Tristan Hope, Kobe Hetherington and Tyson Smoothey neither of whom have done anything of note just yet. Hetherington was a part of the Brisbane Broncos pre-season, but he's predominately played this season in the BRL for Norths.
From an NRL level, the Broncos have predominately put all their stock into Andrew McCullough. Since 2008 he's been viewed as the future leader of the club, but he hasn't kicked on as well as expected. While the club rates him higher than the fanbase, I don't think even they thought he'd be as ordinary in attack as he has been and many thought he'd be the heir to Cameron Smith's Kangaroos Jersey.
Behind him they had Ben Hunt who was never rated that highly as a 7 by Hook, but Griffin thought he could be a quality 9. The other contenders have been:
Kurt Baptiste - 2011 - 2013
Jake Granville - 2013 - 2014
Travis Waddell - 2015 - 2017
Matt Parcell - 2015
Mitch Cronin - 2017
Todd Murphy - 2017-2018
Jake Turpin - 2018 - Now
In fairness to the club, there aren't a lot of quality 9s in the competition. It isn't like the club is missing out on all these great players, there just hasn't been a lot on show. The biggest miss for them was Brandon Smith who came through the Wynnum junior leagues and was picked up by Greeny after a good tip off. Still, the lack of foresight has hurt them and they've never quite been able to balance a roster as well as the top teams like Sydney, Melbourne or Cronulla.
