Jock Madden was once seen as the Wests Tigers long-term option at halfback who would hopefully mature to the point of becoming a leader in their squad.

It was believed that if Madden reached his true potential he could help the Tigers back to being premiership contenders but unfortunately things haven’t quite worked out that way.

After making his NRL debut for the Tigers against the Newcastle Knights during Magic Round in 2021 Madden would only play in two more games that year and was used often used as a utility player for the 14 games he played in last year.

The Tigers current halves situation made it very hard for Madden to have an impact at all with Jackson Hastings commanding the halfback position as the club’s star signing last year.

Luke Brooks is still a veteran in the current Tigers squad and is simply on too big a wage to be dropped from the first-grade side for any significant amount of time so he was predominantly selected over Madden especially while Adam Doueihi was injured.

With all that taken into account Madden parted ways with the Tigers at the end of last season and has since signed with the Brisbane Broncos where he will be competing with Ezra Mam for the five-eighth position.

Mam stood out in 2022 and for many cemented his spot in the NRL but made has recently spoken to NRL reporter Colleen Edwards and believes he has a real shot at wearing the number six for the Broncos.

“Obviously, you have Adam Reynolds up here and I can learn so much from him, [and I am going to] push for a starting spot up here as well,” said Madden.

Loving Jock’s energy already 🐎

Full presser 📲 https://t.co/uIcxD8LByN pic.twitter.com/uiKcQxXcz4

— Brisbane Broncos (@brisbanebroncos) November 8, 2022

“I came up here to play NRL and that’s what I continue to do.

“And you know, they’ve got so much history here at the club and got players like Kevie (Kevin Walters) the coach, Alfie (Allan Langer), Ben Ikin, Locky (Darren Lockyer), you can know, learn from those players as well, just continue to grow my game from that as well.

“The city is bloody driven by rugby league and seeing these facilities coming here every day, it’s very professional and like I said before, being part of it, it’s very exciting.

“Really looking forward to the season ahead.”

Based on a recent report from The Sydney Morning Herald the Broncos are set to face defending premiers the Penrith Panthers in 2023’s first Friday night blockbuster at BlueBet stadium which means whoever is selected to partner Reynolds will need to be at their best.