Brisbane Are Cast and There Is No Road Back: Perhaps the worst thing to happen to the Brisbane Broncos was reaching last year’s Grand Final and getting oh so close to winning it. It masked the reality that the Broncos are really a middling team that has coaching, roster construction, player development and talent identification issues that are not going to be easily solved. The performance of this Broncos team should only be mildly surprising. And it is not going to get better on the path the Broncos are on.
For a team as big and as bold as the Broncos are, they have a roster that is confusing and lacking in depth with more misses than hits.They have pursued a top-heavy approach and that works if complemented with strong player development, quality coaching and/or quality roster building. The Broncos have nine.
There is few concerns with the top of the roster. Payne Haas is the best prop in the game. Patrick Carrigan is close to the best lock. Reece Walsh is a genuine game-winner. The only real worry is Adam Reynolds and his health. The Rabbitohs have taken an almighty bath for letting him go but it has nothing to do with the last two years and everything to do with the next two.
The biggest concern is at that next level. Ezra Mam has emerged as a star but the money invested in Selwyn Cobbo, Kotoni Staggs, Brendan Piakura and Jordan Riki has been severely misspent. Cobbo and Staggs have both shown flashes of brilliance but bring no consistency while Piakura and Riki are complete busts who miss key tackles constantly.
The lack of depth at the Broncos is alarming too as is the positions invested in. The Broncos seem to have four pure hookers including Cory Paix on $320,000 per year. The club has made a decision to completely de-prioritise one of the most important positions in the game – one can figure out why – yet is putting a heap of low-level resources into it. This is chewing up the cap and blocking the path of talented youngsters like Blake Mozer.
The coaching situation is not good and has the potential to get a lot worse quickly. Few people have been gifted an NRL head coaching job more than Walters, who not only got a massive push from the Broncos old boys but got it after the Anthony Seibold debacle. He was the only legitimate contender and the Broncos brass did very little due diligence trying to find the best coach at the time. While Walters can do the rah-rah thing well enough, he has certainly struggled to earn the respect of his players. It is believed that halfback Adam Reynolds is the main strategist while assistants Lee Briers and Matt Ballin play a huge hand. Briers is returning to the UK and likely St Helens while Ballin is likely to sign with the Titans to assist Des Hasler and could well be in the frame to coach Manly should that job open.
The Broncos should be a destination club but they are not. They have not won a premiership in nearly two decades. They have let so much talent walk out the door in recent years. They are struggling to identify and develop talent. Things are going to get worse before they get better for the Broncos and the reality is that this club is not going to win a title under Kevin Walters.
The Next Immortal: The NRL last week announced that a new Immortal would be added to the list of 13. Four originals were added in the early 1980s and five were added four years back with four more added in the intervening years. While it was a positive to see some of the game’s original greats added last time – Messenger, Burge and Brown – there is a danger of too much recency bias and diluting the standing. The Immortals have always been great because the positions are so scarce. This is not an acknowledgment that should be given lightly and while there is an entire host of potential candidates coming up – Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Jonathan Thurston, potentially Darren Lockyer – this is a perfect opportunity to pay homage to a great from the fledgling years of the game such as Charles ‘Chook’ Fraser, who was part of Balmain’s first six premierships, or Duncan Thompson, widely regarded as one of the code’s greatest halfbacks and the star of the famous North Sydney sides that dominated the league in the early 1920s. It is also a chance to bring in a true legend like Ron Coote or an underrated star like Brian Bevan, who played just eight premiership matches and never represented Australia but scored an incredible 796 tries for Warrington and Blackpool Borough in a decorated two-decade English career that set the game alight. Smith, Slater and Thurston are all deserving and will get there – but their time is later.
Taane Milne Should Not Be In First Grade: Taane Milne’s complete and utter selfishness in refusing to pass the ball at a key moment of South Sydney’s attempted comeback against the Dolphins was embarrassing and should see him blackballed from Souths for the remainder of the year. Alex Johnston, the second greatest tryscorer in the history of the game stood to his outside unmarked. Jai Arrow was unmarked on his inside. Milne went himself. Arrow rightly blew up, showing where Milne stands with his teammates. If this was a one-off, it would be forgiven, but Milne has a long history of being unable to control his impulses. He costs his team far too often to be trusted.
Refereeing is Not Managing Games: It has been apparent for some time that referees no longer officiate games: they manage them. There are far more downsides to this than benefits, something the current leadership appears blind to. We see it far too often at every level. Officials are taught to guide against challenging, to even up penalty counts, to try to keep the game moving and entertaining. The game would be far better off if referees had their own personalities and officiated the same each and every week.
Full Audio Dynamite: One solution that must be implemented immediately as soon as there is a rightful putsch on the officiating leadership is to have all audio between The Bunker and referees transmitted live. This should be done through the broadcast partners and on NRL.com. Everything should be available in real-time, from the obscene coaching from the in-bunker coach to the tipping on penalties to the nods to try and even matches up. Everything broadcast. Full transparency. Shine the sunlight in so we can see what is happening in the shadows.
