THE Brisbane Broncos teammates at the centre of the rat in the ranks locker room verbal fracas are Josh McGuire and Ben Hunt.

The duo was involved in a heated confrontation when a picture of a rat was placed on McGuire’s locker at the Broncos Red Hill headquarters in Brisbane last Wednesday.

Fox Sports rugby commentator Greg Martin revealed the brouhaha on Triple M radio in Brisbane on Friday morning.

Ben Hunt (left) and Josh McGuire. Pic Annette Dew Source: News Corp Australia

Round 19

The tension dates back to Hunt and other members of the Broncos including Matt Gillett believing McGuire talks too much and was inadvertently leaking inner sanctum information to the media.

One of the flashpoint moments some of the Brisbane players remain curious about was when Cameron Munster and Valentine Holmes were banned after breaking curfew in a Maroons emerging Origin camp.

Initially, only Munster and Holmes were caught and issued with 12-month suspensions. Then The Courier Mail revealed six other players including Hunt, Anthony Milford, Dylan Napa, Edrick Lee, Jarrod Wallace and Chris Grevsmuhl also broke the curfew.

The additional six were then given the same 12-month suspensions by Queensland coach Kevin Walters.

Some of the Broncos players, particularly Ben Hunt, took offence at this.

So they hatched a plot to try and find out if McGuire was talking too much and inadvertently providing information to the media.

The ironic element is the angle of the story they used to try and trap McGuire was about the off-contract Gillett being linked to St George Illawarra.

In reality, the Dragons are interested in trying to land Gillett’s signature but given their lacklustre start to the season they’re going to struggle to attract big-name players.

Aside from the initial blow-up and confrontation between McGuire and Hunt the pair remain great mates and went to a Broncos team sanctioned lunch at Cha Cha Char restaurant in Brisbane today.

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