New coach Anthony Seibold says axing Payne Haas shows the Broncos mean business
Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold says the axing of boom prop Payne Haas is evidence the Broncos are implementing strong standards in his quest to break the club’s 13-year premiership drought.
The Broncos completed their captain’s run today ahead of tomorrow’s trial against Wynnum Manly, with Haas a late scratching after being stood down for failing to comply with an NRL integrity unit investigation.
The 19-year-old was fined $20,000 and suspended for four NRL games by the Broncos, ruling him out of premiership clashes against Melbourne, the Cowboys, Dragons and defending premiers Sydney Roosters.
Seibold is confident Haas can bounce back from the affair to play NRL this season but says he will not tolerate poor behaviour under his new regime at Red Hill.
“It is a big lesson for Payne to learn,” he said.
“He is a good young guy and I know he will learn from this experience. He will be available for us after round four.
“It is disappointing not to have him available but that is the sort of values we are trying to uphold here at the Broncos.
“I was part of that process.
“We are trying to build strong standards here and Paul (White, Broncos CEO) spoke about it at length.
“I was certainly consulted and I have spoken to Payne on a number of occasions. It is a big lesson for him to learn but he is willing to work really hard over the next block of six weeks and put himself in the frame for Round 5.”
There is a sentiment that Brisbane’s penalty was too harsh, with the Broncos confirming Haas was not directly involved in two off-field incidents involving his family members.
But Seibold said he is comfortable with the decision.
“To be fair, I haven’t seen the backlash,” he said.
“I’m not on social media and I don’t read the media, so I was unaware of that.
“If there has been backlash I would be surprised, but I don’t go into a business and tell them what to do with their staff, so we’ll make decisions that we think are best for our particular organisation and move on from there.
“We’ll make our decisions that suit us. I don’t think I need to stand up here trying to justify the decision that we made. We dealt with it accordingly and professionally. I’m not too concerned about what other people’s opinions are.
“If they are in the CEO’s seat, they can have that opinion.”
The Broncos will parade a number of big names at Kougari Oval tomorow night, including Tevita Pangai Jr, Alex Glenn and Jack Bird.
Bird will play a 20-minute cameo against the Seagulls and Seibold believes the former NSW Origin ace is primed for a bumper 2019 season.
“Jack and Alex will play the first quarter,” he said.
“It is a great opportunity for Jack to get back on the field after only playing a limited number of games last season.
“He is in terrific shape, he’s feeling really good and he’s done every minute of every training session so far since November which has got him in the shape he is in.”
Who? Bird, Haas or Siebs?
But in the process hurt his own fantasy football team. Bet he's regretting being a narc now
Coach
Cause he's not Bennett
