# 2005 Brisbane Broncos season

The 2005 Brisbane Broncos season was the eighteenth in the club's history, and they competed in the NRL's 2005 Telstra Premiership. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Darren Lockyer, they finished the regular season 3rd (out of 15) despite ending the year with another long losing streak which continued into the play-offs and saw them knocked out once again.

## Season summary

With Gorden Tallis' retirement at the end of the previous season, the Broncos' captaincy was passed onto star fullback-turned-5/8th Darren Lockyer. In round 1 of NRL season 2005 Lockyer led the Broncos out for the first time and won 29-16 against the North Queensland Cowboys, the team that knocked them out of the finals in their last match the previous year. Three weeks later, the Broncos suffered their worst defeat in the club's history with a 50-4 loss to the Melbourne Storm at Olympic Park. After this match, the Broncos won their next ten matches straight from round 5 to round 17 to lead the competition, only to lose their last five regular season game in a row from round 22 to round 26, finishing third heading into the finals. The losing streak extended into the finals with defeats in the Qualifying Final to the Melbourne Storm 24-18 and in the Semi Final to the Wests Tigers 34-6, sending them out of the competition and making it seven consecutive losses in and seven straight finals losses for the Broncos.
At the end of the 2005 season, after five successive years without a grand final appearance, Bennett decided to have a cleanout of the coaching staff, removing such long-time allies as Gary Belcher, Glenn Lazarus and Kevin Walters.

## Match results

| Round | Opponent | Result | Bro. | Opp. | Date | Venue | Crowd | Position |
| Trial Match | Melbourne Storm | Loss | 10 | 24 | 19 Feb | Carrara Stadium | - | - |
| Trial Match | Canberra Raiders | Win | 26 | 20 | 26 Feb | Stadium Toowoomba | - | - |
| 1 | North Queensland Cowboys | Win | 29 | 16 | 13 Mar | Suncorp Stadium | 43,488 | 4/15 |
| 2 | New Zealand Warriors | Loss | 12 | 24 | 19 Mar | Suncorp Stadium | 24,719 | 8/15 |
| 3 | Sydney Roosters | Win | 40 | 22 | 25 Mar | Sydney Football Stadium | 23,157 | 4/15 |
| 4 | Melbourne Storm | Loss | 4 | 50 | 2 Apr | Olympic Park | 12,149 | 10/15 |
| 5 | Parramatta Eels | Win | 54 | 14 | 10 Apr | Suncorp Stadium | 25,843 | 6/15 |
| 6 | St George Illawarra Dragons | Win | 34 | 24 | 17 Apr | WIN Stadium | 17,287 | 5/15 |
| 7 | Cronulla Sharks | Win | 16 | 12 | 23 Apr | Toyota Park | 17,864 | 4/15 |
| 8 | Manly Sea Eagles | Win | 38 | 12 | 29 Apr | Suncorp Stadium | 27,514 | 2/15 |
| 9 | Canterbury Bulldogs | Win | 35 | 28 | 8 May | Suncorp Stadium | 29,845 | 1/15 |
| 10 | North Queensland Cowboys | Win | 23 | 6 | 14 May | Dairy Farmers Stadium | 22,477 | 1/15 |
| 11 | Bye | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1/15 |
| 12* | South Sydney Rabbitohs | Win | 36 | 12 | 28 May | Suncorp Stadium | 18,081 | 1/15 |
| 13 | Newcastle Knights | Win | 34 | 16 | 5 Jun | EnergyAustralia Stadium | 22,423 | 1/15 |
| 14 | Canberra Raiders | Win | 20 | 12 | 11 Jun | Canberra Stadium | 8,609 | 1/15 |
| 15* | Wests Tigers | Win | 40 | 22 | 18 Jun | Suncorp Stadium | 25,780 | 1/15 |
| 16 | New Zealand Warriors | Loss | 18 | 30 | 26 Jun | Ericsson Stadium | 13,752 | 1/15 |
| 17 | Cronulla Sharks | Win | 22 | 10 | 3 Jul | Suncorp Stadium | 23,900 | 1/15 |
| 18 | Bye | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1/15 |
| 19* | Melbourne Storm | Win | 28 | 15 | 17 Jul | Suncorp Stadium | 32,738 | 1/15 |
| 20 | Canterbury Bulldogs | Loss | 22 | 29 | 22 Jul | Telstra Stadium | 29,112 | 1/15 |
| 21 | Canberra Raiders | Win | 24 | 18 | 30 Jul | Suncorp Stadium | 27,478 | 1/15 |
| 22 | Manly Sea Eagles | Loss | 20 | 21 | 7 Aug | Brookvale Oval | 29,112 | 1/15 |
| 23 | St George Illawarra Dragons | Loss | 4 | 24 | 14 Aug | Suncorp Stadium | 27,478 | 1/15 |
| 24 | Penrith Panthers | Loss | 20 | 22 | 21 Aug | CUA Stadium | 16,198 | 1/15 |
| 25 | Sydney Roosters | Loss | 10 | 17 | 26 Aug | Suncorp Stadium | 48,995 | 3/15 |
| 26 | Parramatta Eels | Loss | 14 | 28 | 2 Sep | Parramatta Stadium | 20,340 | 3/15 |
| Qualif. Final | Melbourne Storm | Loss | 18 | 24 | 10 Sep | Suncorp Stadium | 25,193 | - |
| Semi Final | Wests Tigers | Loss | 6 | 34 | 18 Sep | Sydney Football Stadium | 36,563 | - |

