One NRL club is all class in farewelling a star. The Broncos? Not so much

August 29, 2026 — 5:00am

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A tale of two cities ... and two clubs for that matter.

As the NRL regular season draws to a close, the Broncos and Rabbitohs have two famous players coming to the end of the road – Adam Reynolds and Jai Arrow.

For Reynolds, it’s a case of age catching up with the 36-year-old: if it’s not his calves being cows, it’s his knees on the blink or his hamstrings on the brink. With Arrow, we all know of his shocking diagnosis of motor neurone disease.

The interest lies in how the two clubs honour their heroes as the curtain falls on their careers.

For the last two games, Arrow is going to kit up and walk out with the team for kick-off before being replaced in the opening seconds to sit on the reserves bench with his teammates.

Souths negotiated this with the NRL, to have him as an extra team member to allow him to go from 98 matches for South Sydney to bringing up his century. Great knock, that. Classy. Heartwarming. And appropriate for a great and well-loved servant of the club.

And what about Reynolds, one of the heroes of Brisbane’s grand final win last year – the key cog in the driveshaft that allowed the whole team to hum, after years of underperforming?

The kicking and passing maestro has been around since the Dead Sea was only sick. He’s played some of his best football north of the Tweed.

Anything like what Arrow was accorded, to at least be a reserve and go on, to accept the accolades of the crowd for a job well done, and a salute to a great career?

Yeah, nah. The club on Friday took the extraordinary step of issuing an apology for butchering his finale. You can’t make up this stuff.

In comments on Monday, Reynolds made it clear he was hoping to play in Thursday’s match in Brisbane – the last home game of the season – but the coach had made it equally clear that he wasn’t going to pick him unless he was 100 per cent fit.

When Broncos fullback Reece Walsh “liked” an Instagram post from Fox Sports after panellists on NRL360 had been highly critical of the move, the poo hit the fan.

Walsh deleted it after being counselled about the dangers of social media. The Broncos even claimed, hilariously, that as reported by the Herald, it was an “accident [due] to mindless social media scrolling.”

Riiiight. Walsh has 700,000 followers on Instagram. He’s a master of the platform. But somehow his pudgy fingers just hit the wrong button. No, really!

By the follow afternoon even Reynolds – who will likely be on the coaching staff of the Broncos next year – had recanted, saying it was really his decision all along.

Either way, the point remains: the Broncos’ season is gone; they’re third last.

Was it........

© The Age