After the champion halfback struggled late in the grand final, the decision to stretch Broncos halfback Adam Reynolds has come under scrutiny.
Reynolds has agreed to a one-year contract that will keep him with the team until the end of 2025, for a sum much less than his current $750,000 per season.
Before the 2022 season, the 33-year-old signed a three-year contract with Brisbane after South Sydney turned down his offer of a longer-than-one-year contract
However, he disproved the Rabbitohs by leading the Broncos—who won the wooden spoon in 2020—to the championship game the previous season.
With 17 minutes remaining in the championship game, Brisbane led 24-8. However, a brilliant play by Nathan Cleary helped the Panthers secure a 26-24 victory and complete their three-peat.
After receiving backlash for his performance toward the end of the game, veteran journalist Phil “Buzz” Rothfield has now questioned the choice to re-sign Reynolds.
“I felt that Adam Reynolds’ last 17 minutes in the grand final were just as bad as Cleary’s,” Las Vegas-based Rothfield stated on NRL 360.
“Given his age, shouldn’t they have waited until mid-year? They just resigned him.”
Paul Kent refuted, saying, “No, he looks good,” in disagreement.
Buzz was unimpressed, saying, “There was no reason to re-sign him straight away in the off-season because nobody else was chasing him.” “It takes out all the speculation,” Kent retorted. “I think Adam Reynolds spent so much of that first half tackling, this is the other thing that hasn’t been spoken about in the grand final, they burnt up so much juice in that first half tackling and they defended so well that it zapped them at the end of the game
.
