THIS is an extract from Shane Webcke's book Hard Road: Tough Thoughts On A Tough Game. The following comes under a chapter titled Broncos Behaving Badly.

This is the chapter I didn’t want to write, but the one I knew I had to. In just about every aspect, the events it addresses represent one of the blackest times in the long and mainly admirable history of the Brisbane Broncos. In the troubled 2008 centenary season, there were too many instances of late-night dramas and drunken misbehaviour involving prominent rugby league players. (By September, 22 incidents had been recorded over eight months!) And the Broncos captured some of the biggest and worst headlines of the year, just as an exciting run to the finals was starting. What took place in September, and the club’s response to it, led to something that had never happened before in my life and probably will never happen again: I went to a Broncos game not really caring if they won or not.

You would have had to be living in a cave or sailing around the world single-handed with no wireless contact to have not heard what happened that week. In telling the story, I don’t want to set myself up as some sort of paragon of virtue or moral barometer. For bloody sure, I’m not that. In past seasons I was once or twice on the edge of things that could have caused me problems. When I reflect on that, I’d like to think I would have taken on the chin any punishment that may have resulted. But in September 2008, in a rugby league world that has changed hugely in terms of expectations of players’ behaviour, there were aspects of what took place in downtown Brisbane one Saturday night and in the aftermath that troubled me deeply and which I believe damaged the Broncos.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 23,00.html http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 66,00.html

THIS is an extract from Shane Webcke's book Hard Road: Tough Thoughts On A Tough Game. The following comes under a chapter titled Broncos Behaving Badly.

This is the chapter I didn’t want to write, but the one I knew I had to. In just about every aspect, the events it addresses represent one of the blackest times in the long and mainly admirable history of the Brisbane Broncos. In the troubled 2008 centenary season, there were too many instances of late-night dramas and drunken misbehaviour involving prominent rugby league players. (By September, 22 incidents had been recorded over eight months!) And the Broncos captured some of the biggest and worst headlines of the year, just as an exciting run to the finals was starting. What took place in September, and the club’s response to it, led to something that had never happened before in my life and probably will never happen again: I went to a Broncos game not really caring if they won or not.

You would have had to be living in a cave or sailing around the world single-handed with no wireless contact to have not heard what happened that week. In telling the story, I don’t want to set myself up as some sort of paragon of virtue or moral barometer. For bloody sure, I’m not that. In past seasons I was once or twice on the edge of things that could have caused me problems. When I reflect on that, I’d like to think I would have taken on the chin any punishment that may have resulted. But in September 2008, in a rugby league world that has changed hugely in terms of expectations of players’ behaviour, there were aspects of what took place in downtown Brisbane one Saturday night and in the aftermath that troubled me deeply and which I believe damaged the Broncos.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 23,00.html http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 66,00.html