The Broncos are a TikTok team and Reece Walsh is the tip of that spear.
He reaches out to the next generation of fans as much with his piercing eyes and painted nails as he does with his scintillating play.
But, even as footy games at Lang Park turn into a social occasion for Brisbane's Gen Z crowd, a gravel-voiced 35-year-old father of two is still a welcome presence at the late-night and arvo hangs.
For most of them, Ben Hunt is of another time. He is the oldest player in the entire league, the man in the NRL who played in the first decade of the 2000s and the last Bronco who played with Darren Lockyer.
But they love him. Some of them have ridden the highs and lows of his long career before they were even teammates.
"I didn't get to play with him the first time he was here. But I remember being a young kid and watching 2015 and I cried myself. I felt for Benny so much," centre Kotoni Staggs said.
"As soon as I heard he was coming back and the talent we had in this team, I knew we could give him something he was missing and we got it done for him."
Ben Te'o and Ben Hunt after the 2025 NRL grand final. Hunt has been around so long, his former teammates — like Ben Te'o — are now his coaches. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)
Even if he was well and truly done in by a head knock before the party wrapped up on Sunday night, the joy felt by Broncos fans and teammates was directed in Hunt's direction as much as any other.
After he returned to the sidelines from his HIA, there were only a few minutes left, but after all this time he didn't care how it happened. He is the most capped first-time premiership winner ever, so that means he has waited longer than anyone.
"It was a long bloody three minutes," Hunt said.
"When the siren went it hit me like a tonne of bricks. It really knocked me around.
"There was definitely times you think it’s never gonna come. I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity to come back to this great club."
Hunt was once a junior superstar like Walsh and that's how Lockyer first came to know him.
"He was from Rocky and he loved a rum and Coke, but he was a competitor. In the under-20s he was a stand-out, so there was a lot of talk about Ben Hunt coming through," Lockyer said.
"He was a character, and he reminded me a bit of Alf [Allan Langer] – he’s a larrikin and a joker, loves a beer, but once he gets on the field he just competes."
In 2015 he played the Walsh role as the Broncos' best player on the field, and we all know how that turned out.
It was so scarring he eventually felt the need to move away from the club and city and state he loves. Hunt said he lost count of the sleepless nights.
So this time, 10 years later and back in his home colours, although he would have rather not suffered a brain injury that left him staggering uneasily and forced him from the field early, Hunt was enjoying it for what it was, even if he couldn't set foot on the park until after the siren.
"I’ve dreamt of it the last 10 years, I really have. It’s taken 350-plus games but it’s all worth it, it really is," Hunt said.
"The family, the friends and the coaches who have put the time into me over the years, it’s a little bit of repayment for them.
"I don’t know if it's a weight off my shoulders, but it's OK for me to talk about 2015 now because we've won a grand final now."
It's no coincidence that Hunt and fellow injured half Adam Reynolds were the last Broncos to leave the field on Sunday night, only making their way into the sheds once the groundstaff emerged with rakes and leaf blowers to clean up the confetti.
Eventually he made it back to the locker room and Maguire said he was simply beaming with a grin from ear to ear.
Both he and Reynolds are contracted through 2026, but both could safely ride off into the sunset with this inspirational premiership tucked under their arm.
But this Broncos team is young and still maybe a little reckless.
As much as they shone outside of and without their two veteran halves in the final stages of the grand final, it may be easy to forget that it was those old hands (or indeed feet) that booted them onto this stage.
No matter what the future holds, Hunt is now a 350-game, premiership-winning NRL player. And no-one, not even the most jaded Storm or even Dragons fan, would begrudge him that.
"Maybe last year, he might think he’d never get the chance to right the wrongs of 2015 but everything in life happens for a reason," Lockyer said.
"It was meant to be, for him to come and have this opportunity.
"I'm so happy for him. I think everyone is happy for him, because he’s had to deal with shit for a long time.
"I get so much joy seeing what this does for the fans, but also for blokes like him. He's gotten what he deserved."
[Source: ABC News]
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
