Kevvie:
"I’m very excited about what lies ahead, certainly with the way we finished the season off last season and the younger guys getting their opportunity and showing their ability. We’ve had some good signings throughout the year, particularly Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell, and I believe our squad is so much stronger across the board with our depth and experience in 2022. I’m looking forward to a big season."
"I’m going well post-Covid and I have been extremely happy with the squad and their attitude towards training and living with Covid in the community."
"I was under no illusions about the task at hand. I took the job after the Broncos finished last and a lot needs to be fix, not just one or two things, but as a club, you have to be doing a lot of things wrong to finish with the wooden spoon. There was a lot to be done and it takes time to turn a struggling club around. The Broncos have been on the slide for the last two or three years, there was a slight decline in performance, so part of my job and problem is to fix that up. I felt last year we made some improvement and made some tough decisions which had to be made for the betterment of the club and we move forward."
"Every time I think of the Broncos, it’s more than just finals football. It’s a winning culture. Just making finals at this club is not enough, mate. It needs to be more than that. We have a history of winning premierships. That’s my opinion and what I was a part of in our premiership years at the Broncos. It’s a good start to make the finals but we need to convert that into winning another premiership for the club. I’m sure every club wants to win the premiership, but the key for us is not to dwell on the past. The group here now and the coaching staff and high-performance staff have to work together to create our own piece of history. What happened 30 years is not really relevant anymore. They are great memories for myself and Alfie and Terry and all the players that were involved in those premierships, but it doesn’t mean anything to the current squad. These guys have to put their own stamp on the place and forge their own legacy at the Broncos."
"The Broncos have always had good young players coming through, but the last few years we have lacked guys at the other end of the scale, experienced players who know how to get the job done in tight situations. Guys who know how to handle pressure football, week in and week out. They play consistent football. They play regular football. I’m referring there to guys like Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell. I don’t remember the Broncos ever signing two players from the grand final teams to play at the club the following year in Adam and Kurt. It’s a terrific asset for us to have those two guys coming to the club and showing our young bloke the attitude that wins premierships. Ryan James is another experienced player coming in. But it’s about everyone, pulling in tight and together and getting the success we are all striving for."
"We signed Adam back in July and his signing means even more when you think about the season he had and what he did taking Souths to the grand final. Adam is already committed to the Broncos in the chats I’ve had with him and he wants to finish off with a successful career at the Broncos. He has played in a couple of grand finals, he has won a premiership at Souths, but he won’t be able to do it all himself here, so it’s important the coaching staff and the playing group help him achieve success here. Adam has been at the top for a long time, around 10 years, so it’s great for us to get his experience. He has shown he can handle the demands of the NRL in a key position."
"I like the fact Adam brings knowledge, leadership and experience, he is a very strong character which you need to survive in the halves in the NRL. He will help a lot of us, but we have to help him too and make sure he is comfortable in his role and position here. I believe we have the right people here to take his game to a level that we expect from him."
"We have to find a captain from somewhere and Adam is a proven leader at Souths, so he is one of the leading candidates for the job. He captained Souths to a grand final, so he is one of the leading candidates for sure. I’m looking forward to working more closely with Adam in the pre-season and getting to know him as a bloke because it’s important a coach-captain relationship is strong which I believe it would be with Adam. In the conversations I’ve had with Adam, we are thinking along the same lines and see the game the same way. He has a killer attitude and cool head under pressure and I like that in a captain."
"I’ve said for a while I want to be here long term and I intend to do that. But I’m no fool either. I’m not kidding myself. It’s about getting results and I need to get results to stay in the role which is pretty clear. I’m not expecting any favours from anyone here. I have to perform. Every club has to get results and we’re no different. I want to be here for longer. We’ve had some player movement which hasn’t provided stability and what the Broncos need is stability across the playing group and the coaching staff. I never saw myself as a short-term appointment. I want to be here for a while."
"Last season, I learnt to be myself. At times there last season, I went away from the person I am. I need to stay on track and stay the course and be myself. When I do that, everything else falls into place. It’s important I maintain my character win, lose or draw, that’s important. The one great quality about Wayne Bennett is he has always stayed the same with his character. It was tough going at different periods last year, but you have to expect that as an NRL head coach and especially at the Broncos. There is more heat here than most clubs, but we got through tough times well given the circumstances and we will be ready to go for the 2022 premiership."
