What's in a narrative?

Flat trackers or poor travellers?

The rugby league cycle largely shifts around a few prevailing narratives for each team, and once a storyline is established it becomes incredibly hard to break.

Take Saturday night for instance, where you have the Brisbane Broncos, they of soft draws and home comforts, who cannot win in Sydney, against the Cronulla Sharks, big game bottlers and downhill runners.

Well one of those had to end in the Shire and as it turns out, the Broncos are that team this season, not that we really needed too much convincing, but it’s nice to see a contender lay down a marker, even in a seemingly insignificant regular season game in the grand scheme of things.

We’ve known for a while now Brisbane are good. We got our first inkling in Round 1 when they beat the Panthers in Penrith, but Round 1 is always a narrow week and Penrith were granted grace following key summer exits, a disrupted preseason due to heavy World Cup participation and a brutal loss to St Helens a week earlier.

Brisbane kept stacking those blocks though, with Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan elevating yet again into an elite middle pairing producing consistent big minute output, well supported by Tom Flegler and a ragtag cast of misfits.

Kotoni Staggs is quietly having a blinder of a season, but given the cluster of talented centres in the NSW Blues stocks, Origin discussions have predominantly ignored the Wellington, NSW product, out of sight out of mind.

Reece Walsh, doubters in tow, has slotted seamlessly back into Brisbane after a gap year in New Zealand, forming a formidable combination with Adam Reynolds and especially Ezra Mam, his lightning speed and positioning making him a dangerous proposition in support through the middle.

All of that matters little though when Brisbane’s successes this season have been chalked up in no small part to what people are calling a soft draw thanks to the amount of games played in South East Queensland this season, including an away game at Magic Round.

Smarter judges than I noticed the scheduling quirk in preseason, using it to suggest the Broncos were primed for a run at the top four off the back of home comforts and a breezier back half of the draw given they are still yet to have a bye.

Brisbane have navigated the trickier part of their schedule, including the traditional Origin period woes, with flying colours, picking up two wins during Origin affected rounds (although most of their guys backed up), and are now poised to cement their spot in the top four with six free points upcoming.

The flipside of that friendly draw is the inevitable calls that they need to prove themselves on the road outside of Queensland to really test themselves and prove it to the people that don’t matter, which is the people outside the four walls at Red Hill.

And prove it they did.

It can become a tired trope when discussing regular season performances to label them as “finals intensity” and, while the actual game itself won’t get any blood flowing at anything higher than a leisurely Sunday walk along the beach, the desperation and dedication with which Brisbane defended their try line against a visibly frustrated Cronulla attack has got people labelling their defensive efforts as “finals worthy.”

Count me in.

This may not have felt it in the lead up and especially not given we’re barely into June, but this was a big game for the Broncos, for the reasons I outlined above. Sure, people know they’re good now, but it’s always reassuring internally to plant some sort of flag on enemy ground interstate after potshots at your draw have some outside noise devaluing your record.

The win last week on the road in Napier against a, it must be said, poor Warriors performance was step one of this outward offensive to conquer new lands, especially without a host of their stars on Origin duty, including Haas, Flegler, Carrigan, Walsh and Selwyn Cobbo. Travelling to the banks of the Hawke Bay was a good start to this two game swing, but I found their work in the Shire much more compelling.

Cronulla, with no disrespect to the Warriors, are a more cohesive and advanced attacking side, further along their developmental curve with the reigning Dally M medallist, a strong, if somewhat inconspicuous forward pack, and strike on the outside that usually capitalises on long sweeping backline moves.

All of that, in theory, made this one seem like an attacking scorefest, rather than the dour defensive arm wrestle it developed into, and as the old saying goes, good teams find different ways to win when plan A doesn’t transpire.

The Broncos shifted their narrative, turned up at hell’s gates and put in a rock solid performance, defying their home hermit narrative and building some credit in the process.

Narratives are two ways, and it would be remiss of me to not also, by that same token, admonish Cronulla for producing yet another deeply unserious display against a fellow premiership hopeful.

By now you’d be familiar with the script. Cronulla, coming off a top four finish last year largely written off by what the critics are labelling a “cupcake schedule”, the finale of which was an embarrassing straight sets finals exit, including a home loss in Week 1 to the famously well-travelling North Queensland Cowboys.

Spitting fire after having their season achievements dismissed and discarded, the Sharks were looking to prove last year was no fluke. They were here to prove they can beat the big teams and are a title threat to be taken seriously.

I’m still waiting.

For every expansive attacking performance there’s a fizzling defensive disasterclass.

For every acrobatic Mulitalo putdown in the corner there’s a gaffe Benny Hill would be proud of.

For every Royce Hunt hit up there’s a Raiders forward ready to knock his block off…ok that one is fairly specific, but you get the point.

The Cronulla Sharks are the toughest team to read, a true barometer of complete and utter inconclusiveness. Every time you think they’ve turned the corner and are disappearing out of sight up the ladder, you hear the clatter of bins and realise they’ve driven straight into a neighbour’s hedge.

Nights like this, where their attack looks as sleepy as a weary partygoer on the last bus back out into the suburbs from the city, will only serve to fuel the fire of the doubters, gleefully crowing about the fraudulent nature of their 2022 campaign.

Credit the Broncos, sure, because their scramble was elite, but the Sharks threw fewer serious punches than George Kambosos during his first bout with Devin Haney (if Fox League wants to promote boxing then so can I).

The Sharks will finish in the top eight barring a major meltdown. There’s too much baseline talent on the roster and a cacophony of mediocrity below them incapable of stringing together enough coherence to seriously threaten Cronulla’s snug grip on a comfortable top eight spot.

But as things stand, their presence in a Finals bracket will be met with little more than a curious side-eye from potential combatants.

Unless Cronulla can put their foot down and start beating their apparent equals, a tortured existence in the shadows beckons, good enough to be invited but not respected, the friendzone of football’s hierarchy.

Brisbane showed the world how they are more than Suncorp bullies, consigning Cronulla to another defeat at the hands of a top eight side.

It’s time for Cronulla to write their own narrative, because the default is getting a little tired.