Ben Barba has been at the centre of the good and bad of the Bulldogs season. Source: Brett Costello / DailyTelegraph
BEN Barba's career at the Broncos has suffered a blow before he even arrives with the troubled big-name recruit facing almost three months on the sidelines.
Brisbane warhorse Corey Parker has warned Barba is not the one-man solution to curing the club's ills as the Canterbury import comes to terms with his own well-being.
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Barba, who injured his ankle in Canterbury's season-ending finals loss to Newcastle, underwent surgery on Thursday. He will miss the start of Broncos pre-season, but is hopeful of training at full capacity before Christmas.
The Broncos are banking on Barba's instinctive brilliance to be their X-factor next year after a dismal 2013 campaign in which they struggled to unearth a regular game-breaker.
Former Test centre Tony Currie has hailed Barba's signing as one of the greatest coups in the club's history, but Parker insists the 24-year-old cannot rebuild the Broncos on his own.
"Ben Barba is a very classy player, he proved that to everyone last year but let's get one thing straight, Ben Barba's inclusion all of a sudden won't turn the Broncos around," Parker said.
"It's certainly exciting to have him on board. I'm looking forward to him playing for the Broncos as much as any Brisbane fan, but there are a number of things we have to work on as a group.
"Ben Barba won't solve all our issues."
Barba will arrive at Red Hill in November in a fragile state. Aside from assault allegations hanging over him, the Queensland Origin hopeful is facing a lengthy rehabilitation from his ankle injury.
Barba's quest for redemption will be mirrored by Broncos stars, with Parker admitting Brisbane's finals wipeout in 2013 cut deep for a squad accustomed to success.
The 31-year-old is struggling as a finals spectator - he won a premiership ring in 2006 and has missed the finals just twice in 13 seasons at the Broncos.
"It hurts enormously," Parker said of Brisbane's 12th-placing.
"I've played 13 years at the Broncos and barely missed the finals. It is something that I'm not quite used to but you learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about each other in terms of character building.
"One thing I can't question is the effort that was put into games. If you were questioning our passion, you would be scratching your head quite a bit.
"But there were quite a few games where we just fell short and a lot of that came down to execution.
"The reality is we didn't make the finals and I think we need to concentrate on executing for the full 80 minutes.
"There were a number of games where we were in a position to win and we just didn't execute right."
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