It’s not Seibold’s fault

[Wolfie]

Trying to be an NRL journalist here? I think something happened but it might not have, only people who were there actually know.

Not really. I'm fairly confident that what I'm saying is true.

 

[Gaz]

Who at the club is really going to overrule a coach

The same one that picked the coach.

 

[Wolfie]

Trying to be an NRL journalist here? I think something happened but it might not have, only people who were there actually know.

Im not hedging my bets like the journos are either. I'm backing what I say, just making the point very few people would actually know what the truth is.

 

[broncos4life]

Ha ha, I'm not a club insider mate. Just know a couple of people. For the record though from what I got told, it wasnt down to Wayne that they gave him too much of a good contract.

So you told us that there is no way Seibold is being told he can't drop Boyd, yet the same administration paid way too much jeopardising our cap to 'look after him'. In saying all that you don't believe they would be letting him stay in first grade until he retires to 'look after him'?

 

[broncos4life]

Not really. I'm fairly confident that what I'm saying is true.

I'm sure Hoops always is too tbf.

 

[Wolfie]

So you told us that there is no way Seibold is being told he can't drop Boyd, yet the same administration paid way too much jeopardising our cap to 'look after him'. In saying all that you don't believe they would be letting him stay in first grade until he retires to 'look after him'?

Yep. Thats exactly what i'm saying. Plenty of clubs have looked after players i'd think. Doubt thats uncommon. Looking after him in terms of his contract has no relevance to if Seibold picks him or not. He would still get the same pay paying first grade or ISC. I dont believe for a second the choice isnt down to Seibold. While we have made some bad errors in judgement with contracts and recruitment, we still arent stupid enough to give a player a contract that says he has to play regardless of form. No coach would stand working for a club who operated in a way that undermined him. As i keep saying, i dont see any sense in it, i dont see any benefit in it to the Broncos as an organization.

 

[Locky’s Left Boot]

Yep. Thats exactly what i'm saying. Plenty of clubs have looked after players i'd think. Doubt thats uncommon. Looking after him in terms of his contract has no relevance to if Seibold picks him or not. He would still get the same pay paying first grade or ISC. I dont believe for a second the choice isnt down to Seibold. While we have made some bad errors in judgement with contracts and recruitment, we still arent stupid enough to give a player a contract that says he has to play regardless of form. No coach would stand working for a club who operated in a way that undermined him. As i keep saying, i dont see any sense in it, i dont see any benefit in it to the Broncos as an organization.

I think the most logical reason I can think of Boyd being continually back each week and undroppable despite every man and his dog knowing he is done, is more than likely Seibold knows in our current predicament, the last thing he wants to risk is dropping him and creating even more of a divide and split between the group. Because he knows full well if that happens the results will keep getting worse and his job will be kaput.

So in short, he doesn’t have the balls to drop him because he won’t be able to handle everything that will follow it.

Which is why I’m convinced barring injury, he will be in the 17 each week until Round 20 barring a miracle and it will be a disgusting end to his career that will almost undoubtably destroy his reputation and legacy. I bet you Seibold is already coming up with stats from 5 years ago about other rep centres in the game who have let in the tries he has to try and shield him from the fans and media.

 

[Locky’s Left Boot]

Also I think it’s time we looked past the coaching staff, and start aiming the criticism at the board as well and call them out because the rot has started there and filtered down.

Paul White is responsible for the public coaching saga merry go round which has absolutely slandered our reputation and backfired.

We have some sheila (who probably has less idea than most of us about the value of players) handling retention and recruitment which has been utterly fucking abysmal and that’s putting it nicely.

We also have Lockyer on the board who seems to be too nice and too much of a yes man to make any hard decisions. I thought at the very least he would be a conduit between the old boys but even they have been apparently frozen out of being able to help the playing group.

It’s absolutely appalling that we have even ended up in this state, honestly! Might be time we bought shares into the club and attend an AGM and start questioning the running of this club from top to bottom.

 

[IceWorks]

I am curious about the player contracts, specifically the player options, I haven't seen any answer to who is responsible for these and whether this madness is common with clubs? Asking because this is potentially the root of all problems.

It might not matter how intelligent your board are and how above average your coach is and how switched on the players are if you have salted the earth financially and salary cap speaking. Just look at Des Hasler and the experience at Manly and the Dogs as one example where back ending contracts led to pain.

Brisbane have the situation where you have a number of players who are taking up player options because their salary is way over fair salary cap value, if their salary was to be under their new cap value then they would simply upgrade or sign with another club, it's crazy and I don't understand it. Genuinely curious to learn.

 

[NSW stables]

Another game, another poor showing in attack (and defence, but i'm focussing on attack here). As i and many posters have said for too long is that we stand too flat (let alone getting the ball flat footed). That is why our outside backs dont get the ball any more. Rushing defence shuts down the ball at first or second pass.

Our only successful set play in the past couple years was the milford, boyd to oates sweep move. This was because boyd came from fullback and received the ball deep.

I know it is easy to say from a couch, but it is not rocket science. The closer we are to the defence, the less time for decision making, running at speed, opening/identifying gaps in defence or ball movement.

 

[Locky’s Left Boot]

By the time this utopian notion that this young and talented squad get to the stage of their careers where consistency isn’t an issue and we challenge for the comp each year, half of them will be picked off by other clubs and we will be in a never ending cycle (AKA Phil Gould’s 5 year plan that is entering its 10th season)

Dearden is already being sniped by other clubs. Only a matter of time before someone throws some serious coin at our lower salary forwards such as Carrigan and Flegler. I get the thinking about keeping all of these guys together but at what cost and has this plan ever worked? The risk vs reward ratio is not in our favour.

