Tevita Pangai Jr shown the door as Brisbane Broncos drop to last on ladder

As the Brisbane Broncos were getting beaten up and down the football field by South Sydney on Thursday night, news came that one of their most talented players, Tevita Pangai Jr, had been given permission to speak to other clubs.

The player and the club confirmed as much after the 46-0 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs — Brisbane’s sixth successive game conceding at least 34 points and the sixth time this year they have had 40-plus put on them — dropped them to last on the ladder.

Throughout six seasons in the NRL, Pangai has oscillated between State of Origin contention and being more damaging to his own team than the defenders trying to tackle him.

The 25-year-old forward has also became famous for his ability to get an offload away, comfortably leading the NRL.

But popping an offload is one thing; doing it so to give the receiver an advantage is another.

As talented as he is, his high salary and mistake rate, coupled with general inconsistency within games and week to week, made him an obvious candidate to be cut loose.

Pangai is the sort of feast-or-famine player that great, or even good, teams can carry, but the Broncos are eying the wooden spoon for a second-straight year.

Last year, his off-field errors in judgement — breaking COVID-19 biosecurity rules and associating with alleged bikies — almost saw his contract ripped up, but instead he was put on probation.

And while he has not broken the specific thin ice of that probation, another poor start to the season was too much for Brisbane’s management.

He told Channel Nine after Thursday’s game the club “got me in on my day off” to tell him he was no longer wanted.

‘Contracts don’t mean much these days’

“Players have got to be held accountable for the results we’ve been tossing up, so if that’s me then I have to look elsewhere,” he said.

The shove came despite another year to run on his contract. 

“I’ve just got to cop it on the chin and get my manager to do his job.”

Opposing coach and long-time Broncos mentor Wayne Bennett had some thoughts on Pangai’s two years of underperformance.

“He came [to Brisbane] because of me. He came here because he wanted to play here under me and that was taken away from him,” Bennett said.

Broncos coach Kevin Walters said Pangai was simply a victim of an organisation-wide restructure, but later said it was “not so much a restructure [as] just having a good look at ourselves”.

“We’ve got to restructure our roster … [and] not everyone can stay, so that’s why,” Walters said.

“The salary cap certainly comes into play, most definitely. We came up with a decision and there’ll be more decisions to come because clearly we’re not in a good place at the moment and things need to change.”