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Brisbane great Shane Webcke says lessons learned from the Broncos' stunning 1999 NRL season turnaround have taught him to not write off the current team.
As a member of Brisbane's 1999 team, Shane Webcke knows just what the current Broncos are going through after their woeful NRL season start.
But lessons learned 20 years ago have also taught Webcke that the 2019 Broncos can't be written off just yet.
Brisbane are feeling the heat after slumping to a 1-5 record ahead of Saturday night's Suncorp Stadium clash with Cronulla.
It's their worst season start since 1999 when Webcke and his star studded Brisbane team only managed one win and a draw by round 10.
Yet remarkably the Kevin Walters-skippered Broncos still made the finals that year, dropping just one more game in the next 14 rounds to scrape into eighth.
Webcke didn't predict the current Brisbane crop would go on an 11-game winning streak like his side did back in 1999.
But he did urge the Broncos not to lose faith, saying it was just a matter of time before their fortunes changed - just like it did dramatically 20 years ago.
"I played in the '99 side and I am not a stranger to what they are going through," Webcke told AAP.
"We didn't win many games out of the first 11, then we went on to make the finals.
"Form is a funny thing. You don't know where it comes from, you certainly don't know where it goes and you are not in control when it comes back.
"All you can do is keep doing what you think is right and I have heard (Brisbane coach Anthony) Seibold say that.
"You persevere and it will turn. And it will turn for this mob, don't worry about that.
"When that is going to happen is the million dollar question."
Webcke felt for Brisbane's current plight but almost found it amusing that the critics - some of them former high profile Broncos - had already written off the glamour club's season.
"People are saying Broncos are in crisis and you've got older players chiming in with talk of a culture problem and all the rest of it," he said.
"Which is all a bit of a nonsense really. Ultimately we are going into week seven of the season.
"Of course the longer this goes on the harder it is to do something at the back end of the season but we are a long way off becoming a club in crisis.
"That's part of the theatre of rugby league. It gives us something to talk about but of course they can turn it around."
