Hey Brisbane fans, here’s some brief respite from agonising over the club’s horror 2024 season and the Ezra Mam saga, a team of players who each played just one game of first grade for the Broncos during the NRL era.
How many of them can you remember?
1. Tony Duggan (2003)
Duggan was playing for the Toowoomba Clydesdales when called up to cover for Darren Lockyer who was on Origin duties in the Broncos’ Round 18 clash with the Bulldogs. The Broncos were rolled to the tune of 40-4 and Duggan returned to Toowoomba the following week, never to return to first grade.
He later headed to England and France to play in the lower leagues and finished up scoring 163 tries in 176 games between 2006 and 2016.
2. Shea Moylan (2011)
Moylan was another to get his chance during the Origin period, this time from the Wynnum Manly club. He scored a try on debut as the Broncos defeated Canberra by a single point, but his services weren’t required again.
3. Jordan Drew (2013)
Drew joined the Broncos for the Nanango Stags and had his sole first grade appearance in 2013, crossing for a try in the Broncos’ Round 22 win over the Dragons. His last known whereabouts was playing for the Limoux Grizzlies in France. Bring back the Grizzlies?
4. Joseph Tomane (2024)
The big Samoan outside back got his start with Melbourne in 2008, and then had a couple of years with the Titans before switching to rugby union with the ACT Brumbies, going on to play 17 Tests for the Wallabies. He returned to rugby league with Souths Logan in 2023 and played off the bench in the Broncos’ 2024 pre-season challenge match against Manly.
5. Adam Warwick (2000)
Warwick played a handful of first grade games for the Cowboys before joining the Broncos in 1999 where he played just the one first grade game.
6. Ashley Taylor (2015)
If ever a player’s career ended in disappointment, it was Taylor’s. He was a killing it in the lower grades for Brisbane and had represented both the Junior Kangaroos and the Queensland under 20 team when he was called up to the Broncos’ first grade team for their final round clash with Melbourne in 2015.
He joined the Titans in 2016 and a couple of years later found himself earning $1 million per year. Unfortunately, his form never justified his pay packet, and his career quickly unravelled.
Ash Taylor (Photo by Jason O’Brien/Getty Images)
7. Jack Ahearn (2023)
After 10 years in the NSW and Queensland Cup competitions, primarily with Norths Devils, the 30-year-old Ahearn was given the opportunity to play halfback for the Broncos alongside Ezra Mam in their 2033 Pre Season Challenge game against the Titans. Maybe his star is yet to rise?
8. Logan Bayliss-Brow (2023)
The young giant signed with the Broncos in 2022 after a stint with the Souths Logan Magpies, and even though he played three games for Scotland in the 2022 RLWC, he couldn’t crack first grade other than a solitary Pre Season Challenge game in 2023. He joined Bradford Bulls in the RFL Championship competition in 2024.
9. Nathan Friend (2002)
Here’s a player you’ll recognise. Friend played a lot of games in his 15-year NRL career but only one of them was for Brisbane, when he debuted off the bench as a 21-year-old in the Broncos’ Round 12 game against the Tigers.
10. Andrew Lomu (2007)
Lomu had a premiership with the Roosters, three Tests for Tonga and one for NZ under his belt by the time he joined the Broncos in 2007, but managed just one game in the top grade for the club in what was his last season in the NRL.
11. Kris Kahler (2002)
Kahler had just one game for the Broncos in 2002 and then spent several seasons battling away for Canberra before appearing in the Titans’ inaugural team in 2007.
12. Michael Spence (2010)
Spence’s NRL career amounted to just one game off the bench for the injury-riddled Broncos in Round 9 of 2010, and a few years later he found himself being grabbed by the long arm of the law for drug offences.
13. Joe Boyce (2015)
Like many young players before and since, Boyce bounced around several clubs looking for a start, and after joining the Broncos in 2015 he played his one and only first grade game off the bench in the Broncos’ Round 11 victory over the Knights. He spent the rest of his career with Souths Logan and the Townsville Blackhawks.
So, Brisbane fans, how many of these players do you recall running out in the maroon and gold?