THE COACH Poll: Should Kevin Walters be sacked?

[McHunt]

Yes, he was born better than Smoothy

By what metric?

 

[Sproj]

And here we are.

Back where we were this whole time of you droning on about the same boring thing?

 

[Wolfie]

I dont buy Kevvie cant coach because i think he can. I'm still not convinced he's right for a head coach though.

 

[lynx000]

Never used the term until today. I said one day he would have to make a decision to drop his son for a better player, and that it was a looming disaster waiting to happen. That day is today.

This is about Kevvie, not Billy.

Kevvie has a problem. A big problem. He needs a half to partner Captain Fixit. He has an 80 minute tacklebot at 9 who's killing momentum and not challenging the line. He renegged on his offer of 6 to Kotoni Staggs. He has two incumbent 6's who suddenly look very ordinary. He has a utility-in-waiting who's been back of the queue for two years - who now looks good enough, but not great. And the next big thing, looking like the next big thing, who's a ticking timebomb for anyone who pulls on the 6 jersey.

But the biggest part of his problem is trying to be the best dad ever AND the best coach ever. How does he do right by his son, who's killing it in the trials, without being accused of nepotism and holding someone else back?

It's your turn to play Kevvie.


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There's a new sheriff in town

**** sake. It's the Courier Mail. It's the sport pages. And it's Rugby League. The base conversation this season is we have a new halfback. Who are we going to pair with him? The conversation about his son being a candidate is a water cooler meme that's barely even hit beyond the most diehard fans like us.

Every member of this board was bagging the **** out of Billy before the first trial and most were aghast he might bring in his son, who hasn't exactly come with his own brand. As for nepotism being a dirty word, you're talking about a coach who already has two brothers on the payroll. It's a legitimate, and very very common narrative right now. Not everyone has watched every ball of every game. 90% of fans will not even have watched the trials.

As for what Badel has written. He's said the opposite of what @Foordy said. Which is typical of that guy. He distorts everything. Kind of what he accuses journalists of doing. No exactly.

Badel has turned up to the press conference, taken Kevvie's quotes and padded them with context. It's bread and butter reporting. Here is all he's written. It's **** all:

"There is a view Billy has to perform even better than expected to justify his place at the Broncos, but Walters hit out at talk of a father-son bias, insisting family ties will not creep into the selection room."​

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The subs have rewritten the heading and lede several times:

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As for Badel being a shit writer. Big deal. The Courier Mail is staffed by shit writers. It's a low tier rag aimed at the barely literate. Badel almost exclusively covers the Broncos, whose fanbase isn't the exactly the Algonquin Round Table. You're talking about a paper with Mike O'Connor and Peter Gleeson pipelining their opinions from between their arsecheeks.

He certainly has everything to prove, I'll grant you that. But the club shares much of that blame. That we had to go out and import another club's culture in Reynolds and Capewell, and our season appears to rest on them, tells you how far up shit creek we were.

The accusations of nepotism are valid, and will pop out from under the rug the second Billy becomes the whipping boy for our losses. His brothers, only one of whom is a former Bronco, have managed to escape scrutiny to date.

As for poor assistants, you're right, that's 100% on him. Except for one untouchable in Alfie Langer. I think I'm the only one on this board who's ever whispered his track record of assistant coaching failure. We can't look directly into that sun.

Nope never mentioned before today.

 

[lynx000]

More non- mentioning. There were about 6 others I could not quote.

So how do we feel about losing Te Maire Martin to retain Billy Walters?

In my opinion, Billy has been perfect for us to date, has earned his position, but is now the last weak link in the premiership winning squad his father is building. I think his old man should find him a position in the ESL while he's on a roll. Before he's forced to drop him. Which must happen.

I'm not calling it nepotism, but by next season it will be a clear conflict of interest. He came into the squad as a 6, has been fashioned into our starting 9 and has been picked every week this season, barring the last through injury. He's been good enough. No question. But that's the only position left we need to improve.