Teams Undervalue Goalkicking: A try is worth four points. That four can be turned to six with a good goalkicker. That gives 50% additional value. Penalty goals are worth two points. That is 50% of a try. Yet most teams pay no respect to goalkicking and South Sydney are front and centre of that this season with their best kicker Latrell Mitchell below average and the other rabble that has been required a complete debacle. Goalkicking is critical to winning. Teams need to invest in a gun and then work a game plan around that player if they have other deficiencies than getting players to kick who are not capable. Seeing Cody Walker and Taane Milne kick all of a sudden puts Souths way behind where they should be – and it may well cost them a finals spot. Teams would be well served finding a Daryl Halligan – a superboot with few other discernible skills – than forcing others to kick. The expected value would almost certainly be better.
Listening To Nine is a Jarring Experience: It is extremely rare that I would ever watch an NRL game – or any NRL coverage at all – on Nine. As difficult as analysis from the likes of Blocker and Spud can be, Fox NRL is clearly preferable. School holidays forced the Nine experience on me and it was jarring. Watching Cronulla thump the Wests Tigers, it was astonishing how casual, unprepared, low-brow and, at times, wildly wrong the commentary was. Phil Gould declaring with absolute certainty that Api Koroisau was absolutely square when he was sin binned – when he was clearly at least a half-body to the outside – was wrong but to receive unanimous support from his colleagues was comical. Andrew Johns is arguably the greatest to ever play the game but not knowing if a sin bin was able to be challenged was stunning. Brad Fittler was the voice of reason! Little heed was paid to what was happening on the field at times. Views varied from weird to extreme to nonsensical. Some of the production decisions around tone of voice and preparation make the game look as far from Fox as ever. There is no better advertisement for Fox NRL than watching a game on Nine.
Nicho Deserves A Break: Nicho Hynes has copped an almighty bad run over the last month or so but the talented Sharks half is about as good an example as you can get of a role model in the NRL. It was not widely reported at the time but Nicho Hynes helped talk down a man from jumping off a bridge in the Shire. Hynes is as authentic as they come and really lives what he preaches.
The Worst Challenge of All-Time: Kyle Flanagan challenging a tackle into touch after Liam Kennedy virtually said that it was going to be a penalty anyway was next level stupidity.
2024 Field Goal Update – 21: No field goals this week unfortunately.
- Fun Fact #1: South Sydney are 12-from-22 this season when Latrell Mitchell is not kicking.
- Fun Fact #2: Alofiana Khan-Pereira was dropped earlier in the season by Des Hasler.
- Fun Fact #3: Sio Siua Taukeiaho and Jayden Nikorima were both sacked by Catalans when they missed a training session to attend a concert in London.
Willie M Team of the Week: This week’s team of jokers, jesters and junkmasters:
1.Tristan Sailor (Bri)
2.Charlie Staines (Tig)
3.Taane Milne (Sou)
4.Thomas Cant (New)
5.Greg Marzhew (New)
6.Jack Wighton (Sou)
7.Aidan Sezer (Tig)
8.Stefano Utoikamanu (Tig)
9.Api Koroisau (Tig)
10.David Klemmer (Tig)
11.Ryan Matterson (Par)
12.Brendan Piakura (Bri)
13.Kobe Hetherington (Bri)
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14.Heath Mason (Tig)
15.Bryce Cartwright (Par)
16.Martin Taupau (Bri)
17.Jayden Brailey (New)
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Coach: Adam O’Brien (New)
Betting Market of the Week: Who will win the penalty count in State of Origin 3?
$1.20: Queensland
$4.80: New South Wales
Rumour Mill: Jason Ryles is set to put a broom through the Eels roster with Regan Campbell-Gillard, Ryan Matterson and Bryce Cartwright believed to be front and centre off the cull. Ryles is also expected to depart the Storm this week. Ben Hunt and Daly Cherry-Evans are expected to retire from rep football at the conclusion of this series. Stefano Utoikamanu has been linked with a move to the Dolphins.
The Coaching Crosshairs: Moves are afoot at Manly to move on from Anthony Seibold at the end of the season with CEO Tony Mestrov unimpressed with the results the club has shown in two years under the polarising coach and less than impressed by the request for an early extension. Seibold seemed to promise the world at Manly but has far from delivered. Seibold is 19-19-2 in a team that contains the two Origin captains, Tom Trbojevic, an alleged star recruit in Luke Brooks and enough other pieces to be better than the bang average team they have been. Brooks speaks plenty about Seibold, who gets excited about shiny toys but has really failed to get anything near value out of the player, making it either an indictment on coaching development or cap management/roster building. Manly are a club that traditionally looks to one of its own, particularly after an outsider failed, so expect Matt Ballin to be heavily favoured to take over. Brad Arthur, who has spent some time at the club as an assistant, will also be in the mix.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Brisbane players may well have deserved a spray after their inept performance against the Dragons but the manner in which Kevin Walters delivered it has gone down extremely poorly. Walters looked petulant and childish when he stood away and chucked a tantrum as players appeared to be checking phones and not paying a lot of attention. He then stormed out. Walters undermined his own authority with a playing group that is clearly now responding.
Watch It: Sadly, proper Kangaroo Tours of old are a thing of the past, where Australian teams would travel Britain and France for months at a time, playing Tests on weekends and meeting club teams midweek. Here is a clip from the 1986 Tour when the ‘Emus’ played Oldham and they only just rolled the Roughyeds 22-16 on the back of a Terry Lamb double. Watch it here.