Broncos face uphill battle to keep all off-contract stars

With the player market for 2018 and beyond now officially open, Courier-Mail chief league writer Peter Badel has told this week’s edition of the Colman’s Call podcast that the Broncos will struggle to keep all their off-contract stars.

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As well as Milford and Maguire, halfback Ben Hunt and Kiwi international Adam Blair became open to offers on November 1.

Badel said Milford’s asking price holds the key to which players the club can hold.

“I think he’ll be rugby league’s first $1.5 million player,” he said. “I know we’ve had million dollar players but I think this contract will be the biggest we’ve seen in the NRL. He’s not overly loyal to the Broncos; he’s only played a couple of seasons so there will be 15 clubs wanting to sign him. “

Badel said the Broncos had been able to pay under the market value for players in the past because of attractive lifestyle and cost of living factors, but with the salary cap set to rise money will talk loudest.

“Josh Maguire stayed for $450,000 in his last contract,” he said. “He was offered $700,000 from Sydney clubs but he chose to stay loyal because he likes Brisbane and he has family here. It’s a more cutthroat age now, he’s aged 25, 26, this is the biggest contract of his career.

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“He won’t be taking pay cuts again so the Broncos have to up the ante and whether they can afford to keep them all will be interesting. Anthony Milford will be critical to all this.”

Also on this week’s Colman’s Call podcast All Blacks and Broncos great Brad Thorn makes some surprising revelations about the toughest men he played with and against in both codes, AFL writer Andrew Hamilton gives his views on how the Lions and Suns will fare in season 2017, and top boxing analyst Grantlee Kieza takes listeners behind the scenes of the big Lucas Browne-Shannon Briggs heavyweight world title fight.

Originally published as Milford deal key to Brisbane’s future