Brisbane must take a leaf out of the Wayne Bennett playbook and recruit "hard heads" in the forward pack to complement the young talent already on the books.
That is the view of founding Broncos director and chairman Barry Maranta in the wake of the Broncos finishing 12th on the ladder and missing the finals.
The Broncos in the past have boasted premiership winning hitmen such as Tonie Carroll, Peter Ryan and Trevor Gillmeister and ""hard heads" such as Glenn Lazarus, Shane Webcke, Gorden Tallis and Brad Thorn.
They are the kind of players that strike fear into the opposition and set uncompromising standards. They were recruited and developed by Bennett on the way to winning six titles and making 22 finals series in the 25 years he coached the club.
"I suspect the problem is that we have overpaid young guys. You can't win with 20 and 21-year-old's against 28 and 29-year-old's," Maranta told AAP.
"The angle that we have taken is that we have paid for potential. I have owned two teams (the Broncos and London Broncos) and I know there is a temptation to do it but it appears as though we didn't have the money for any hard heads.
"I am hoping to have a coffee with the (hierarchy) and find out where we are going to get our hard heads from.
"You don't pay for potential. You pay for CVs and scrapbooks."
The Broncos have a suite of young forwards such as Ben Te Kura (20), Brendan Piakura (22), Jordan Riki (24) and Xavier Willison (22). Test forwards Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan play big minutes and lead the pack
"They do a lot of work but they don't intimidate," Maranta said.
The Broncos lack a Victor Radley, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, James Fisher-Harris or Nelson Asofa-Solomona that the premiership heavyweights boast.
In the Maranta lexicon a "hard head" covers off on hitmen like Carroll and veterans such as Kurt Capewell who played in last year's grand final side for Brisbane but was let go to sign with the Warriors.
"Yes, Capewell is a hard head. All teams needs them. We brought Lazarus up," Maranta said.
"We can learn from Wayne Bennett and the way he hand-picked his squad.
"If ever you want to look at a classic case of putting a team together look at what Wayne has done at the Dolphins with his forward pack.
"They have got s*** in them like Felise Kaufusi. There are hard heads like the Bromwich brothers (Kenny and Jesse).
"Remember the media said he couldn't buy this player or that player but he put a forward pack together with hard heads. Then he got the Hammer (Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow) and Herbie Farnworth. Letting Herbie go (from the Broncos) was the biggest mistake we ever made but Wayne had a bag of money."
Maranta said he believed current Broncos coach Kevin Walters would get the balance of his squad right. That may well require a more aggressive approach to recruitment.
"I still think Kevin Walters is the coach who can do the job for us. He just has to get the right cattle but at the moment that is not something we have got," Maranta said.
"I have the greatest confidence that these guys will deliver but unfortunately we haven't had enough players with a scrapbook because we have put so much into the potential side."
Canberra Times
