NEWS Club legend breaks his silence

[McHunt]

Kevin Walter's mate, and current Broncos' Old Boy President, Chris Johns can no longer hold his tongue:

“The aura has gone. Those generations where every kid wanted to be the next Allan Langer and play at the club … it’s been destroyed. I get that it's harder to get your recruiting right outside the club with players like Cam Smith and Cam Munster because some just slip through the net, but the Broncos cannot even get it right inside the club. They have five or six of the best young forwards in the competition and David Fifita should have been the first one signed, not the last. They left their best forward until last. That’s diabolical.’’

“They say the chequebook beat us. No it didn’t. You don’t have the right environment with the coach and the recruitment. Don’t give me excuses about management problems with Fifita. That’s why CEO’s get a million dollars. I don’t blame Fifita. Until the club gets an independent reviewer to come in we are going to go nowhere."

“When we started the Melbourne Storm we modelled ourselves on the Broncos and not Manly who would get the cheque book out and would try and buy a premiership. The Broncos were never like that. They were a club where players would take unders and that environment thrived. It’s all about roster management and the Broncos have got it horribly wrong.’’

Can you tell what it is yet?

Even Kevin Walters' twin brother Kerrod can spot the canary in the coal mine:

“Players talk and I know the money was much bigger at the Titans but over the years many players have taken smaller deals to stay with the Broncos. Players will ask “why did he want to go?’’ What else was there at play? It’s a big thing.’’

As the club's executive producer of video oratory, Jharal Yow Yeh tweeted:

“This is bullshit … WTF have we come to, to lose a great kid like David Fifita.’’

Social activist Gorden Tallis, these days a Titans influencer, reveals he called Fifita on Sunday morning and found the teen totally pumped to flee the bourgeoisie club that's relied for far too long on underpaying and exploiting their workforce with empty promises of future reward. It's time for the workers of all lands to unite:

“It wasn’t just about the money – it was the package."

Coincidentally the title of his honeymoon sex tape.

McHunt

 

[mrslong]

Implying he's been holding his tongue? Lol.

He's right though. I stand with Chris Johns.

They couldn't tell him who would be coaching next year, that's a major factor in him leaving.

 

[Renegade]

why are we even asking the old boys when we can just defer to @Foordy on everything

 

[McHunt]

Michael Ennis:

“It is an enormous blow for the Broncos. When you look at those sides that Brisbane had through their golden eras and Wayne Bennett’s mantra was that players stayed there for less because they wanted to be part of the Broncos and to stay to be part of a successful club. The fact that David Fifita and someone of his quality doesn’t believe he can achieve his best football at Brisbane is an alarming concern for the coach.”

James Hooper:

“For the Broncos, just when you think things couldn’t sink any lower it becomes even more toxic. For them to lose a player of this talent and to be in the fight and telling people behind the scenes that they were never going to lose him. For them to sign players like Matt Lodge, Payne Haas, Tevita Pangai Jr and Joe Ofahengaue all in front of this young man (Fifita) and then see him slip through their fingers, I can’t think of a more challenging time in the history of this proud club. It is their lowest ebb.”

Darren Lockyer:

“When everyone’s struggling in the place and you’re not winning football games, there’s no enjoyment factor there and then what happens is people start making excuses around the place. When you’re losing it’s not fun and I’m sure that would have played its part. There was a lot of different things at play. There were management issues, there was family, you had three or four people from the Titans talking to David and probably the same from the Broncos and at one time Souths were in there.”

Phil Gould:

“From David Fifita’s perspective, I don’t know whether it’s a great career move, but it’s very hard for anyone to knock back that sort of money. I think the money is irresponsible. I’ve quite often said that the money in the market is set by the desperate clubs and obviously the Titans are desperate for a marquee player. If it improves their membership, commercial operations and crowds they get in attendance, I suppose they’ll say the money is justified. But from the game’s perspective he’s not worth that amount of money at this stage of his career, in fact I don’t think any back-rower is.”

Anthony Seibold:

McHunt

 

[McHunt]

 

[broncos4life]

I love how in James Hooper's eyes guys like Lodge, TPJ and especially Haas are numpties. It just shows this is all spin by them. If we had retained Fifita and let say Haas go it would be the same reaction. Hooper would just do a find and replace and his quotes would be "With all due respect to David Fifita, how do you lock him up and let Payne Haas go".

Whatever happens going forward the main point we need to remember is that James Hooper is a **** and his family should be ashamed of him.

