NEWS Kevin Walters interview

McHunt

McHunt

International Rep
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Aug 25, 2018
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Kevvie in today's Sunday Mail:

"It (returning as coach) will be amazing. I’m excited about the start of a new era and I will be getting straight into things for everyone to be prepared for next season. We will turn things around. It’s going to be a good season for Broncos fans."

"Everyone says they will have a good pre-season, but I see my big job to unite everybody and bring the whole club back together. There was a disconnect at the Broncos. There was a disconnect between the players and the community. My big job is to bring it all back together and have everyone singing off the same page. I believe one of my big skills is the ability to get people working together as a team and bringing harmony. I will unite the Broncos as one."

"It (the disconnect) was everywhere. Across the whole club. I saw fractures. There was a disconnect between players, staff, the board and a disconnect with the Broncos’ links to the Queensland people. That should not be the Broncos. I feel those links wavered last year for whatever reason, so we need to build a strong base. I want the players reconnecting with the community, fans, members and sponsors. We are bringing the real Broncos back."

"The Old Boys have always been part of the club. To be fair, the Old Boys had every right to be disappointed with what happened last year with the club and they voiced their opinion, which they are entitled to. But they will always be welcome on my watch and there will no problem with them. I will make sure they are part of the club’s turnaround. They will support this team the way I know they can."

"Cameron Smith won’t be here. He’s a champion player but I don’t know what he is doing with his future. I haven’t had any talks with Cam."

"It (inheriting the spoon) doesn’t bother me. I have worked very hard over the last 20 years to coach at the Broncos. To now come in to coach them at the bottom, the only way is up for us and that’s the way I see it. It doesn’t bother me at all what happened last year. That is forgotten now. We have moved on and my challenge is to get them back to where they should be."

"I’m not going to make any predictions around finals and premierships next season, but my goal is to get the Broncos playing in a way that everyone will enjoy. The expectation is the Broncos will make the finals and nothing changes in my regard. Naturally, I will be expecting the best every week from the players. What’s more important is that this squad makes their own history. It’s been 14 years since we’ve won a comp. The legends like Allan Langer, Darren Lockyer, Glenn Lazarus and Shane Webcke are gone. This team needs to write their own history with a new group of legends."

"There’s a number of areas (to improve) but the big one for me is defence. The great teams defend well and defence is an area we are going to put a lot of time and effort into. The teams that win premierships invariably have the best defence, so we need to get better in that area. The players need to take responsibility for the amount of points we let in last year. I will also address a few things with our attack. I need a guy like Anthony Milford to be at the forefront of what we are doing next year. I need him to be firing."

"There’s no doubt for me that Milford is one of our key players next season. I have worked with ‘Milf’ in the past and I am aware of just how talented he is and it’s up to me and the coaching staff to get the best out of him. I honestly feel we haven’t seen the best of him. It’s up to me to provide the best environment for him to succeed and I’m confident I can do that for Milf."

"It’s important as a coach you keep things simple for Milf. He is an instinct player. We saw Cody Walker tear apart teams for Souths this year and I believe Anthony can do that for the Broncos. Milford is down on confidence and down on where he should be for varying reasons. He needs to take some responsibility as well. But Milf is like the other Broncos players. When you start losing like you do, it’s every man for himself. I will put some structure around Anthony and then let him play off the cuff. He sees things and does things as an elite player that many others can’t do. I am certain Milf will prove his critics wrong."

"The halves are crucial for any successful team and I need to settle on the right combination between Milf and Tom Dearden or Brodie Croft. I also have to identify who my fullback will be. We’ve got guys like Jamayne Isaako, Herbie Farnworth and Tesi Niu, so I’ll be watching them in pre-season."

"Anthony will be five-eighth. He won’t be playing fullback."

"(David Fifita) is a huge loss. Dave is a wonderful young talent and I would have loved to have kept him at the Broncos, but we have to look forward and we have some promising young forwards coming through. Jordan Riki did some impressive things last season and I think he can step up. We will assemble a good forward pack without Dave. I am happy for Dave that he is comfortable with where he is at with the Titans and I wish him all the best."

