Brisbane have a premiership to defend, a superstar fullback ready to dazzle, and a squad that looked every bit like a dynasty in the making.
Instead, three games into 2026, the Broncos find themselves staring at an 0-2 record (0-3 including World Club Challenge vs Hull K.R.), being defeated in England and embarrassed at home by the Panthers, then gutted in the dying minutes by a resurgent Parramatta side.
The same wounds keep opening. The same lapses keep appearing.
The final scoreboard keeps hurting.
This isn't bad luck, a bad draw, or a bad week.
This is a team repeatedly making the same six mistakes, and until they're fixed, the premiership defence is over in everything but name.
5. Missed tackles and defensive fragility
The Broncos' defensive effort so far this season has brought up comparisons to their 2024 season, with similar patterns of players changing direction when defending, shutting down, not a lot of first and second efforts when teams attack out-wide and find a gap through a short-ball set piece, which is how the Eels were able to get Kelma Tuilagi and Iongi scoring their two tries.
Ezra Mam was caught out on mutliple Eels tries, not trusting his teammate on the inside, stop chasing the Eels players finding gaps in their defensive lines mid-play.
In Pezet's try in the last minute of the game, Walsh was not in the right position to cover the grubber kick through the gap in the middle of their line.
Cooper Cronk said in the Fox League commentary during the match, "Reece Walsh was nowhere to be seen.
"He's clocked off, he's finished for the night."
On the wrong side of the ruck, Walsh showed signs of being gassed out at the back end of the game and not being able to cover a one-on-one tackle against Kelma Tuilagi.
Walsh was also far out on the other side when Iongi crossed in the right corner in the second half.
That’s a perceptive analysis.
I’d summarise it by saying that most of the players are not concentrating on what they have been trained to do.
If each one does what he is supposed to do (and has the skill to do) then the team would not have the problems that it is facing.