If the unthinkable happens and Fifita doesn’t resign with us, shit will definitely hit the fan and will set us back even further.

I think it’s time that once we get finally get rid of Boyd, Macca, Kahu and possibly Bird (depending on if he can stay on the park next season) off our cap, we should actually start identifying hardened mid range veterans that will compliment the squad and not make it so top heavy. Our biggest concerns is giving some of these young forwards big money before they have earned it. Only Haas and Fifita should be on higher tier coin and even then it would be irresponsible to resign Fifita on more than $750k at this stage of his career. Buying a 9 would be also be a good start. And maybe manage our forward stocks better so that we have a Taukeiho/JWH type to lead the forwards alongside the likes of Lodge, TPJ, Fifita, Haas and Carrigan.

 

[mrslong]

Also I think it’s time we looked past the coaching staff, and start aiming the criticism at the board as well and call them out because the rot has started there and filtered down.

Paul White is responsible for the public coaching saga merry go round which has absolutely slandered our reputation and backfired.

We have some sheila (who probably has less idea than most of us about the value of players) handling retention and recruitment which has been utterly fucking abysmal and that’s putting it nicely.

We also have Lockyer on the board who seems to be too nice and too much of a yes man to make any hard decisions. I thought at the very least he would be a conduit between the old boys but even they have been apparently frozen out of being able to help the playing group.

It’s absolutely appalling that we have even ended up in this state, honestly! Might be time we bought shares into the club and attend an AGM and start questioning the running of this club from top to bottom.

Why would the “Sheila” have less understanding than you about the figures or playing contracts? Do women not understand numbers or do they not understand football? No need for your sexist bullshit. If she’s bad at her job, it’s not because she’s a “Sheila”

 

[mrslong]

The Minister of Finance here at home certainly knows what she’s doing.

Lol!
In our household the “old man” thinks Darius is a club legend and doesn’t deserve to be dropped because he’s “trying hard”. (Give me strength)

 

[KnToad]

It still constantly amazes me that the same club that managed to table a four year mega deal for a nearly 30 year old Boyd is the very same club that also had the foresight to sign Payne Haas up on a 6 year deal.

it beggars belief that these two things happened at the very same club.

I will never forget the day I heard about the Boyd deal. I was just staggered that we would offer a four year deal to a player at that stage of his career who was well past his best. I just couldn’t believe it!!!

 

[Sproj]

I will never forget the day I heard about the Boyd deal. I was just staggered that we would offer a four year deal to a player at that stage of his career who was well past his best. I just couldn’t believe it!!!

You and me and several others I’m sure. I remember posting to that effect when it was announced, it reaked of something wrong with the club that was once famous for tapping players on the shoulder.

 

[Porthoz]

You and me and several others I’m sure. I remember posting to that effect when it was announced, it reaked of something wrong with the club that was once famous for tapping players on the shoulder.

Yup, I was appalled at the time, and when I said so, the usual suspects all came out the woodwork to blame it on my WB/Boyd dislike. There was more support for the deal here than you would think...

 

[theshed]

Especially at a time where Wayne was tapping Parker’s and Sammy’s shoulder.

The Gillo deal was mind boggling too and unlike Boyd, Gillo was a one club fan favourite.

 

[lynx000]

Why we are in the situation we are in is down to issues on a number of fronts. Firstly, we suck at succession planning since about 2005/6. The club as a whole was much better run in the 90's, granted that it was a much more relaxed salary cap environment at the time. To give you a few examples of good succession planning and recruiting (the second failing) are:
1. Knowing that Wally was on limited time - bringing in K. Walters from Canberra.
2. Knowing that Dowling was comying to an end, buying Lazarus as a replacement.

Some howlers on the succession planning front (and recruiting):
1. After knowing that WB was looking to jump ship in 2006, completely stuffing up the succession plan for his replacement (Bellamy) and then not having a Plan B which led us to Ivan H.
2. No real succession plan in place to replace Webcke, which was compounded by losing Petero, which then led to the horror of Joel Clinton and Martin Kennedy.
3. No succession planning for the possibility of Ivan failing which delivered us Hook.
4. Absolutely no planning for how to deal with the retirement of our last legendary playmaker, Lockyer. Nine years later we are still paying for this.

Secondly, our recruiting and retention, after initially being a strength of the club, has significantly degraded over time. This includes losing a significant number of players from the squad in 2008 when Bennett left the first time.
See some of the examples above. Honourable (or dishonourable) mentions for recruiting include:
PJ Marsh; Reece Robinson; Joel Clinton; Scott Anderson; Shane Tronc; Martin Kennedy; Todd Lowrie; James Gavet; Greg Eden; Travis Waddell; Shaun Fensom.

Thirdly, somewhere along the line we lost our identity and what we stand for. We no longer seem to have a set attacking or defensive structure. We do not even seem to have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B or C.

This is not just a problem with the current coach, it has been the case for a while (2015 being the exception), the issues have just been magnified with a less experienced squad.

I was very prepared to give Seibold a red hot crack, but I am very much forming the view we have been sold a pup and we are looking at our third rookie coach recruiting failure. By now there should be clear signs that some of those long term issues are being worked on and rectified, and to be honest, the evidence is lacking.

It would be very interesting to know what are the KPI's that justify the club terminating the contract. I just hope that someone in the organisation is working on a realistic succession plan in case AS does not work out and that we aren't left with the same scenario of a last minute scramble to appoint someone to the role. In my view they cannot appoint another rookie coach.