NEWS Kevin Walters interview

[Midean]

I am not knocking you for disagreeing with Kevvie's decisions. I welcome your thoughts. It's what this place is all about. My point was and is that I feel enough has been seen, and heard about the shit form of Milford, TPJ's bullshit, and the crap we saw dished out by most of this side in 2020. We don't need more evidence for what we already know.

What we need is to see the players reward the faith that Walters has shown in them by performing on the field where it matters, and we won't know that until season 2021. Equally, we need to show faith in our new coach, otherwise, what's the point?

Yea well said mate, and i certainly see your point as well.
Like i said earlier i think for me its just hard to see the upside after a rough season.

I will back the club no matter what, but i will piss and moan the entire time until we see some results haha.

 

[winslow_wong]

I hope you fellas are right, im seriously trying to look at this with the glass half full, but this season has made me a glass half empty bloke it seems.

Kevvie isn’t going to come out and say Milford’s a fat overpaid prick that I can’t wait to get rid of or TPJ is an immature brat who didn’t even need a haircut.

I’m not expecting us to set the world on fire next season, I just want to see a team that’s fit and can get all the basics of rugby league right. Like tackling and not dropping the ball.

It’s going to take years to be a force again and it can’t get much worse than our wooden spoon year.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Milford is the ONLY Brisbane player who has the potential to be a game changer / breaker. He is the closest thing we have had to a Lockyer....or an Alfie. If you're the new coach, why wouldn't you get behind him.....?? What else are you going to do....throw all your eggs in to the Dearden basket? That kid has a long way to go.....and I don't think he has the raw talent to ever be a game changer.

 

[rnabokov]

Milford is the ONLY Brisbane player who has the potential to be a game changer / breaker. He is the closest thing we have had to a Lockyer....or an Alfie. If you're the new coach, why wouldn't you get behind him.....?? What else are you going to do....throw all your eggs in to the Dearden basket? That kid has a long way to go.....and I don't think he has the raw talent to ever be a game changer.

As far as game changers / breakers go, I'd add TPJ at his best, and Staggs, and possibly Riki if he lives up to his potential and expectations. However I think I know where you are coming from - it mostly all starts with the halves, and Milford certainly has what it takes to make things happen from 5/8.

Having said that, for mine it still comes down to combinations: halves + hooker + FB. Without that coordinated spine working together, getting the middle and edges moving, no amount of individual brilliance will win us many games, if any. Therefore, our hooker and FB are crucial to any success we can look forward to. This is my major concern for '21 - not so much, or just Milford, but also Turpin/Paix and whoever plays at the back, and them all coming together as a fully functional spine.

As for Dearden, he has shown me that he combines well with Milford in the relatively few games they have played together which is good starting point. He is still only 19, and again, it's his combination with Milford, and our edges that is most important, rather than his game breaking abilities.

For mine, getting to there is Kevvie's biggest challenge, as well of course as reversing our appalling defence which, incidentally, is also all about communication and combinations. It's always the team first, individuals second (without of course discounting the importance of individual form.)

 

[BroncsFan]

“It was interesting on the time trial everyone else took off with excitement which is expected from the young players but the old bull, and he’s not that old either, he took his time and he finished off with a really good time.”

- Everyone else took off with excitement.
- TPJ took his time
- Old bull (24)

i wonder how he placed? Sounds like Kev is trying to put a positive spin on someone being lazy

Dobbo on the radio this morning said that TPJ came back in great shape and that he has been training with Parker all off season.

Sounds more like he treated the time trial as a warm up, but TPJ isn't really someone that we think of as having a huge engine anyway... he's there to be explosive.

As long as he got through the time trial without struggling means he came back to preseason in good shape

 

[pagey]

Dobbo on the radio this morning said that TPJ came back in great shape and that he has been training with Parker all off season.

Sounds more like he treated the time trial as a warm up, but TPJ isn't really someone that we think of as having a huge engine anyway... he's there to be explosive.

As long as he got through the time trial without struggling means he came back to preseason in good shape

The pictures of him say a lot, looks in really good nic for start of pre season. Hopefully milf and Lodge will be the same.

 

[theshed]

Dobbo on the radio this morning said that TPJ came back in great shape and that he has been training with Parker all off season.

Sounds more like he treated the time trial as a warm up, but TPJ isn't really someone that we think of as having a huge engine anyway... he's there to be explosive.

As long as he got through the time trial without struggling means he came back to preseason in good shape

Thanks for the insight. Sounds good to me, I hope he has returned with a good attitude because despite how he appears to come across off the field he’s one of my favourite players on the field.

