Recruitment and Retention for 2026

George Sancti

George Sancti

SGI Jersey Flegg
Dragon David said:
Your guess is as good as mine, I guess. My guess is - intense competition, salary cap constraints, and the need for veteran leadership have forced changes in the roster composition for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. I think Brisbane still have Patrick Carrigan, Ezra Mam, Kotoni Staggs, Jordan Riki, Xavier Willison, Brendan Piakura, and Deine Mariner as ex juniors.
While the 2023 finals side was heavily reliant on juniors (14 out of 17), the 2025-2026 squads have seen a shift toward a mix of retained elite local talent (Haas, Carrigan) and key external signings (Hunt, Reynolds, others) to build a premiership-contending team.

They had a formidable roster in 2020 but in that year they were wooden spooners - their first wooden spoon.

Several talented Broncos juniors have moved to rival clubs, including the Dolphins, Titans, and Sydney-based teams, due to better opportunities.
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The other thing that stands out to me, Dave, is that among all the clubs with large junior nurseries and a high number of juniors in their top‑30 squads, the only one that has genuinely capitalised on those advantages is Penrith. It would be interesting to see a companion table showing how many ex‑juniors from each club are currently playing elsewhere in the NRL.

If the NRL isn’t prepared to introduce a draft system that compensates the club that developed a player, then at the very least it should be rewarding the development clubs that supply the talent the entire competition relies on.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI NSW Cup
Setu Tu and Buchanan into the 30.. positive is it frees up 2 dev spots.. but man not the guns I was hoping for.. still 2 slots left though maybe we can get something.. we must have some cap space to burn also.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI NSW Cup
could the val move to right be to fit buchanan in at left even.. not in vegas but maybe down the track.... still need to see Val in action tbh, he's been passing and stepping left all his life, ill be impressed if he can switch like that.. some players can and some players rly cant.. but those bat ons for example.. they are a fine touch... noting that this is a thin field.. so maybe its just 1 week.. maybe.
 
RufusRex

RufusRex

SGI Jersey Flegg
either that or look around the NRL at players on a T/T deal at other clubs who may be close and give them a dev deal ... there are obvious gaps in our roster esp relating to speed out wide.

Plus we have 2 x Top30 spots still open .. FFS please get someone useful into those spots.
There have to be players not in their teams top 19 who would easily be in ours.
 
RedVHeartbeat

RedVHeartbeat

SGI NSW Cup
Seems Luch is not the only guy looking for an extension, add the man I called a dinosaur that had bypassed the modern game, Blake Lawrie. Well funny thing is Blocker felt the same way and after a chat and the odd hard truth from Shane Flanagan, he has now done something about it, losing some 12kg in the off season mostly from his fat gut, but has also added 4kg of muscle. Blocker with muscle. Will wonders never cease.

"I had the conversation with my wife about the special training I needed but I invested in myself to better myself. That’s what you have to do. I am thankful to the club for jumping on board. I’ve got massive benefit out of it. Hopefully it pays off in the 2026 season and beyond. I want to thank Flanno for that initial conversation. My whole focus is paying the club and myself back. It was an investment in myself and the club invested in me too.”

Blocker has been rewarded for his hard work by being named to start off the bench in Vegas.
 
Dragons Chris

Dragons Chris

SGI NSW Cup
RedVHeartbeat said:
Seems Luch is not the only guy looking for an extension, add the man I called a dinosaur that had bypassed the modern game, Blake Lawrie. Well funny thing is Blocker felt the same way and after a chat and the odd hard truth from Shane Flanagan, he has now done something about it, losing some 12kg in the off season mostly from his fat gut, but has also added 4kg of muscle. Blocker with muscle. Will wonders never cease.

"I had the conversation with my wife about the special training I needed but I invested in myself to better myself. That’s what you have to do. I am thankful to the club for jumping on board. I’ve got massive benefit out of it. Hopefully it pays off in the 2026 season and beyond. I want to thank Flanno for that initial conversation. My whole focus is paying the club and myself back. It was an investment in myself and the club invested in me too.”

Blocker has been rewarded for his hard work by being named to start off the bench in Vegas.
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I'd have taken Blocker instead of Gular and I'd have taken LPT instead of both.
 
Frank Facer

Frank Facer

SGI Jersey Flegg
RedVHeartbeat said:
Seems Luch is not the only guy looking for an extension, add the man I called a dinosaur that had bypassed the modern game, Blake Lawrie. Well funny thing is Blocker felt the same way and after a chat and the odd hard truth from Shane Flanagan, he has now done something about it, losing some 12kg in the off season mostly from his fat gut, but has also added 4kg of muscle. Blocker with muscle. Will wonders never cease.

"I had the conversation with my wife about the special training I needed but I invested in myself to better myself. That’s what you have to do. I am thankful to the club for jumping on board. I’ve got massive benefit out of it. Hopefully it pays off in the 2026 season and beyond. I want to thank Flanno for that initial conversation. My whole focus is paying the club and myself back. It was an investment in myself and the club invested in me too.”

Blocker has been rewarded for his hard work by being named to start off the bench in Vegas.
Click to expand...
Lawrie's wife will probably be happy with his new body shape.
 
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