"I think the prospect of second Brisbane team is very exciting, it’s great for the game and it’s great for Queensland rugby league fans to have another NRL team. We welcome the Dolphins into the competition. I’m not worried at all. I hope they are great for the competition."
"As for targetting Broncos players, that’s for Wayne to work out. I wasn’t here when he kicked off the Broncos, but he is their foundation coach, so he will do a great job. We have to make sure the Broncos are the best club that we can be and when we do that, no-one else is going to bother us. That’s always been the mentality of the Broncos. Get your own house in order and everything else will look after itself. That’s my mentality, that’s my intention, to get our own backyard in order and then everything else will look after itself."
"The Dolphins are a threat to every club in the NRL, no just us. They have a clean sheet to work from. All clubs under pressure to keep your best players, whether there’s a new team coming in or an existing club chasing them. We have to provide the right environment where players want to play and stay and win premierships. That’s what we are about."
"Kotoni will start the year in the centres. There is a No. 6 jersey up for grabs there for someone who wants to make it theirs in pre-season. We have some strong players there with Albert Kelly, Tyson Gamble, Billy Walters and even young Ezra Mam is showing a lot of promise. Ezra stood up this year in the Intrust Super Cup as an 18-year-old kid, so there is plenty of jostling for positions in that regard. Competition is great for all positions and that’s what we need. Competing for each other and competing for the club."
"I’m excited about what Selwyn can do this year. It was good for Selwyn and TC Robati to get some Intrust Super Cup games and they also played in that competition’s semi-finals and grand final. They are always tough games and Selwyn and TC would have learned a lot about themselves in those games. It’s good for your confidence when you play well in big sudden-death games, they have big futures in front of them. I see Selwyn primarily as a centre or winger and he can also play fullback. I would probably look at him as a centre for the moment, but the scary thing is Selwyn hasn’t even done a full pre-season yet. He will start pre-season with us this year and that will be great for his development. I won’t lock him into a position. He has the talent to play a number of positions so I’m keeping an open mind."
"Tesi is another guy who has a huge future. He has only had 10 or 12 games as a fullback and we saw at the back end of last year some of his capabilities at fullback. He finished off there in a strong way so he is the leading candidate for the fullback jumper. He made the position his own at the end of last year. But we starting from scratch again, so knowing Tesi’s competitive nature, he will be keen to stay there at fullback. He will only get better. He has a lot of skill. Some of the tries he scored last year were excellent and it’s exciting from my point of view as coach to have another season with these young guys. We have to keep improving them."
"I feel the respect is back, certainly. What I wanted to see is people coming to games starting to believe the Broncos have turned things around. I want our fans going to games not just hoping we could win, but believing they will win. There is a difference. That’s what this team at the back end of last year started to show. Talking to our fans in the streets, they were saying they were going to game genuinely believing the Broncos could win and that’s a huge sign of progress."
"We have to improve our defence, absolutely. We improved at the back end of the last season, but it has to be better again for us to play finals. Our pre-season will have a major focus on defence and a lot of it is attitude and the ability to work together. If you look at the NRL grand final, Souths had a lot of opportunities to score, but Penrith through pure determination and will to win, they stopped the try or stopped the line break. The best teams are good defensive teams. We have to get better in that space."
"We are hoping to have Payne here long term for sure. That was Payne’s standout year last year which is great for the Broncos and great for Payne. if he can continue on that pathway, which we believe he will, and we provide the right people around him, Payne will keep the faith. We can’t have Payne doing it all on his own in the forwards. He needs support. We can’t have all the workload on Payne Haas and guys like Kurt Capewell and Tom Flegler will certainly help him in that regard. I don’t believe we have seen the best of Payne Haas. He is only 21 years of age and he is excited about the season ahead. The young guys got a lot of confidence and belief out of last season."
"Dave Donaghy and Ben Ikin have been enormous for me. Dave coming into the building, I just felt a lot of pressure being taken off my shoulders and then Ben coming on board has been magnificent. He is so supportive of what we are doing here and trying to achieve. Like the players, we have to work well as a cohesive unit to bring the glory days back again."