 

[Kooly87]

Yea well said mate, and i certainly see your point as well.
Like i said earlier i think for me its just hard to see the upside after a rough season.

I will back the club no matter what, but i will piss and moan the entire time until we see some results haha.

I honestly think what you're expecting is a little unreasonable. It just isn't the way Coaches do things these days. Certainly not newly incoming Coaches to a club that is as fragile and disjointed as the 2020 Broncos.

If Bellamy said it about an out of form Smith or Bromwich, or Robinson said it about Keary or Cordner, I could in those circumstances and with so much chemistry and understanding see the merit of a public rev up, but I think it's just absolutely not what I'd expect to see from Kevvie publicly in the current circumstances. For all we know though that is EXACTLY what is going on behind closed doors with Milford one on one. In fact, I'd say it's probably likely that this is the case.

Kevvie is the new face and great white hope for a proud club that is hurting and in need of a shot of confidence and being unified together. This is the whole platform Kevvie came in here on, and I think it would be highly bizarre if two weeks in he started publicly putting pressure on our highest paid player and one of the few people he has available that has a slim hope of being an actual matchwinner for us next season.

 

[BroncsFan]

I honestly think what you're expecting is a little unreasonable. It just isn't the way Coaches do things these days. Certainly not newly incoming Coaches to a club that is as fragile and disjointed as the 2020 Broncos.

If Bellamy said it about an out of form Smith or Bromwich, or Robinson said it about Keary or Cordner, I could in those circumstances and with so much chemistry and understanding see the merit of a public rev up, but I think it's just absolutely not what I'd expect to see from Kevvie publicly in the current circumstances. For all we know though that is EXACTLY what is going on behind closed doors with Milford one on one. In fact, I'd say it's probably likely that this is the case.

Kevvie is the new face and great white hope for a proud club that is hurting and in need of a shot of confidence and being unified together. This is the whole platform Kevvie came in here on, and I think it would be highly bizarre if two weeks in he started publicly putting pressure on our highest paid player and one of the few people he has available that has a slim hope of being an actual matchwinner for us next season.

Behind closed doors he might just be telling Milford that this is his last chance to remain a bronco... so if he really wants to remain here then he needs to show it.

If he shits the bed whilst trying his guts out that at least shows he cares... if he comes out looking lacklustre and uninvolved then Kevvie will just drop him and he wont be re-signed.

The current morale of the group would be low so I think it's more about lifting players up rather than knocking them down further.

Having belief in Milf and publicly backing him in the media, whilst privately also indicating that he's on his last legs for the club could be a huge motivational factor for Milf and really see him getting involved in all facets of the game plan.

I dont think spraying players left, right and center for how shit they were last year will help anything... they know they were shit. However if a player is slacking off now under Kevvie that's when you spray the shit out of them. Build them up from last year and create a culture on hard work and accountability and we might be getting somehwere.

I think the issue Seibold had was he wasnt backing the players... it seemed like players were either getting a tap on the shoulder to move on or the club weren't trying to persuade them to stay... under the guise of creating cap space.. not a great environment to be playing in I'd imagine.

Players were being made well aware that they weren't in the plans so what was the motivation for them... it was like Seibold had made up his mind and the player didn't have a chance to change that.

Even if a player isn't in your plans you don't just shut them down and give them no hope... you just reward the player that is doing well and tell them if they want that spot then they have to earn it

 

[Midean]

Milford is the ONLY Brisbane player who has the potential to be a game changer / breaker. He is the closest thing we have had to a Lockyer....or an Alfie. If you're the new coach, why wouldn't you get behind him.....?? What else are you going to do....throw all your eggs in to the Dearden basket? That kid has a long way to go.....and I don't think he has the raw talent to ever be a game changer.

Really? the "only" player with potential huh? is that right?
If thats the case, burn the club down now, because if Milford is our only hope, then we are as fucked as your opinion on the matter.

I'd much rather give Dearden a bunch more game time and put my money on him than fat old Milford who has done nothing since 2015 except get fat and lazy and soak up cap space.

 

[Kooly87]

Really? the "only" player with potential huh? is that right?
If thats the case, burn the club down now, because if Milford is our only hope, then we are as fucked as your opinion on the matter.

I'd much rather give Dearden a bunch more game time and put my money on him than fat old Milford who has done nothing since 2015 except get fat and lazy and soak up cap space.

To be completely fair to him, he did say 'potential to be a game changer/breaker' and in terms of hard evidence, Milford is genuinely just about the only player on the books who has at least done that stuff before, even if it was a long time ago now. Perhaps TPJ and Staggs fall into that category too, but one won't feature for most of 2021 and the other probably tried to walk out on us last year when the going got tough, so I could understand him not including them.

