In North Queensland Cowboys’ first 11 seasons in the big time, they boasted just one win over perennial heavyweights Brisbane Broncos – a famous 2004 semi-final victory in Townsville. Eight previous visits to the River City had garnered seven losses by double digits.
But on the back of their charge to the 2005 premiership decider (coinciding with another Broncos finals failure), the Cowboys trounced the Broncos 36-4 in front of a 46,229-strong Sunday afternoon crowd at Suncorp Stadium in Round 1.
A Matt Sing try started the avalanche in the eighth minute. By halftime it was 24-0 and the visitors added another two tries by the hour mark, before debutant Darius Boyd belatedly putting the Broncos on the scoreboard.
Reigning Dally M Medallist Johnathan Thurston stole the show with three tries in a club record 24-point haul.
“He’s such an exciting player, plus he has a role in leadership at the club and it makes him an exciting prospect to the media and the public,” Cowboys coach Graham Murray said to Big League about the 22-year-old man of the moment.
“We’re careful not to overdo it with him, but he handles the responsibility well and accepts the role and the fact he will always attract more attention.”
Meanwhile, the jarring defeat put the Broncos’ counterpart talisman under the microscope.
‘Darren Lockyer’s status as one of the best to have laced up a boot is under more pressure than his much-questioned defensive abilities,’ Fox Sports commentator Warren Smith wrote in his Big League column.
‘Even the most ardent Broncos fan would struggle to mount a case for Lockyer being mentioned as one of the top half dozen players in the NRL. He used to be brilliant at fullback but now gets battered at five-eighth.’
Elsewhere in the opening round of 2006, Benji Marshall produced a match-winning hand in Wests Tigers’ gripping 24-15 win over St George Illawarra despite suffering a fractured cheekbone. Melbourne’s teenage sensation Greg Inglis torched the Warriors in a 22-16 victory in Auckland, while enforcer Adrian Morley’s ugly high shot on Souths halfback Ben Walker – later incurring a two-match ban – was the controversial turning point as Sydney Roosters turned an 18-12 deficit into a 40-22 win.
The Cowboys went on an unprecedented 6-0 run to start the season, beating four more of their fellow 2005 finalists – including a 32-12 grand final rematch rout of the Tigers – before rolling Andrew Johns’ red-hot Knights in Newcastle. But their season bewilderingly fell apart, winning three of their next 16 games and finishing ninth with the second-worst attack in the NRL.
The Broncos quickly recovered and led the competition at the halfway mark, before rallying from a familiar post-Origin slump to snare third position on the ladder. An unforgettable preliminary final comeback against the Bulldogs and a grand final upset of the Storm – both engineered by Lockyer – secured the club’s sixth premiership. Having also scored the winning tries in Queensland’s and Australia’s 2006 triumphs, Lockyer was awarded the Golden Boot for the second time – the first to win it playing two different positions.