McHunt
"I’m very excited about what lies ahead, certainly with the way we finished the season off last season and the younger guys getting their opportunity and showing their ability. We’ve had some good signings throughout the year, particularly Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell, and I believe our squad is so much stronger across the board with our depth and experience in 2022. I’m looking forward to a big season."
"I’m going well post-Covid and I have been extremely happy with the squad and their attitude towards training and living with Covid in the community."
"I was under no illusions about the task at hand. I took the job after the Broncos finished last and a lot needs to be fix, not just one or two things, but as a club, you have to be doing a lot of things wrong to finish with the wooden spoon. There was a lot to be done and it takes time to turn a struggling club around. The Broncos have been on the slide for the last two or three years, there was a slight decline in performance, so part of my job and problem is to fix that up. I felt last year we made some improvement and made some tough decisions which had to be made for the betterment of the club and we move forward."
"Every time I think of the Broncos, it’s more than just finals football. It’s a winning culture. Just making finals at this club is not enough, mate. It needs to be more than that. We have a history of winning premierships. That’s my opinion and what I was a part of in our premiership years at the Broncos. It’s a good start to make the finals but we need to convert that into winning another premiership for the club. I’m sure every club wants to win the premiership, but the key for us is not to dwell on the past. The group here now and the coaching staff and high-performance staff have to work together to create our own piece of history. What happened 30 years is not really relevant anymore. They are great memories for myself and Alfie and Terry and all the players that were involved in those premierships, but it doesn’t mean anything to the current squad. These guys have to put their own stamp on the place and forge their own legacy at the Broncos."
"The Broncos have always had good young players coming through, but the last few years we have lacked guys at the other end of the scale, experienced players who know how to get the job done in tight situations. Guys who know how to handle pressure football, week in and week out. They play consistent football. They play regular football. I’m referring there to guys like Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell. I don’t remember the Broncos ever signing two players from the grand final teams to play at the club the following year in Adam and Kurt. It’s a terrific asset for us to have those two guys coming to the club and showing our young bloke the attitude that wins premierships. Ryan James is another experienced player coming in. But it’s about everyone, pulling in tight and together and getting the success we are all striving for."
"We signed Adam back in July and his signing means even more when you think about the season he had and what he did taking Souths to the grand final. Adam is already committed to the Broncos in the chats I’ve had with him and he wants to finish off with a successful career at the Broncos. He has played in a couple of grand finals, he has won a premiership at Souths, but he won’t be able to do it all himself here, so it’s important the coaching staff and the playing group help him achieve success here. Adam has been at the top for a long time, around 10 years, so it’s great for us to get his experience. He has shown he can handle the demands of the NRL in a key position."
"I like the fact Adam brings knowledge, leadership and experience, he is a very strong character which you need to survive in the halves in the NRL. He will help a lot of us, but we have to help him too and make sure he is comfortable in his role and position here. I believe we have the right people here to take his game to a level that we expect from him."
"We have to find a captain from somewhere and Adam is a proven leader at Souths, so he is one of the leading candidates for the job. He captained Souths to a grand final, so he is one of the leading candidates for sure. I’m looking forward to working more closely with Adam in the pre-season and getting to know him as a bloke because it’s important a coach-captain relationship is strong which I believe it would be with Adam. In the conversations I’ve had with Adam, we are thinking along the same lines and see the game the same way. He has a killer attitude and cool head under pressure and I like that in a captain."
"I’ve said for a while I want to be here long term and I intend to do that. But I’m no fool either. I’m not kidding myself. It’s about getting results and I need to get results to stay in the role which is pretty clear. I’m not expecting any favours from anyone here. I have to perform. Every club has to get results and we’re no different. I want to be here for longer. We’ve had some player movement which hasn’t provided stability and what the Broncos need is stability across the playing group and the coaching staff. I never saw myself as a short-term appointment. I want to be here for a while."
"Last season, I learnt to be myself. At times there last season, I went away from the person I am. I need to stay on track and stay the course and be myself. When I do that, everything else falls into place. It’s important I maintain my character win, lose or draw, that’s important. The one great quality about Wayne Bennett is he has always stayed the same with his character. It was tough going at different periods last year, but you have to expect that as an NRL head coach and especially at the Broncos. There is more heat here than most clubs, but we got through tough times well given the circumstances and we will be ready to go for the 2022 premiership."
