Kev and players cop it from former trainer

[Bucking Beads]

The more I think on it the more it seems obvious that our player losses from last season just crippled us. We just didn’t replace them. We’re just too young in some key areas. Piakura is a guy who shouldn’t have to play 80 yet because he isn’t up to it. He’s still learning. The club really stuffed up when they let Capewell go.

 

[theshed]

We agree on that one, Sproj. Kev with an elite support team around him is capable of being competitive.

Where we may diverge in view is that I don’t think Kev feels he needs the help or is unable to work with the support staff he needs.

We can speculate all day about whether guys like Briers or Ikin leaving had anything to do with Kev however the Ikin situation made it really clear that Kev wasn’t wanting his support. Burgess has now said the same about Ikin and others.

You see a mass turnover of support staff bookended by 2 cases of them openly saying they or others couldn’t work with Kev - imo where there is smoke there is fire.

Here is Adam talking about how OFarrell was our best asset. Now he’s gone, all of sudden our defence and tackling technique is back to 2021 standards. From what I can see, he isn’t doing anything else of significance right now so the better opportunity argument is a fragile one.

Reynolds names ‘Bumper’ secret weapon in Broncos tilt

Brisbane Broncos contact coach Brett “Bumper” O’Farrell is a figure skipper Adam Reynolds says is integral to the club’s success in the NRL this year.

www.smh.com.au

I’ve seen nothing from Teo’s coaching that tells me he will be of any great benefit as a defensive coach.

Look, Kev seemingly wants it his way or the high way. He needs full control so he can be the single point of accountability for both the successes and the losses. This isn’t a knock on him, as others have said Bellamy and Wayne would be similar. I can respect this approach, and it’s how I have operated in my own professional life. “One back to pat, one ass to kick” as they say. Kev has stripped back the supports around him so he can implement his vision, and live or die by it.

Like I said, I respect it but it also means that when everything starts and stops with you, and you immediately dissolve into an astronomical failure, you take your medicine.

To further highlight the correlation between Bumper and our defence. Consider the below:

Points against:

2021: 695
2022: 550
2023: 425 (OFarrell)
2024:: 607

Quite a coincidence.

In a somewhat related note. In the clubs history, here are the 5 worst defensive performances:

1. 2021: 695 (Kev)
2. 2020: 624 (Seibold)
3. 2024: 607 (Kev)
4. 2009: 566 (Henjak)
5. 2022: 550 (Kev)

3 out of 4 of Kev’s seasons as head coach have been top 5 worst defensive efforts in broncos history.

 

[theshed]

The thing is, I'm not against replacing Kevvie, in fact I know we need to at some point, what I am wary of, is replacing him with the wrong person and we end up back here again almost immediately. We have to get the timing and more importantly, the decision, right.

I get what you’re saying. What I’m saying is a sideward step that actually utilises the support the club gives to them is actually a step forward.

Kev and the club (who knows exactly where to lay blame for each) has not retained the support staff that got us into the 2023 position. Kev has demonstrated that these people do not want to stick around and work with him.

As per my above post, if you could make one immediate change it would be to bring back OFarrell. But why did the guy Reynolds called our secret weapon disappear early 2024 for no apparent reason.

A coach who is no better than Kev but will allow more talented people to support him is a better option than Kev.

I’d take Henjack back as coach if it meant we kept the likes of Ikin, Corvo, OFarrell and Briers.

The club did a great job of coach proofing themselves in late 2022. They had people in jobs that could make any average coach competitive. It didn’t matter if Kev was great or not. Didn’t matter if the never guy we took a punt on was a super coach. There was enough talent in specialist positions. Kev has now pushed all that out the door.

@Smokin' Joe or @1910, is there any credit in what I’m saying? Or if you don’t want to comment on that, can you at least give some insight on why did OFarrell leave?

 

[Jason Simmons]

Yeah but we can look past that too. We knew in that grand final that the idiot had agreed to allow a couple of our good players to a brand new club next door. The bloke has absolutely nothing going on up stairs.

