2009 Brisbane Broncos season

Broncos coach Ivan Henjak at a press conference in 2009.

The 2009 Brisbane Broncos season was the 22nd in the club's history and their first without foundation coach Wayne Bennett. They competed in the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership and by the 12th round were leading the competition, but then suffered one of their worst post-State of Origin form slumps ever and spent rounds 16 to 22 outside the top eight. The team managed to finish the regular season 6th (out of 16), qualifying for the finals for the 18th consecutive year. The Broncos then came within one match of the grand final but were knocked out for the 3rd season in a row by eventual premiers the Melbourne Storm (who months later were found to have been cheating the salary cap over the previous four seasons and had all honours achieved during the period nullified by the NRL).

Results

The new post-Bennett Broncos era got off to a thrilling start when they defeated the North Queensland Cowboys 19-18 in round 1 at Suncorp Stadium in the first game under coach Ivan Henjak. Star signing Israel Folau scored his first try in Broncos colours and the first try of the season for the club in the 6th minute, followed by NRL debutantes Antonio Winterstein and Jharal Yow Yeh who also crossed. In round 2 the Broncos defeated the Melbourne Storm for the first time since the 2006 NRL Grand Final. Israel Folau was up against his old club for the first time and scored a try in the 11th minute and second for the year for the Broncos.

For the second year in a row, The Broncos won the opening three rounds of the season when they defeated the New Zealand Warriors 26-10 at Mt Smart Stadium. In the following days Shane Webcke, who had been appointed assistant coach for Brisbane at the start of the season quit his post in the wake of controversy surrounding the release of his new book in which he was critical of some Broncos personnel. Later that week Wayne Bennett returned to Brisbane with the St. George Illawarra Dragons for round 4, coaching against his old club for the first time. Brisbane conceded their first loss of the season in what was also Darius Boyd's first match against his old club and the Dragons' 8th straight win against the Broncos.

The following week, the Broncos continued their 7-year winning streak in the good friday match against the Roosters, surviving a strong 2nd-half comeback by the Sydneysiders. In round 7, Darren Lockyer answered his critics as he helped the Broncos to a 40–8 win over the Parramatta Eels at Suncorp Stadium. Lockyer had a hand in most of the Broncos seven tries with Karmichael Hunt scoring three of the seven tries himself. Darren Lockyer's 300th game did not go as planned when they faced the Newcastle Knights in torrential rain at EnergyAustralia Stadium and lost, the match punctuated by a 35-minute half-time break. In round 10, Israel Folau equalled the club record for most tries in a match when he scored 4 tries against the Gold Coast Titans at Suncorp Stadium.

The following week, the Broncos survived a strong Wests Tigers side who were playing their 10th year anniversary match, hanging on to win 20–18 at Campbelltown Stadium. In round 13, the Broncos suffered one of their worst defeats in the clubs history when they lost 48–4 against the Melbourne Storm at Olympic Park. The loss is also equalled second in the Broncos worst defeats. In round 21, the Broncos were handed their worst ever defeat by the Canberra Raiders 56-0 at Canberra Stadium.

The following week, the Broncos bounced back to keep their finals hopes alive with a 30–10 win over the Cronulla Sharks at Suncorp Stadium. In round 24, The Broncos won their first match against the St. George Illawarra Dragons since round 6, 2005, when they beat the Dragons 12-2 at WIN Stadium. In round 25, the Broncos secured their 18th straight finals appearance when they beat Queensland rivals North Queensland Cowboys 16-10 at Dairy Farmers Stadium. The Broncos were the first opponent for the Gold Coast Titans competing in their first ever finals series. The Broncos survived a late comeback from the Titans holding on to a 40–32 win at Skilled Stadium. The Broncos made it consecutive wins against the St. George Illawarra Dragons for the first time since 2004 and their first win against the Dragons at Suncorp Stadium since 2004 with a 24–10 win against the Dragons in the semi-final at Suncorp Stadium. Source:^[1] Their chances against Melbourne in the grand final qualifier suffered a major blow when in form halfback Peter Wallace broke his ankle toward the end of that win against the Dragons. The Broncos 2009 season came to an end in the Preliminary Final going down 40–10 to eventual premiers, the Melbourne Storm at Etihad Stadium.