"I think the prospect of second Brisbane team is very exciting, it’s great for the game and it’s great for Queensland rugby league fans to have another NRL team. We welcome the Dolphins into the competition. I’m not worried at all. I hope they are great for the competition."
"As for targetting Broncos players, that’s for Wayne to work out. I wasn’t here when he kicked off the Broncos, but he is their foundation coach, so he will do a great job. We have to make sure the Broncos are the best club that we can be and when we do that, no-one else is going to bother us. That’s always been the mentality of the Broncos. Get your own house in order and everything else will look after itself. That’s my mentality, that’s my intention, to get our own backyard in order and then everything else will look after itself."
"The Dolphins are a threat to every club in the NRL, no just us. They have a clean sheet to work from. All clubs under pressure to keep your best players, whether there’s a new team coming in or an existing club chasing them. We have to provide the right environment where players want to play and stay and win premierships. That’s what we are about."
"Kotoni will start the year in the centres. There is a No. 6 jersey up for grabs there for someone who wants to make it theirs in pre-season. We have some strong players there with Albert Kelly, Tyson Gamble, Billy Walters and even young Ezra Mam is showing a lot of promise. Ezra stood up this year in the Intrust Super Cup as an 18-year-old kid, so there is plenty of jostling for positions in that regard. Competition is great for all positions and that’s what we need. Competing for each other and competing for the club."
"I’m excited about what Selwyn can do this year. It was good for Selwyn and TC Robati to get some Intrust Super Cup games and they also played in that competition’s semi-finals and grand final. They are always tough games and Selwyn and TC would have learned a lot about themselves in those games. It’s good for your confidence when you play well in big sudden-death games, they have big futures in front of them. I see Selwyn primarily as a centre or winger and he can also play fullback. I would probably look at him as a centre for the moment, but the scary thing is Selwyn hasn’t even done a full pre-season yet. He will start pre-season with us this year and that will be great for his development. I won’t lock him into a position. He has the talent to play a number of positions so I’m keeping an open mind."
"Tesi is another guy who has a huge future. He has only had 10 or 12 games as a fullback and we saw at the back end of last year some of his capabilities at fullback. He finished off there in a strong way so he is the leading candidate for the fullback jumper. He made the position his own at the end of last year. But we starting from scratch again, so knowing Tesi’s competitive nature, he will be keen to stay there at fullback. He will only get better. He has a lot of skill. Some of the tries he scored last year were excellent and it’s exciting from my point of view as coach to have another season with these young guys. We have to keep improving them."
"I feel the respect is back, certainly. What I wanted to see is people coming to games starting to believe the Broncos have turned things around. I want our fans going to games not just hoping we could win, but believing they will win. There is a difference. That’s what this team at the back end of last year started to show. Talking to our fans in the streets, they were saying they were going to game genuinely believing the Broncos could win and that’s a huge sign of progress."
"We have to improve our defence, absolutely. We improved at the back end of the last season, but it has to be better again for us to play finals. Our pre-season will have a major focus on defence and a lot of it is attitude and the ability to work together. If you look at the NRL grand final, Souths had a lot of opportunities to score, but Penrith through pure determination and will to win, they stopped the try or stopped the line break. The best teams are good defensive teams. We have to get better in that space."
"We are hoping to have Payne here long term for sure. That was Payne’s standout year last year which is great for the Broncos and great for Payne. if he can continue on that pathway, which we believe he will, and we provide the right people around him, Payne will keep the faith. We can’t have Payne doing it all on his own in the forwards. He needs support. We can’t have all the workload on Payne Haas and guys like Kurt Capewell and Tom Flegler will certainly help him in that regard. I don’t believe we have seen the best of Payne Haas. He is only 21 years of age and he is excited about the season ahead. The young guys got a lot of confidence and belief out of last season."
"Dave Donaghy and Ben Ikin have been enormous for me. Dave coming into the building, I just felt a lot of pressure being taken off my shoulders and then Ben coming on board has been magnificent. He is so supportive of what we are doing here and trying to achieve. Like the players, we have to work well as a cohesive unit to bring the glory days back again."
McHunt
