Brisbane's opening-round nightmare road-trip destination of Melbourne will be compounded by the toughest opening month to the season of any team in 2019.
The Broncos kick off their campaign on Thursday night against the Storm at AAMI Park, with Melbourne having not lost an opening-round match since 2001.
But an analysis of the opening month of the NRL season shows that's not where the difficulty ends for Brisbane, with their first four games ranked the hardest of any of the 16 clubs.
In the three weeks that follow the Storm game, Brisbane host a North Queensland team expected to rise, noted fast starters St George Illawarra and travel to face defending premiers the Sydney Roosters.
All the while, Anthony Seibold will be trying to implement his game plan on a Broncos team expected to challenge for the top four.
Historically, a team's beginning to the season is crucial to their chances of finishing in the top four.
Of the 48 sides to have reached the mark in the past 12 years, only three have had a losing record through the opening month of the season.
Seibold, who worked under coach Craig Bellamy as an assistant at Melbourne, is well aware just how tough the season start will be.
"I don't think Craig has lost a round-one game since he began his coaching career back in 2003 as an NRL head coach, so he'll have them primed," Seibold said last week at Brisbane's season launch.
"He's done that in the past - like a good trainer with the horses, he'll have them ready to go."
It's not the first time the Broncos have been dealt such a hard hand, after facing each top four-four team from 2016 in the opening month of 2017.
Gold Coast also have a tough start to the year with two of last year's top four in the opening months, while the highly touted Newcastle have three teams from last year's top eight as they try to make the Kalyn Ponga switch work.
At the other end of the scale, the Warriors and Cronulla don't play any of last year's finalists in the first month, with the Kiwis only forced to leave home once.
