"This is the year the Brumbies won't do well."
It's an often-used line in January about the ACT side, which has defined its character and DNA as Australia's benchmark side in Super Rugby Pacific.
Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.
The Brumbies will once again go into the season happy to fly under the radar amid high-profile departures and even higher-profile signings at other Australian clubs.
The loss of Noah Lolesio, Tom Hooper and Len Ikitau will only fuel the perception that this is the year Stephen Larkham's team will lose its status as the best Australian team.
But history tells otherwise.
In 2023, they found themselves needing to replace Scott Sio, Folau Fainga'a and Tom Banks, a trio of seasoned Wallabies. In their place came Charlie Cale, a John I Dent standout, Southern Districts prop Blake Schoupp and an unproven Australia Sevens star in Corey Toole.
The following year, Pete Samu and Nic White left for France and the Western Force, respectively.
Last year, the club watched on as the likes of Taniela Tupou, Rob Leota, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Filipo Daugunu and Andrew Kellaway all found new Australian clubs not in the capital after the folding of the Rebels.
Yet every single year of Super Rugby Pacific has ended the same: Brumbies on top of the Australian sides.
"We always fly under the radar, don't we? Always in January (people say), 'this is the year the Brumbies won't do well'," fullback Tom Wright said.
"That's what the Brumbies have been built on since their inception."
Winger/centre Ollie Sapsford is one of the initially undervalued recruits brought in who has helped the ACT side finish in the top four in every iteration of the new comp.
Recruited from Hawke's Bay, Sapsford is now a regular in the Australia A squads and believes the narrative is what they've come to expect.
“I always find it funny looking at the articles in January compared to the articles in June," he told Rugby.com.au.
“You don't really see much about the Brumbies now and then all of a sudden everyone wants to talk about us at the end of the year.
“Nothing's really changed in that way and it's been like that ever since I've been here, we always fly under the radar. No one's bigger than the team here and that's sort of how it works and it works for us down here.
“We just get stuck into our work, don't worry about the headlines and just let the results do the talking.”
Local product Lachlan Lonergan has seen it throughout Super Rugby history, with the Brumbies turning unwanted gems into diamonds time and time again.
“I think it's just an expectation that has been built in the 'Brums' DNA for ages," he believes.
“You look at your past players, and you can just see why it's such a successful club, is because the players past just feed on that information to the present so it's something you kind of just go by.
“I wouldn't be counting this out for sure this year."
For legendary prop James Slipper, the discourse and proving people wrong sum up what makes the club so special.
“It’s an interesting question because we always seem to be written off down here, but I think it comes back to how tight the group is down here, not just the players, but the backroom staff. The club can be a small club, but it's a real powerful club," he said.
“I think we really enjoy playing for each other. At the end of the day, that's what it means. There are always class players in every team. It's just about who plays the best for the bloke next to them, and as a Brumby, that’s what we expect.”
