Round 12, 2002: Brisbane 28 Wests Tigers 14

Round 12, 2002: Brisbane 28 Wests Tigers 14

With no fewer than nine stars missing through Origin duty, an inexperienced Broncos squad were given no chance against a veteran Wests Tigers outfit at Campbelltown. In a now legendary performance, the so-called ‘Baby Broncos’ stood up to be counted and brought back a win for the ages.

Round 12, 2002: Brisbane 28 Wests Tigers 14

Flashback: Brisbane Broncos' most famous Campbelltown win

The Brisbane Broncos have never lost to the Wests Tigers as a joint venture at Campbelltown, but a victory against the odds on a cold winter's night 16 years ago defines what it means to pull on the famous jersey.

In a season where the Broncos celebrate 30 years in the big time and as they prepare to play Wests Tigers on Friday night, NRL.com took a trip down memory lane to 2002 when the "Baby Broncos" were born.

Brisbane had six debutants, a plethora of stars in Maroons camp and half a dozen injured, but still prevailed 28-14 under captain Shane Walker.

"That night we showed that the Broncos have always been a team where, no matter who is put out there, everyone will do a job and is capable of doing a job," Walker told NRL.com.

"We had nine players in the Origin side and the group that played that night knew they'd be sitting in the foyer of the hotel watching the game.

"As much as you want to do your family proud, there is nothing like being able to play well for your teammates and sometimes for the ones that aren't playing.

"We turned up extremely confident we could get the job done and you could sense an over-confidence from the Wests Tigers, and then you could feel the fear of failure grip them when they realised early on in the game that they were in over their heads."

That night several future stars took the field, including Corey Parker, Scott Prince and Shaun Berrigan.

"When you look at the players we had in our team who went on to have decorated careers, maybe we should have been a lot shorter in the betting," Walker said.

Walker said it was also a night where Craig Bellamy, then Wayne Bennett's assistant, "made it very obvious to us just how great a coach he was".

Bellamy took the reins for the contest with Bennett on Maroons coaching duty.

"It was all about the way Craig broke down a game and, more than we'd ever seen before, just how much he understood the opposition and their tendencies defensively," Walker said.

"Then he just gave the group a lot of confidence to be able to exploit areas of their game.

"I distinctly remember they had a left-hand winger named Hassan Saleh and off every scrum, he would get up extremely hard and jam in.

"Craig just said, 'I want you to show like you are going wide to the centre and entice him up even further and then have the confidence to kick for the corner for the winger'.

"He said if we had a scrum 40, 50 or 60 metres out to do it. We practised it, executed it and scored a try off it."

It is 26 years since the Broncos lost at Campbelltown, and that was against Western Suburbs before many of the current Broncos were born.

That perhaps explains Wayne Bennett's comment to reporters on Thursday when asked about the trip on Friday night.

"It is not somewhere that worries me to play. I quite enjoy it down there," he said.

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