It’s been a horror season for the reigning NRL premiers.

But if there’s any lesson they can take from the 2006 NRL champions, it’s that they could never take the premiership memories away from you.

Twenty years on from their famous title win over Melbourne, the only thing keeping them attached is a WhatsApp group.

And there’s no talk about the current Broncos calamities.

Instead, it serves as a constant highlight reel of what made the team special and established the club as a powerhouse in the competition.

“I tell you what we do talk about, a lot of the stuff that we used to do in the old days,” 2006 premiership winner Brent Tate said.

“There’s a lot of reminiscing that goes on, as far as footy talk, it’s always reminiscing and having a laugh. And I think that’s what made it really special.

“Everyone’s got a different memory of different things and you don’t remember things, but then you’re having a laugh about something that you go, ‘Oh f***I remember that now’.”

Three months ago, 16 of the 17 players from the 2006 team gathered for their 20-year reunion – only lock Tonie Carroll was unable to make the event.

The room — once filled with professional athletes — now contained media personalities, general managers, business owners, mine workers, firefighters, and footy coaches.

Despite their separate paths, it was the WhatsApp group that brought the boys together for a final hoorah almost two decades later.

The team culture was so strong that even fringe players attended to celebrate the feat.

“I think Tonie Carroll was the only one who bloody missed it,” Tate said.

“It was huge, guys that were on the fringe and all that, everyone came.

“They’re pretty special moments.

“When it’s all said and done, and you finish your football career, playing a part of a premiership team, it really hit home to me how special it was, and how special it is.

“They can take away all the money and all the fame and all, but they can never take your grand final off you.

“I got a bit emotional being there because it just reminds you how much you loved it and how much you actually miss it.”

Life Beyond the Field

Tate has built a successful post-rugby league career as a National Sales Manager at Power Choice in Townsville, a Cowboys football board member, and a commentator for Fox League.

Even during his playing days, Tate knew he and his teammates would need to build lives after football. However, some of their career paths still surprised him, highlighting how much life has changed for the entire 2006 squad.

“I was always pretty realistic that, none of us sort of earned enough money back then to set ourselves up for life,” Tate said.

“I was always excited about the challenge outside of footy, around what I was going to do and what it was going to look like. I started Fox when I retired 16 years ago or something, mate. I’m probably one of the longest-serving employees at bloody Fox Sports and no one would even know about it.

“The way you are in footy is not the person you become and who you are 10 and 20 years later either. You become sort of a different person when you retire. The Shaun Berrigan playing NRL to the Shaun Berrigan working in the mines are two completely different people and both beautiful people, mate. They’re just different.”

Code Sports tracks down the 2006 premiership-winning Broncos team to see what they are doing 20 years after their finest moment.