Round	Opponent	Result	Bris.	Opp.	Venue	Date	Crowd	Position
Trial	Gold Coast Titans	Win	24	18	Kougari Oval, Wynnum	14 February	3,500
Trial	Canberra Raiders	Win	30	16	Dolphin Oval, Redcliffe	21 February	10,500
Trial	Melbourne Storm	Loss	6	20	Quad Park, Kawana	28 February	8,178[2]
1	North Queensland Cowboys	Win	19	18	Suncorp Stadium	13 March	45,022	8/16
2	Melbourne Storm	Win	16	14	Suncorp Stadium	20 March	36,647	3/16
3	New Zealand Warriors	Win	26	10	Mt Smart Stadium	28 March	24,350	1/16
4	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Loss	12	25	Suncorp Stadium	3 April	42,435	4/16
5	Sydney Roosters	Win	28	24	Sydney Football Stadium	10 April	18,464	3/16
6	Penrith Panthers	Win	38	18	CUA Stadium	17 April	14,332	2/16
7	Parramatta Eels	Win	40	8	Suncorp Stadium	24 April	30,887	1/16
8	Newcastle Knights	Loss	12	28	EnergyAustralia Stadium	2 May	18,154	3/16
9	Manly Sea Eagles	Loss	20	22	Suncorp Stadium	10 May	27,527	3/16
10	Gold Coast Titans	Win	32	18	Suncorp Stadium	15 May	43,079	4/16
11	Wests Tigers	Win	20	18	Campbelltown Stadium	22 May	9,675	3/16
12	Bye							2/16
13	Melbourne Storm	Loss	4	48	Olympic Park	5 June	15,316	2/16
14	Canterbury Bulldogs	Loss	22	44	Suncorp Stadium	12 June	26,353	5/16
15	Cronulla Sharks	Loss	12	46	Toyota Park	22 June	8,117	7/16
16	Parramatta Eels	Loss	14	21	Parramatta Stadium	26–29 June	10,030	9/16
17	New Zealand Warriors	Win	28	14	Suncorp Stadium	3–6 July	32,456	9/16
18	Bye					10–13 July		/16
19	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Loss	12	44	Suncorp Stadium	17 July	50,109	/16
20	Gold Coast Titans	Loss	18	34	Skilled Park	24 July	26,336	/16
21	Canberra Raiders	Loss	0	56	Canberra Stadium	1 August	10,200	/16
22	Cronulla Sharks	Win	30	10	Suncorp Stadium	10 August	20,114	10/16
23	Penrith Panthers	Win	58	24	Suncorp Stadium	16 August	25,305	8/16
24	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Win	12	2	WIN Stadium	21 August	17,044	7/16
25	North Queensland Cowboys	Win	16	10	Dairy Farmers Stadium	28 August	24,332	/16
26	Canberra Raiders	Win	22	10	Suncorp Stadium	6 September	35,112	6/16
QF	Gold Coast Titans	Win	40	32	Skilled Park	12 September	27,227
SF	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Win	24	10	Suncorp Stadium	19 September	50,225
PF	Melbourne Storm	Loss	10	40	Etihad Stadium	26 September	27,687

Ladder

2009 NRL season
	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George Illawarra	24	17	0	7	2	548	329	+219	38
2	Bulldogs	24	18	0	6	2	575	428	+147	38*
3	Gold Coast	24	16	0	8	2	514	467	+47	36
4	Melbourne	24	14	1	9	2	505	348	+157	33
5	Manly-Warringah	24	14	0	10	2	549	439	+90	32
6	Brisbane	24	14	0	10	2	511	566	−55	32
7	Newcastle	24	13	0	11	2	508	491	+17	30
8	Parramatta	24	12	1	11	2	476	473	+3	29
9	Wests Tigers	24	12	0	12	2	558	483	+75	28
10	South Sydney	24	11	1	12	2	566	549	+17	27
11	Penrith	24	11	1	12	2	515	589	−74	27
12	North Queensland	24	11	0	13	2	558	474	+84	26
13	Canberra	24	9	0	15	2	489	510	−31	22
14	New Zealand	24	7	2	15	2	377	545	−188	20
15	Cronulla-Sutherland	24	5	0	19	2	359	568	−209	14
16	Sydney Roosters	24	5	0	19	2	382	681	−299	14

* Bulldogs stripped of 2 competition points after an interchange breach in round 2

Squad

Bold Players have played International or State any year

Fullbacks

• Australian Karmichael Hunt
• Australian Dale Copley
• Australian Josh Hoffman

Wingers

• Australian Israel Folau
• Australian Tom Hewitt
• New Zealand Antonio Winterstein
  *Australian Jharal Yow Yeh

Centres

• Australian Justin Hodges
• Australian Steve Michaels
• New Zealand Alex Glenn
• New Zealand Gerard Beale

Halves

• Australian Darren Lockyer (c)
• Australian Peter Wallace
• Australian Ben Hunt

Front Rowers

• Australian Joel Clinton
• Australian Nick Kenny
• Australian Josh McGuire
• Australian David Taylor
• Australian Palmer Wapau

Hookers

• Australian Aaron Gorrell
• Australian PJ Marsh
• Australian Andrew McCullough

Back Rowers

• Australian Corey Parker
• New Zealand Lagi Setu
• Fijian Ashton Sims
• Australian Michael Spence
• New Zealand Ben Te'o
• Australian Sam Thaiday
• Australian Will Tupou

Coaching staff

Shane Webcke was an Assistant Coach up until 6 April 2009, when he resigned from his role due to the controversy surrounding his auto-biography "Hard Road".^[3] In addition, international cricketer and long-time Broncos fan Andrew Symonds was adopted by the club in an unpaid role assisting the coaching staff following his exile from cricket.

Honours

Player movements

References

External links

• Brisbane Broncos: Season Review – NRL.com

Coordinates: 27°27′53″S 153°0′34″E / 27.46472°S 153.00944°E / -27.46472; 153.00944 (Suncorp Stadium)