His dismissal of Dearden though is bizarre to say the least. He's a teenage Halfback with less than 20 games under his belt. We have no real evidence at all of what Dearden is capable of just yet.

 

[Cult]

To be completely fair to him, he did say 'potential to be a game changer/breaker' and in terms of hard evidence, Milford is genuinely just about the only player on the books who has at least done that stuff before, even if it was a long time ago now.

His dismissal of Dearden though is bizarre to say the least. He's a teenage Halfback with less than 20 games under his belt. We have no real evidence at all of what Dearden is capable of just yet.

Staggs, Isaako, Oates and Coates have all been game changers for us over the last few years. It’s simply not true that Milford is our only potential game changer

 

[Kooly87]

Staggs, Isaako, Oates and Coates have all been game changers for us over the last few years. It’s simply not true that Milford is our only potential game changer

Right, so a Centre, a Wing/Fullback and two Wingers.

You're actually just lending weight to his argument now.

 

[Cult]

Right, so a Centre, a Wing/Fullback and two Wingers.

You're actually just lending weight to his argument now.

How so? They’ve won just as many games for us than Milford has recently

 

[Kooly87]

How so? They’ve won just as many games for us than Milford has recently

Right, so that's where we started at. Milford produces match winning performances less often than his Wingers.

All good (and even some average) outside Backs produce match winning plays and performances on occasion, that's just the law of averages playing out when you're the guy who gets to touch the ball last on a lot of big plays.

Spine players are supposed to do it all the time. That's why you rely on them doing their job to regularly win games and it's why in a conversation about reliable matchwinners, the barrel is woefully empty at the Broncos bar for the fact that Milford used to do it a long time ago.

 

[Cult]

Right, so that's where we started at. Milford produces match winning performances less often than his Wingers.

All good (and even some average) outside Backs produce match winning plays and performances on occasion, that's just the law of averages playing out when you're the guy who gets to touch the ball last on a lot of big plays.

Spine players are supposed to do it all the time. That's why you rely on them doing their job to regularly win games and it's why in a conversation about reliable matchwinners, the barrel is woefully empty at the Broncos bar for the fact that Milford used to do it a long time ago.

Not really sure what point you’re trying to prove. @Mr Fourex claimed Milford was the only player who could be a potential game breaker, it wasn’t true. Therefore the argument is over. Positions don’t matter. If the law of averages favour a centre over our million dollar half, especially recently, then I’d say that’s pretty fucked

I am done with relying on Milford for anything. I don’t expect him to do shit. The entire game plan for two years was pass it to Haas or Fifita while Milford hid. Milford hasn’t been reliable for anything since like 2018 and even then wasn’t good enough and showed what kind of player he was. And before anyone brings up his player of the year award, he only won it because they couldn’t give it to Lodge. There’s no more excuses, he steps up and does his job or he can take the millions he’s earned and **** off elsewhere.

Milford had potential to be one of the greats, now he could potentially never recover.

 

[pagey]

Maybe you blokes should take a Deep breath and go to the positivity thread

 

[McHunt]

Walters with Peter Psaltis on Brisbane's Wide World of Sports radio:

"That's how I operate as a coach. I want our players to develop their instincts We've seen this year with the six-to-go, the six-again rule, the instinct player comes right back into the game. I was very fortunate throughout my career, probably the most instinctive player of all time that I've seen is 'Alf' (Allan Langer). Darren Lockyer, although he liked a little bit more structure. Johnathan Thurston loved to just get the ball and create havoc."

"I see that ability in Anthony Milford. It's drawing out those strengths and Anthony playing to his strengths, as well as putting some structure around him. He's one of our best and most senior players now, so he needs to take a lot of responsibility for the team. Not only for our attack but also for our defence an everything that we're doing away from the footy field as well. I'm really looking forward to working with Milf. He's a great player and he'll get back to the form that we all know he can play in 2021. It's vital that Anthony gets back to the form that we all know he can play."

"Anthony, just in the few conversations that I've had with him, he's really looking forward to coming back and training. He's looking forward to what lies ahead for him. He knows he's off contract at the end of next year, so there's a lot in his corner, a lot on his plate, but he'll be a vital player for us next year. I'm looking forward, like everybody else, to seeing the real Anthony Milford step put of the shadows of the player we've seen in the last couple of years, into those shoes we know he can fill."

"In his early days at the Broncos, 2015, 2016, 2017, he was one of the better players in the competition and we expect Anthony to get back to that level for the 2021 season."

McHunt