Broncos confirm departures, six players’ futures remain undecided

The Brisbane Broncos have left the futures of six players up in the air, confirming their only end of season departures at this stage are Herbie Farnworth, Thomas Flegler and Keenan Palasia.

The trio join Ethan Quai-Ward, who departed to the Canterbury Bulldogs in the middle of the season as Brisbane’s losses at the end of 2023.

At this stage, the club have only signed Fletcher Baker and will have roster spots up for grabs heading into 2024, with six players coming off-contract and yet to decide their futures one way or another.

Corey Oates is the most notable of those. While he had a player option for 2024, he rejected that and has been in negotiations with the club ever since.

He has expressed his desire to remain at Red Hill on more than one occasion, publicly stating it’s where he wants to play his rugby league, even though a deal hasn’t been confirmed at this point.

Josh Rogers, who was on a development deal in 2023 and made his NRL debut in Round 27 at five-eighth as Kevin Walters rested most of Brisbane’s best 17, has also reportedly been upgraded to a Top 30 deal, although that report was made in early September with no confirmation as yet by the club.

It has been reported too that Logan Bayloiss-Brow and Brendan Frei have been released by the Broncos, but the duo were missing in Brisbane’s departures announcement on Thursday morning.

The other players on the list are Jordan Pereira and Tyson Smoothy.

Pereira made just a single appearance in 2023 and is yet to have any speculation over his future. All told, he has scored 14 tries across 45 NRL games during his time for the Broncos (since the start of 2022) and St George Illawarra Dragons (2018 through 2021).

Smoothy, on the other hand, may well have his contract renewed, although squad balance is a talking point at Red Hill.

Brisbane already have Billy Walters, Cory Paix and Blake Mozer on their roster. Mozer is rated as a future star dummy half, while Walters has done a solid job for Brisbane in recent times.

It has been reported in recent days however that Paix, who was overtaken for a bench spot during the second half of 2023, may leave the club for 2024, leaving the Broncos able to justify re-signing Smoothy.

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Former Brisbane Broncos forward Rhys Kennedy has joined the newly promoted Super League club London Broncos for next season.

The confirmation of his arrival comes after a one-year stint with the Hull Kingston Rovers – playing alongside Panthers recruit Brad Schneider – having departed the NRL at the end of the 2022 season.

His NRL career consisted of 49 games across two stints. Kennedy’s first stint was with the South Sydney Rabbitohs (2019) in which he played two games before moving to the Brisbane Broncos (2019-22) – appearing in 47 games.

“I can’t wait to get in and meet the boys and the staff. After speaking with Mike he’s very excited about this group of players so I can’t wait to start training and meet them all,” Kennedy said.

“Hopefully I can add some value to the team and learn something from them too.”

His words were followed by that of London Broncos Director of Rugby & Performance Mike Eccles, who is delighted to have him onboard for next season.

“Rhys is a fantastic addition to our squad. His performances last year helped Hull KR to a top 4 finish and a challenge cup final,” Eccles said.

“His age, profile and experiences in the NRL and super league are everything I’m looking for to compliment what I’m sure everyone agrees is a very exciting, young, dynamic London pack.”