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'Embarrassing': Brutal scenes sum up historic Broncos debacle

andrew reid
·5-min read
Seen here, a Brisbane Broncos staffer picks up wooden spoon scattered on the club's training grounds.
A Brisbane Broncos staffer had to pick up more than a dozen wooden spoons thrown onto the club's training grounds. Pic: Ch7

It's safe to say Brisbane Broncos fans have not accepted the first wooden spoon in club's proud history lightly.

The sad piece of history for the six-time NRL premiers was confirmed on Thursday night when they crashed to a chastening 32-16 defeat to the North Queensland Cowboys at Suncorp Stadium.

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It was an inglorious end to ex-skipper Darius Boyd's otherwise stellar 337-game career, with the former representative star chaired off the ground after his NRL swan song.

Positives were hard to find after Brisbane ended a horror year that included a club-record 11 straight losses, their most defeats in a season (17), their most points conceded (624), their lowest season points tally (268) and their worst points differential (-356).

On Friday morning, the pain of those historic firsts were summed up in brutal scenes at the club's Red Hill training base.

It appears as though disgruntled Broncos fans showered the club's training paddock with wooden spoons overnight, after their fate was sealed against the Cowboys.

The clip shows a lone Broncos staffer wandering around picking up around a dozen wooden cooking utensils, before placing them in a bucket.

Unsurprisingly, the league world mercilessly trolled the Broncos over the embarrassing incident, with many insisting the underperforming players should have been made to do it.

Boyd in elaborate post-match gender reveal

Brisbane did have something to celebrate after the final whistle though, when the team joined Boyd for a bizarre post-match gender reveal for his unborn baby.

Booting a makeshift footy towards the stands, an explosion of pink smoke erupted to signify that the 33-year-old and and his wife Kayla were having a baby girl.

While it was undoubtedly one of the few things to bring joy to Boyd and the Broncos in a horror 2020, many viewers were left seething.

Fans insisted it was a shocking look for the players to be celebrating straight after clinching the club's first ever wooden spoon, with the gender reveal proving divisive on social media.

Boyd was showered with praise after the curtain came down on his glittering career, with Channel Nine airing tributes from former teammates and coaches such as Alex McKinnon and Wayne Bennett.

The 33-year-old did manage to score a try in his final outing in the NRL, before saying a heartfelt goodbye to fans after the match.

“It‘s disappointing obviously but it’s been a tough year for a number of reasons,” he said.

“My last game isn‘t going to define the career I’ve had, I’ve been very grateful and honoured to play with some of the best players in the game and for some great clubs too. A lot of gratitude and I really owe a lot to rugby league.”

Darius Boyd is seen here making a gender reveal about his baby after the match.
Darius Boyd's post-game gender reveal divided NRL fans. Pic: Instagram/Getty

Boyd did back the besieged club to bounce back next season, citing young guns Herbie Farnworth, Xavier Coates and Jordan Riki as players with bright futures at the Broncos.

The retiring star said he thought top coaching candidate Kevin Walters was the perfect man to bring stability and success back to the club.

"I've always said Kevvie deserves it," he said.

"At the end of the day the club needs to make a big decision.

"Kevvie has been around for quite a while, his record speaks for itself as a player and assistant, I know he hasn't had a head coaching job ... but I think the fans will get behind Kevvie.

"At the end of the day you need to get results - it's up to them (Broncos)."

with AAP