There are sporting roller coasters.
Then there’s the past twelve months as experienced by Brisbane Broncos centre Gehamat Shibasaki.
Having already delivered one of 2025’s most surprising rugby league storylines, the 27-year-old from Townsville could be about to cap a remarkable season in the most remarkable of ways, with an NRL premiership.
This time last year, Shibasaki had just finished playing the 2024 Queensland Cup season with the Townsville Blackhawks.
It was something he fully expected to be doing again in 2025 until being offered a train and trial lifeline by newly-arrived Broncos coach Michael Maguire, giving him plenty to prove and no promises.
“12 months ago, I was back at home working and playing cup footy full-time,” Shibasaki told SEN radio earlier in 2025.
“Coming back during the off season, it was more about getting fit and worrying about the (Queensland) cup season, but obviously it worked out really well and Madge liked what I was doing.”
Shibasaki forced his way into Maguire’s starting thirteen for the opening game of the 2025 season where he promptly scored Brisbane’s first try in a 50-14 demolition of the Sydney Roosters.
Top try scorer in 2025
He went on to feature in all but two matches for the Broncos in 2025 and heading into Sunday’s grand final the powerful centre remains the club’s leading try scorer with 16 for the season.
Of course, it hasn’t just been first-grade where he has made his mark with Shibasaki also sensationally gaining a Maroons debut in the victorious State of Origin decider in Sydney.
For a man who’d spent seven years as a rugby league journeyman, life it seemed was finally sweet—until he almost threw it all away with the NRL finals series looming.
‘I thought I might not be back’
Having just delivered a two-try performance against the North Queensland Cowboys in Round 26, Shibasaki celebrated a little too hard and turned up to Broncos training still under the effects of alcohol, and was promptly stood down for the Round 27 home blockbuster against the Melbourne Storm.
‘Gehamat Shibasaki has lost his spot in the starting line-up for Thursday night’s game against the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium. This follows a breach of Broncos team standards, which has been dealt with internally,’ the club announced in an official statement.
The self-inflicted demotion meant Shibasaki was absent the last time the two grand final sides met—an absence he initially feared may have extended for the rest of the 2025 season.
“I thought I might not be back, 100 per cent,” a relieved Shibasaki told News Corp after learning he had been re-instated by Michael Maguire for Brisbane’s opening finals match against Canberra, where he was once again amongst the try scorers.
Win or lose on Sunday night, when the full-time siren sounds at Accor Stadium it will bring to a close one of the more remarkable ‘comeback’ seasons in NRL history.
Unless, of course, a barnstorming performance against Melbourne earns a last-minute call up from Kevin Walters to join the Australian Kangaroos squad.
Stranger things have happened.