Board orders open-heart surgery on Broncos to revive powerhouse
Brent Read12:00AM September 17, 2019
The Broncos’ horror show at Parramatta to end a disappointing season has led to the Brisbane board instigating a thorough review. Picture: AAP
The Brisbane board has called for a surgical review of the Broncos’ disappointing season as it prepares to give coach Anthony Seibold carte blanche to do whatever is necessary to turn the club around.
Broncos chair Karl Morris told The Australian the board would meet on Friday and had asked chief executive Paul White, Seibold and the football department to provide details of their plans to revive the club’s fortunes.
Brisbane’s season came to a disastrous end on Sunday afternoon when they were on the receiving end of the biggest loss in the club’s proud history — a 58-0 thrashing at Bankwest Stadium at the hands of a Parramatta side that finished last year with the wooden spoon.
Recriminations are expected to follow and while Morris was quick to throw his support behind Seibold, he also insisted the season was unacceptable and changes needed to be made. Those changes are expected to begin almost immediately as the club evaluates a playing squad that failed to compete with the NRL’s top teams.
Morris said the football department would be empowered to implement any changes they deemed necessary to improve the Broncos’ flagging fortunes, that process expected to begin with some tough conversations in coming weeks.
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The future of captain Darius Boyd remains in doubt, despite him having two years remaining on his existing deal. Boyd is slated to earn upwards of $600,000 next year and has an option for the year after provided he plays 15 games in 2020.
There is every chance the club will attempt to negotiate a settlement and look to keep Boyd involved with the club off the field, where his work in the area of mental health makes him a valuable proposition not just to the Broncos, but to the entire game.
Boyd isn’t the only prominent Broncos figure scrapping for his future. So too are hooker Andrew McCullough and potentially even Jack Bird, who has barely played for Brisbane since joining the club on a mega-deal at the start of last season.
“I feel sorry for the fans who have supported us through the whole season,” Morris said. “The board is meeting on Friday and has asked the chief executive, the coach, and the head of recruitment to outline the changes that are going to take place for 2020 to ensure this doesn’t happen again. That was not acceptable, on any level.
“Not only was it disappointing, it was embarrassing. It has been a tough season but to finish it in that way is completely unacceptable to the board of the Broncos.”
Morris insisted the club remained committed to Seibold, who joined the Broncos this season on what could potentially be a six-year-deal — the final year is an option in his favour.
The club severed ties with seven-time premiership winner Wayne Bennett to secure the reigning Dally M coach of the year and his maiden season at the club has been a turbulent one. The Broncos have struggled to find their rhythm and the sense is that a playing squad littered with young stars needs a sea change, starting with some of the more experienced and long-serving players.
It will be a delicate balancing act for Seibold, given one of the criticisms of the Broncos this season has been their lack of experience. Seibold must also find a way to extract the best from Anthony Milford, whose switch to fullback during the year produced mixed results.
It could be that Milford moves back to the halves next year to play alongside youngster Thomas Dearden. Alternatively, the Broncos have been linked with a move for Melbourne halfback Brodie Croft, who has lost his starting spot at the Storm to Jahrome Hughes.
It promises to be another season of tumult for the club — last year they spent the off-season wading through the Bennett-Seibold switch.
“We made a long-term call on Anthony,” Morris said. “We’re not going to panic because of one game and a tough season. We eventually did get in the top eight — eight other teams didn’t.
“That end to the season just illustrates a lot of the issues that happened throughout the season — the inconsistency for the whole season. It was highlighted in that dreadful, embarrassing final match.”
Chief executive Paul White’s current contract also comes to an end next month.
www.theaustralian.com.au
Your my boy blue
Did you even read any of the post I made back in 2018 - I didnt say haha we won -ParraMania and T tajhay
Coming on to the forum of a team that has just been bundled out of the finals (especially in that fashion) is nothing but childish and pathetic
I work with a Parra fan, and after we beat them by 1 point in golden point I didn't go up to his office and give him crap, we just talked about the game a few days later, like adults
I have not heard from him since this awful loss and I won't at all unless I bring it up.
It's called class, you should try it
Has Crawley ever even played sport? He looks like the kid you'd let peg the ball when you played cricket because he couldn't bowl. And you'd still get 4 wides.