## Season Ladder

2005 NRL seasonvte :
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | B | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
| 1 | Parramatta Eels | 24 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 704 | 456 | +248 | 36 |
| 2 | St George Illawarra Dragons | 24 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 655 | 510 | +145 | 36 |
| 3 | Brisbane Broncos | 24 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 597 | 484 | +113 | 34 |
| 4 | Wests Tigers (P) | 24 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 676 | 575 | +101 | 32 |
| 5 | North Queensland Cowboys | 24 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 639 | 563 | +76 | 32 |
| 6 | Melbourne Storm | 24 | 13 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 640 | 462 | +178 | 30 |
| 7 | Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks | 24 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 550 | 564 | -14 | 28 |
| 8 | Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles | 24 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 554 | 632 | -78 | 28 |
| 9 | Sydney Roosters | 24 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 488 | 487 | +1 | 26 |
| 10 | Penrith Panthers | 24 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 554 | 554 | 0 | 26 |
| 11 | New Zealand Warriors | 24 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 515 | 528 | -13 | 24 |
| 12 | Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs | 24 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 472 | 670 | -198 | 23 |
| 13 | South Sydney Rabbitohs | 24 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 482 | 700 | -218 | 23 |
| 14 | Canberra Raiders | 24 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 465 | 606 | -141 | 22 |
| 15 | Newcastle Knights | 24 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 2 | 467 | 667 | -200 | 20 |

## Players

* Berrick Barnes
* Barry Berrigan
* Shaun Berrigan
* Leon Bott
* Dane Carlaw
* Tonie Carroll
* Petero Civoniceva
* Neville Costigan
* Nathan Daly
* Greg Eastwood
* Justin Hodges
* Karmichael Hunt
* Stuart Kelly
* Nick Kenny
* Tom Learoyd-Lars
* Darren Lockyer (c)
* Darren Mapp
* Casey McGuire
* Stephen Michaels
* Scott Minto
* Nick Parfitt
* Corey Parker
* Brett Seymour
* Darren Smith
* David Stagg
* Brent Tate
* Sam Thaiday
* Brad Thorn
* Tame Tupou
* Shane Webcke
* Neale Wyatt

## Scorers

| Player | Tries | Goals | Field Goals | Points |
| Darren Lockyer | 8 | 52/84 | 1 | 137 |
| Brett Seymour | 7 | 32/42 | 2 | 94 |
| Shaun Berrigan | 19 | 0 | 0 | 76 |
| Leon Bott | 13 | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| Justin Hodges | 11 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| Karmichael Hunt | 8 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| Brent Tate | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Scott Minto | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| David Stagg | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Casey McGuire | 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Darren Smith | 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Brad Thorn | 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Tonie Carroll | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Dane Carlaw | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Petero Civoniceva | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Barry Berrigan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Stephen Michaels | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Corey Parker | 1 | 1/1 | 0 | 6 |
| Sam Thaiday | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Neville Costigan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Berrick Barnes | 1 | 0/2 | 0 | 4 |

## Honours
### League

* Nil

### Club

* Player of the year: Shane Webcke
* Rookie of the year: Leon Bott
* Back of the year: Justin Hodges
* Forward of the year: Petero Civoniceva
* Club man of the year: Tony Duggan