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The Passion of the Kevin

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
47,822
Kevvie getting all fired up again. From the quoted article:

As his players sat slumped in the changerooms, Walters balled up a Broncos jersey and eyeballed every one of them.

Stuff like that should turn it all around.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/c...g/news-story/7a9d623e45e66759eb71cb876548e964

You couldn’t hear what he was saying but the message Kevin Walters delivered to his players after their latest NRL horror show was unmistakeable — you’ve disrespected the jersey.

A week after delivering a roaring pre-game rev-up that inspired his team to one of its most competitive performances of the season against Penrith, Walters was at it again after a 46-6 defeat against Parramatta on Friday night.

As his players sat slumped in the changerooms, Walters balled up a Broncos jersey and eyeballed every one of them.

“He makes a real point of the jersey, doesn’t he?” rugby league great Billy Slater said. “It took four tackles for the Broncos to let in a try tonight. That’s the disappointing thing about their performance — their resilience on their tryline.

“Forty-six points. It’s not good enough for Kevvie, for what he thinks a Broncos player should be performing like.”

If that didn’t hurt the players, the reaction from the rugby league world to their latest embarrassment surely will.

eadd67f93585265ec650fb34d4ad5042

Kevin Walters balls up the Broncos jersey as he stares down his players.Source:Channel 9

‘Diabolical’ defence just the start

Broncos great and Fox League analyst Corey Parker said there should be “huge concerns” after the lacklustre performance and pulled apart Brisbane’s right-edge defence which consisted of Tevita Pangai Junior, Brodie Croft, Herbie Farnworth and Xavier Coates.

“Brisbane’s right-edge defence was diabolical, seven tries down that right-hand side for the Broncos, 51 missed tackles in a game of football which quite simply is not good enough,” he said.

Walters didn’t disagree. “That’s a very strong left edge of Parramatta but of course we’ve got to be better than what we were,” he said in his post-match press conference.

Parker — who was a part of the Broncos coaching staff before being axed at the end of last year — believes the team crumbles as soon as the pressure is put on them.

“They’ve proven over the last year and a half that if you sustain any bit of pressure on Brisbane and they’ll go to water,” he said.

“If you’re an opposing team that would certainly be your game plan, ‘let’s put these guys under the blowtorch, build a bit of pressure around them and the cracks will show.’

“Early on in that game there were cracks, there was disjointed defensive lines, there were people coming out of the system trying to prove it themselves.”

In his press conference Walters said “there’s a lot of disappointed guys in the sheds” but wasn’t concerned the group’s spirit had been broken.

“It’s not a great result. We just didn’t control the ball. When you’re turning over possession continually against a side like Parramatta, they’ll just roll through you,” he said.



FOXSPORTS3:57
Broncos press conference
NRL: Broncos press conference after their humiliating loss to the Eels.

‘That’s not going to cut it’

The thrashing showed once again where the Broncos are in the NRL pecking order, despite impressing the league with last week’s performance against the ladder-leading Panthers.

The heat sapped the players quickly with the sheen of sweat clear from the opening whistle but the Broncos were their own worst enemies as the Eels ran rampant.

Parramatta finished with 59 per cent of possession and an 80 per cent completion rate, with 11 line breaks for the match.

The Broncos on the other hand completed at 68 per cent, missed 54 tackles and had 15 errors.

“That’s not going to cut it in any game of football particularly in the conditions up in Darwin,” Cooper Cronk said on Fox League.

“The Brisbane Broncos really need to go and do some homework on their right edge defence. They let in six tries down that right edge defensively and that was Croft, Pangai Jr. and Farnworth under immense pressure. I just really liked that Parramatta flew up to Darwin, got the job done, put the right game plan in place, took it to the Broncos down the middle, exposed them down the right edge defensively and came away the points 46-6.”



FOXSPORTS2:41
Eels thrash sorry Broncos
NRL: The Parramatta Eels have continued their impressive start to the season by demolishing the Broncos 46-6 in Darwin.

Parker urged the team to just get back to basics.

“Last week we saw a performance from Brisbane — particularly the intensity side of things — of where they need to be. The challenge for them was always going to be what can they produce the following week,” he said.

“Clearly 51 missed tackles, you can look at structure, you can look at everything you want but you’ve got to start looking at yourself firstly.

“There’s just no cohesion, it’s not a quick fix, there’s no trust, there’s people trying to find easy options as opposed to sticking to your strengths.

“If your strengths aren’t good enough to win a game, that’s fine, stick to your strengths, execute it to your best ability and then see what you’ve got but at the moment they’re just giving themselves no opportunity.”

James Graham agreed that Brisbane is missing one very important element that all successful teams have in bucket loads: trust.

“They just don’t look like they trust each other,” he said.

“There was a moment there where (Danny) Levi, who’s new to the club, had an opportunity and he broke through but he doesn’t trust what’s going to happen next and he wants to take it on himself.

“Then you see defensively playing trying to do other players’ jobs for them, completely and utterly coming out of the system, it doesn’t look like they have a system and that’s just a lack of trust.”
 