 

[Galah]

Does anyone think the only reason fat tony is still here is because it’s whites contract year and him getting fired would look horrible. Who’s the actual head honcho at this club? or does everything have to come to a vote through the board? This club needs a fucking leader, no one ever said anything with assertiveness it’s all cloak and daggers.

 

[abashii]

why are we even asking the old boys when we can just defer to @Foordy on everything

Haha, don't you see though mate? The club made a profit, so everything is golden. Football is just a side thing, it doesn't matter where we end up as long as the bottom line is good.

 

[Renegade]

Haha, don't you see though mate? The club made a profit, so everything is golden. Football is just a side thing, it doesn't matter where we end up as long as the bottom line is good.

we were also apple circa 1996 before white so if it wasn't for him we'd be bankrupt by now.

 

[McHunt]

I love how in James Hooper's eyes guys like Lodge, TPJ and especially Haas are numpties. It just shows this is all spin by them. If we had retained Fifita and let say Haas go it would be the same reaction. Hooper would just do a find and replace and his quotes would be "With all due respect to David Fifita, how do you lock him up and let Payne Haas go".

Whatever happens going forward the main point we need to remember is that James Hooper is a **** and his family should be ashamed of him.

He never said that at all. He simply ranked Fifita above them. Their respective earning capabilities as of today would support that opinion. Note that Fifita was on the lowest pay of all four.

 

[Mister Wright]

Did they really think the Aura was going to last forever? We’re delusional if we think the Club will always be mega-club. All clubs go through ups and downs it is just impossible to expect a team to be mega successful forever especially with a salary cap.

 

[lynx000]

Did they really think the Aura was going to last forever? We’re delusional if we think the Club will always be mega-club. All clubs go through ups and downs it is just impossible to expect a team to be mega successful forever especially with a salary cap.

The bolded words are a significant part of the issue, but as I have posted before, our succession planning has been terrible for about 14 years. Add to that that some of the recruiting decisions and decisions about length of contracts and player options in the last 3-4 years have significantly stuffed us in the short term.

In Haas, Carrigan, Dearden, Coates, Paix and Stagg we have the building blocks for our next period of being a power club. We need to prioritise keeping that core and build around them.

If we get back on track and Titans remain not making the 8 there is every chance we get Fifita back in 3 years time.

 

[McHunt]

If we get back on track and Titans remain not making the 8 there is every chance we get Fifita back in 3 years time.

There is also every chance we'll already have "the next David Fifita."

 

[lynx000]

There is also every chance we'll already have "the next David Fifita."

True that. I just can't see how you can justify spending that sort of money on an edge forward. We were right to stick to our guns. The titans face the prospect of having a great forward pack and a not so great spine steering them around. The also face the possibility of having a 1/4 or a 1/3 of their salary cap off the park if injuries occur to the wrong players.

 

[Mustafur]

Phil gould made a decent point about this actually, We should of signed him on a big contract 2 years ago, we didn't even bother trying to resign him untill the last year, we correctly did this with Haas and we knew Fifita was a big talent even before he got into the starting side.

 

[Mister Wright]

Phil gould made a decent point about this actually, We should of signed him on a big contract 2 years ago, we didn't even bother trying to resign him untill the last year, we correctly did this with Haas and we knew Fifita was a big talent even before he got into the starting side.

But wasn’t that because of his management issue? An issue that suddenly fixed itself when a multi million dollar deal was tabled.

 

[broncos4life]

He never said that at all. He simply ranked Fifita above them. Their respective earning capabilities as of today would support that opinion. Note that Fifita was on the lowest pay of all four.

Huh, he said exactly that. He said how do you resign TPJ, Lodge and Haas first and let Fifita go? I honestly don't know what you are getting at.

 

[BRC088]

Same thing happens in the real world. As an employer young grads come in full of enthusiasm, fancy metal water bottles, pants that don't reach their ankles (makes for interesting site visits when they need safety boots), do a little bit of overtime and expect the keys to the city. When a rival comes sniffing because they need bums on seats they'll take them out to a lunch get "sold" something more glamorous under the guise of a ridiculous pay increase and they disappear for ever, or come sooking back when they're the first on the redundancy list when the work pipeline dries up and they're no longer needed in the sweat shop.

My take away form this is the club has failed at the mix of youth and experience. Anyways, good luck to him, not sure he's aware of how much work he'll have to put in now to maintain his worth.