NRL 2020: Broncos half time warm-up ‘never seen before in 50 years’

The Broncos had clearly had enough.

The club was spotted carrying out a bizarre junior footy half time warm-up drill during their loss to the Dragons on Friday night — a dramatic response to the club’s second half capitulations in recent months.

Extraordinary footage of Broncos players carrying out a warm-up drill after an exhausting first half against the Dragons at Suncorp Stadium left rugby league icons Paul Vautin and Johnathan Thurston stunned.

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Cameras inside the dressing room showed Broncos assistant coach Peter Gentle only spoke to his players for a couple of minutes during the half time break before the players started with catch and pass drills, which also included an exercise where players made heavy contact with each other.

In the middle of the most miserable season in the club’s history, desperate times are producing desperate actions.

Even considering the Broncos’ record of second half fade-outs this year, Vautin and Thurston could not believe what they were seeing during Channel 9’s half time break.

“I had to ask if this was live,” Thurston told Channel 9.

“This a half-time break, normally you’re looking to get your breath and just make sure everyone’s calm and ready for the second half.

“I couldn’t believe the scenes I just saw.”

Vautin said after the game players need to relax at half time, not be forced back on their feet without a rest.

“I’ve been playing and watching for 50 years, I’ve never ever seen this in any dressing room at half-time ever,” he said.

“Half-time is a time for relaxation, recouping, a sniff of oxygen, a trip to the toilet, but not this, this is incredible.

“They did come out and score a try in the first four minutes, but don’t do your drills at half-time, relax.

“It’s time to relax and get ready for the next 40 minutes.”

Fox League commentator Michael Ennis said the half time warm-up was understandable when you consider the club’s poor track record of falling asleep in the second half of matches this season.

“On the back of some second half capitulations, which we’ll get into in a minute, we’ve seen the Brisbane Broncos go through an intense two minute warm up where they were back on their feet, wrestling and getting the ball through their hands,” he said.

“Gentle spoke to them only for a short period of time before they got back on their feet. They also went into some heavy contact to try and get themselves prepared.”

It appeared to pay off for the Broncos as star centre Kotoni Staggs scored an incredible 75m try just three minutes into the second half.

Despite the solid performance, the Broncos again fell short as the Dragons claimed a thrilling 28-24 victory after Staggs set the NRL world alight with a freakish solo try.

After shifting wide to Staggs, the centre monstered his opposite number Euan Aitken with a brutal fend.

He then shrugged off Adam Clune before a dummy sent Dragons fullback Matt Dufty going the wrong way as Staggs scored an incredible try.

Incredibly, Staggs is the Broncos leading try scorer with eight tries despite having only played nine games this season.