Nealo 12

Bench
Messages
4,796
I think some sage advice from Ricky is what’s needed ... looked like a lot of hurt’in in the sheds go’in on there !
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
47,822
At least he cares. Seibold had the personality of prune juice and was just counting coin.
I think Kevvie is trying and earnest in what he does, but the broncos need a big clean out of players because their attitude and sense of entitlement stinks.

All enabled by a sycophantic Queensland media, including channel nine, who think that the broncos are special and above criticism.
 

Steel Saints

Juniors
Messages
802
I am not sure if Kevvie is a first grade coach. He may prove me wrong, but when he starts delivering pre game sprays one week and showing passion for the jersey the following week, it may illustrate that tactically he is not up to scratch.

When he was coaching origin in the last couple of series, he lost against Freddie. Freddie himself was then outplayed by Bennett's spare parts Qld side last year. That says alot about Kevvie. He was showing passion for Qld and is now showing passion for his beloved club. However, he needs to have the nous to survive as a first grade coach.

The old boys wanted Kevvie. An old boy returning as coach doesn't always work out. Remember Cronin at Parra, Coleman at Souths, Mal at Canberra, Mary and Brown at the Dragons, Pearce at Balmain etc. Sure a club like Manly has had success with their old boys such as Willey, Stanton, Fulton and Hasler.

But when you get your first wooden spoon, you needed to get the right man for job without the emotion. Brisbane choosing Kevvie was in part down to emotion. Kevvie is displaying plenty of it, and fair play to him, but I don't think the Broncos got the right man.
 

Saint Doc

Coach
Messages
11,060
Anthony Seibold was objectively a good choice.
Young, reputation for being tactical, apprenticeships at Storm/Manly/Souths, successful first grade results with Souths, Queenslander.

Their strategy was right. It just didn’t work out for some reason.

But now they’ve gone in the other direction. Older, non-tactical, unsuccessful coach who has been passed over for top jobs for about 15 years prior to appointment. A belief that they needed someone “to instill pride in the jersey” where as what they really need is a teacher.

To think they sacked Bennett twice is hilarious.
 

Mark B

Juniors
Messages
532
I always look back to when he was employed as a commentator at Fox. Came across as the class clown and could barely string a coherent sentence together without being a goofball. Was an exceptional player in his day. He is not a NRL coach IMHO.
 

Big Pete

Referee
Messages
28,939
The issue is that the Broncos couldn't just go out and sign a Craig Bellamy or a Trent Robinson. They weren't available and even if they were they would never stake their reputation on a mess of a club right now. So either came down to a disgraced coach like Paul Green or somebody who has an obvious passion for the role and the club in Walters.

Kev's job right now is the most thankless role in the NRL. It's like Nathan Brown at the Knights where all he can do is ride this mess out and hope that the Bullemors, Fleglers, Rikis etc. of the squad can improve and they can at least set themselves up for 2023 or 2024. By that point, Kev will likely be out of a job and they'll bring in an assistant who will actually have some freedom to put together the roster he wants.

The whole mismanagement of the club goes back to the new television deal. Brisbane had the most amount of players off contract and when the Dragons threw that ridiculous deal at Hunt and when the Titans did the same with Taylor it spooked the club. They made all these commitments with the idea that the players would play under Bennett only to try and sign Bellamy behind Bennett's back. Then instead of trying to make peace they decided to go on with it and punted him for a rookie coach who was all hype.

Players start leaving the titanic and in order to keep a few of them Seibs throws these ridiculous contracts which just makes the salary cap worse. Players like Lodge, Pangai Jr and Oates all got paid ridiculous sums and they started promoting rookies on NRL deals well before they were ready.

With that said, Kev hasn't really been that impressive. Supposedly he re-signed Flegler on a $650,000 deal when really outside of Haas nobody deserved to be paid. Apparently he's looking to re-sign Staggs on $700,000 which is ridiculous and Coates is looking at $500,000 which again, why? They let Walsh go because $400,000 was unreasonable for a 18 year old fullback but $400,000 for an 18 year old second rower is more than reasonable. Made a big song and dance about starting Dearden in QCup only to call him up after one game and then play him in a glut of games against the top teams so he's absolutely shot. The one marquee signing he made was Asiata who was supposed to add a new dimension to the attack but he can barely get a game. Brisbane had two roster spots and instead of looking to recruit a player in a position of need on a short term deal he goes out and promotes the aforementioned 18 year old backrow and Danny Levi. I have no idea what he was thinking with the last signing considering he could have signed him on a train and trial deal and brought him up that way since the Broncos depth at dummy half is shot. The only free agents being linked to the club are his son and 34 going on 35 year old Karmichael Hunt who hasn't played NRL in 12 years.
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
Steel Saints and Big Pete nailed it.

Basically the club is finding itself in a massive hole of their own making that will take years to get out of.

The Broncos of old are dead and buried. Just another club now. Ideal time for a 2nd Brisbane team to come in and take over.
 
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