"I chose John Cartwright and Terry Matterson because they are people of great character. They have wonderful experience across all levels of the game. They both had great playing careers so the players respect the fact they have been there, done that and they have also succeeded as coaches. I played with ‘Matto’ at the Broncos and won premierships together and I have been on Kangaroo tours with ‘Carty’, so I’m confident they will bring some quality coaching to the club."

"I won’t be using Bradley Stubbs. He does work with Trent Robinson at the Roosters. I still talk to Bradley but I won’t be using him in a professional capacity."

"I don’t doubt myself (as a coach) at all. I will be myself. I believe I am a person of strong character. I want to be a winning coach. The last 20 years have been about getting myself into a position to coach the Broncos and now that I am there, I feel a great sense of pride. I don’t care what the critics think. I don’t have doubts about my ability. It was disappointing to see the club fall apart like it did last year. It was hard to walk down the street and hear some people criticising the club. But all that matters now is what happens next and I feel a great responsibility and excitement to bring this club forward and march them up the ladder. But this is not a one-man job. Everyone involved in the club from the players to the staff, we need to get the club back on track working together. I can’t do it all my own."

"This club is about winning. My directive is to change the mindset of the Broncos and get the players back into a winning frame of mind. When we do that, the premierships will come again."

McHunt
 
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I hope Milford can fire, he really is the key to our attack. Whoever is fullback needs to master the sweep play because although basic, is our bread and butter for points.
 
Surprised Kevvie didn’t show the same faith in Dearden that he has in Milford.
 
Surprised Kevvie didn’t show the same faith in Dearden that he has in Milford.

He's put the onus on Milf to take ownership which he needs to do if he wants to be the million dollar man, it is make or break now for Milf.

Dearden will be the halfback but he doesn't want to give Croft no hope either, that is not what a good coach does.
 
He's put the onus on Milf to take ownership which he needs to do if he wants to be the million dollar man, it is make or break now for Milf.

Dearden will be the halfback but he doesn't want to give Croft no hope either, that is not what a good coach does.
Milford is never going to be that player. Dearden has to run the show, publicly showing faith in him & giving him that certainty would be good for the kids confidence after a tough season.

Whatever Kevvie does he needs to be decisive, no wishy washy language, players need to know where they stand and they will respect him for it.
 
Milford is never going to be that player. Dearden has to run the show, publicly showing faith in him & giving him that certainty would be good for the kids confidence after a tough season.

Whatever Kevvie does he needs to be decisive, no wishy washy language, players need to know where they stand and they will respect him for it.

If Kevvie is a half decent coach, he would have already spoken to Dearden privately but also, remember, Dearden is not yet locked up, so if he signs elsewhere (which is a real possibility), Croft is the only half back left by default really.

Only a totally incompetent coach like Anthony Seesbottoms would not provide clarity to his players privately.

More to that, no player just starting out, like Dearden is, should be assured of anything, it leads to complacency, like season 2020 showed with no one being able to be dropped even though 75% of the team definitely deserved it.
 
Milford is never going to be that player. Dearden has to run the show, publicly showing faith in him & giving him that certainty would be good for the kids confidence after a tough season.

Whatever Kevvie does he needs to be decisive, no wishy washy language, players need to know where they stand and they will respect him for it.

The difference is that Milford is at a point in his career that this kind of public pressure should be expected, while there's no way we should be holding Dearden up as the saviour in front of the world. What's said behind the scenes is what's going to be key with Dearden, and given the way Milford and Hunt played under Kevvie's guidance in 2015, I have faith they'll both know what's expected of them and have the confidence to execute on the field.

I just love the way Kevvie talks about the club. If he can't get buy in from these players, I don't know who can to be honest.
 
Kev sounds like he has more faith in Milford than I do, frankly. Milford just doesn't have the mental fortitude or the desire to turn his talents into success. He's a textbook Inala groupie, it's the environment he grew up in. A gigantic Centrelink building, graffiti smothered bus stops, a really shit school and a tacky old shopping centre is all he's ever known. The negatives are baked into the crust I guess you could say. While the area is certainly Rugby League heartland, it is not the sort of talent pool you want to be drawing your players from.