It’s true unfortunately. His reaction to even the mildest form of criticism confirms it in my experience.

It’s similar to when long term alcoholics learn to mask the effects of the vast quantities of alcohol they consume.

Idiots learn ways to mask their lack of intellect. (I know - I’m a perfect example.)

But that mask is easily shattered, as we see with Kevin in every single press conference… Just directly question them even politely and the facade drops, the grasping for an answer and brushing imaginary bread crumbs, begins…

The desire for overall control and need to surround themselves with yes men adds to this,

 

[Jason Simmons]

It's not no sweating- no working hard. It's no sweating on equipment players get boils. For hygiene you can't sweat all over everything.

Ever heard of a wet one?

FFS…

 

[Bucking Beads]

To further highlight the correlation between Bumper and our defence. Consider the below:

Points against:

2021: 695
2022: 550
2023: 425 (OFarrell)
2024:: 607

Quite a coincidence.

In a somewhat related note. In the clubs history, here are the 5 worst defensive performances:

1. 2021: 695 (Kev)
2. 2020: 624 (Seibold)
3. 2024: 607 (Kev)
4. 2009: 566 (Henjak)
5. 2022: 550 (Kev)

3 out of 4 of Kev’s seasons as head coach have been top 5 worst defensive efforts in broncos history.

**** that 2009 side must have been trash or something. That amount of points in that era seems crazy.

 

[theshed]

**** that 2009 side must have been trash or something. That amount of points in that era seems crazy.

They sure were. Henjak was the first poor bastard in history to experience the Bennett curse

 

[pagey]

I get what you’re saying. What I’m saying is a sideward step that actually utilises the support the club gives to them is actually a step forward.

Kev and the club (who knows exactly where to lay blame for each) has not retained the support staff that got us into the 2023 position. Kev has demonstrated that these people do not want to stick around and work with him.

As per my above post, if you could make one immediate change it would be to bring back OFarrell. But why did the guy Reynolds called our secret weapon disappear early 2024 for no apparent reason.

A coach who is no better than Kev but will allow more talented people to support him is a better option than Kev.

I’d take Henjack back as coach if it meant we kept the likes of Ikin, Corvo, OFarrell and Briers.

The club did a great job of coach proofing themselves in late 2022. They had people in jobs that could make any average coach competitive. It didn’t matter if Kev was great or not. Didn’t matter if the never guy we took a punt on was a super coach. There was enough talent in specialist positions. Kev has now pushed all that out the door.

@Smokin' Joe or @1910, is there any credit in what I’m saying? Or if you don’t want to comment on that, can you at least give some insight on why did OFarrell leave?

is there actual evidence that Kevvie has done this ?

 

[Jason Simmons]

I've called for an old school hard pre-season- I think there are things old school that can't be replaced but there are not too many.

Fitness is nearly it now.

Ditto. How anyone ever assumes a hard pre-season is a non-starter is beyond me.

All summer long, train til you spew or pass out.

Get up, do it again tomorrow.

Like Penrith and Melbourne clearly do.

 

[thenry]

I think the short drop outs were associated with the massive wind that was behind the panthers... even if he tried to flog it down field it might've gone nowhere anyway due to the wind.

I get that we weren't winning the short drop outs, but the intent is to put it up as a 50/50, hope to draw an error from your opposition or get the ball back yourself ... the whole time he was doing the short drop outs we were up by 10 or 4 pts so panthers were never taking the 2pts on offer if he did make an error.

Our goal line defence was also like top of the league and holding up to immense pressure all game, so it would make sense to conserve energy and keep confidence in the goal line defence, which got you there... but the young guys were tiring and I think losing some of that confidence seeing the deficit reduce. To avoid that Reynolds was trying to take it into his own hands, like driving that one to the 30m on the touchline, but the wind likely got a hold of it and took it too far.