It will take a massive attitude adjustment to get Milf back to anything close to 2015 when he was young, exuberant and still gave a shit, and I just suspect that ship has sailed. He's been on too much money and given way too much free reign (McDonalds card) for too long, not to mention the constant fucking around with his role in the side. Five Eight, then Fullback, then back to Five Eight and on and on it goes. I don't even think a change of environment would help his situation all that much. Maybe a big pay cut would be the impetus for a wakeup call, but again, I reckon it's just way too late. He isn't a drunk like Roberts or a spastic like Barba or Carney; He's just lazy. Extremely lazy. Not unlike Titans era Jarryd Hayne but without the achievements and credibility to fall back on, and in my opinion he has had more than enough time to prove otherwise. We need his cap space for players who might actually pull their weight consistently.
 
Kev sounds like he has more faith in Milford than I do, frankly. Milford just doesn't have the mental fortitude or the desire to turn his talents into success. He's a textbook Inala groupie, it's the environment he grew up in. A gigantic Centrelink building, graffiti smothered bus stops, a really shit school and a tacky old shopping centre is all he's ever known. The negatives are baked into the crust I guess you could say. While the area is certainly Rugby League heartland, it is not the sort of talent pool you want to be drawing your players from.

It will take a massive attitude adjustment to get Milf back to anything close to 2015 when he was young, exuberant and still gave a shit, and I just suspect that ship has sailed. He's been on too much money and given way too much free reign (McDonalds card) for too long, not to mention the constant fucking around with his role in the side. Five Eight, then Fullback, then back to Five Eight and on and on it goes. I don't even think a change of environment would help his situation all that much. Maybe a big pay cut would be the impetus for a wakeup call, but again, I reckon it's just way too late. He isn't a drunk like Roberts or a spastic like Barba or Carney; He's just lazy. Extremely lazy. Not unlike Titans era Jarryd Hayne but without the achievements and credibility to fall back on, and in my opinion he has had more than enough time to prove otherwise. We need his cap space for players who might actually pull their weight consistently.

Even if he does have a good season, I just hope we don't offer him any more than half of what he is on.
 
I want to believe.....I really do...

The issue is; can Kev get into Milfs head and get HIM to turn his career around?

Few players would have scored the try he did against Souths in round 2....

I want to believe
 
Can I also say one thing about Corey Allen...

I know this is probs not the thread but anyway...

If you want to pay Allen fullback money (arguably the highest paid position across the league) then dont you want a portfolio of work greater than 10 games?

He was good in Origin 3, but he made mistakes too...

Id want a top 10 fullback in the league AT LEAST for over 1 mil a season....arguably Allen will be eyeing that figure here eventually should he come.

Isnt it better then to let him stay at Souths and we can then watch and see if he'd be worth the outlay?
 
Can I also say one thing about Corey Allen...

I know this is probs not the thread but anyway...

If you want to pay Allen fullback money (arguably the highest paid position across the league) then dont you want a portfolio of work greater than 10 games?

He was good in Origin 3, but he made mistakes too...

Id want a top 10 fullback in the league AT LEAST for over 1 mil a season....arguably Allen will be eyeing that figure here eventually should he come.

Isnt it better then to let him stay at Souths and we can then watch and see if he'd be worth the outlay?

If he wants that much, we laugh and walk away. No one is suggesting offering that much but for up to $400k, even $500k, I'd be very happy with that.
 
Kev has to go all in on Milf for 2021 because he was and is our marquee player. He has to back him 100% in order to get his confidence up and have no excuses not to perform. If he doesn't fire, we have $1 million to go after a marquee signing for 2022. We won't need to punt him off to another club and pay half his wage, we can literally wipe our hands of him and use the full value elsewhere. Even if he does fire, past experience (you would hope) would tell them that $1 million for Milford is not worth it, he can be someone else's part-time performer on big dollars and we can get someone reliable and proven.
 

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