The biggest issue and takeaway to me out of all that is that we spent the whole fucking year with no fucking plan on how to defuse the short drop outs... that's a coaching issue, but it's also the same old failure of this club to just not adapt to changes in modern game. The league was already moving to short drop outs in 2022 and everyone had moved to it in 2023, but here we are being this bullshit stoic dinosaur like "nah it's just a phase everyone will give up on it"... just like wrestling back in the mid-00's. This stupid fucking club keeps living off the 90's and trying to be this holier than thou and "we'll play the game like it's meant to be played" bullshit .... somehow thinking that what we did back then will work again at some point... and then it does for a season here and there 2015 and 2023, but it's not fucking sustainable and they forget that Sydney fucking hates them and will change shit to move away from that... yet they continue to sit on their hands and have no plan on how to evolve and change that.


In regards to Reynolds one of the biggest errors came when we made a break sometime in the second half and it may have been last tackle on panthers 30-40m. He had the ball with momentum and it all came down to what did Reynolds want to do with it, but instead he was caught like a deer in headlights and didn't know what to do.

He obviously had thoughts going through his head like box kick to the corner and force them to come out of their end... but they had no trouble doing that all night and our boys probably need a rest. Maybe a kick to the ingoal with Edwards scrambling, force a drop out and consolidate, except we haven't defused or won a short drop out all fucking year, so that's basically a turnover.

He probably thought about extending the play and get some early ball out to Staggs, which probably was the right call, but maybe he thought we're not getting many more chances in this game and we need to nail this one, so I've got to get it to him into a better position that he can't **** up, because it's our last chance.

Instead what he came up with was a short ball to maybe Piakura??

I can't recall if Piakura dropped it or if he was wrapped up straight away and handover... but there were a million different things that he could've done and that's where the team were looking for Reynolds to guide them.

I can't recall if the run by Piakura crowded him, but it was like Reynolds lost all thought process in that moment and the default was dump it to the short man and setup for the next play... except he'd forgotten we had no next play.

We probably didn't touch the ball again inside panthers half after that.

Lol I've mentioned that exact play a few times on here. He had a thousand choices but went the short ball on the last.

Bad decision.

The short dropouts in the 2nd half I can live with, as they were so close to coming off. The first one I think, Liam Martin grabbed one over his head and then there was the Cleary one. Everyone could see Penrith were coming for us and we needed a freak play to stop them.

Watching the Cleary one, I was screaming from the stands "Challenge it, fucking challenge it". I kind of thought if we got a result we would win the game, and we were done if we didn't.

 

[Jason Simmons]

Wasn't there a story before the 2022 season that the players complained about training too hard?

Yes.

Was not a good sign and the end of year collapse was what we saw…

 

[theshed]

is there actual evidence that Kevvie has done this ?

Done what?

 

[Bucking Beads]

They sure were. Henjak was the first poor bastard in history to experience the Bennett curse

Its real. Hope it doesn’t miss the dolphins

 

[thenry]

I think there's a time and place for it, but defending for your life in a grand final with b2b premiers rolling downhill is not the place for it. How we could've done with a typical Bennett shut-it-down defensive performance in that last 20. Or even an experienced head to get in the ears of Walsh and co and just say guys tackle your arses off for 20mins and it's yours.

We tried the Bennett shut it down in the last 20 of 2015 GF. Worked for 18 minutes until Milf stripped it and we decided we should try and score from our own half. Nekk Minnitt.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Its real. Hope it doesn’t miss the dolphins

It's interesting, this one. Broncos, Dragons, Knights, Rabbits - none have truly recovered after his stints with any sustained success. .
2025 and beyond - can Bennett break his own curse? He didn't get it done here.

 

[pagey]

Done what?

push it all out

 

[theshed]

push it all out

Hard to know for sure, especially because I don’t necessarily mean that it happened Intentionally.

Only the guys with in the club can know for certain but the circumstantial evidence is not looking too flattering.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

Will kev still be coach if he doesn't win a premiership in 11 more years?