The decision to invest in him will cost us Turpin, who in fairness hasn't put up a fight. Kelly will no doubt also leave. No one is too bothered by either. But Te Maire is a notch above Billy. Could he have slotted into 9? I think so. And what if Gamble leaves? And what about Tesi? Where could he potentially fit in?

At what point do we start to feel uncomfortable?

What's happened to you man. I never thought you were this literal that I'd have to explain everything in minutiae lest you split hairs ad-infinitum like you did over Selwyn Cobbo. Good grief that was painful.

I'm not arguing anything. I'm ASKING at what point would you be concerned we are settling for a second rate player in a spine position, who happens to be the coach's son. And while every other position is adequately covered we are so light on in that one position, this second rate player seems like a good option.

My opinion is I will be concerned if he's out best option at hooker round 1 2023. Do I need to spell this out over and over that I'm not talking about this weekend?

I'm not LITERALLY arguing he's pushing out Te Maire, only that here we are looking at a seriously good player leaving who covers a fairly similar role to Billy at the beginning of the season, along with Tesi Niu and Herbie Farnworth. I'm not saying it's nepotism, but there is obviously a conflict of interest there, whether you want to call it that or not, and he is the worst player in a very good team.

Do you agree that Billy Walters is the weakest player in the team? We could start there if you're getting stuck on that he and Te Maire aren't exactly the same role.

I don't think we need reminding our recruitment team have been fucking useless at finding hookers. It's pointless arguing about what happened last season, but we CAN'T go into next season with the same scenario where this mediocre player is somehow our best option, and the coach won't drop him. Our scouts have had plenty of time to suss this out. There is no excuse.

If it continues next season, such accusations of nepotism won't be implied, they will be implicit.

Just out of interest: how do you see Billy's career trajectory over the course of his contract?

There seems to be four schools of thought:

1. He'll get picked every week at either 9 or 14, while the other number keeps being rotated between QLD Cup players. By Origin he'll be the butt of all derision and Kevvie will be copping abuse for it. The insult "nepotism" will trend on Twitter after every Broncos match. It wasn't good enough last season. It won't be good enough next season.

2. He's great depth, versatile, hard working, costs very little and is ideal for that rainy day that might come along during the Origin series. He won't be our starting hooker.

3. He's a handy 14 who can play halfback, five-eighth and hooker equally well. We're lucky to have found him.

4 Somehow, through no fault of anyone, he's our only option. Quit complaining and carry on.

Excellent game from Billy last night. His best in the Broncos jersey by far. Was I wrong about him? Maybe, but the point I kept trying to make wasn't so much that he couldn't ever do the job, it was what would happen to the team morale if Kevvie kept picking him if he continued to play like last season (hard working, but mediocre). That point kept getting overlooked. It wasn't about immediate nepotism. It was the potential. I think Billy has answered that this year. But it will always hang over his head. It's unavoidable.

As for rep selection? Might be jumping the gun there. He's doing the job fine now, but he's not in Harry Grant's class just yet. His next hurdle is fighting off the Mozer domino effect.

Walker is always linked to us.

Isn't his dad & uncle pissed with us that they never got the coach's job at the Broncos

 

[BroncosFever]

The gloves are off boys, you watch how hard he mashes that keyboard now. Kevvie and his extended family won’t know what hit them.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

Madge can coach at Rep level he has shown that, but he has done jack all in the club game for a decade.

His premiership drought is 4 Years shorter than bennetts, with less years coached........

 

[Mustafur]

His premiership drought is 4 Years shorter than bennetts, with less years coached........

sure but he couldn't even make the finals in a team that Seibold made the prelims with.

 

[Allo]

I dont buy Kevvie cant coach because i think he can. I'm still not convinced he's right for a head coach though.

I still don't know what sort of coach he is.

Strikes me as a man manager that can roll with the good times and does his best to keep his players in good spirits, which in itself is not a bad thing.

But I'm yet to see any change to the ad-lib style that worked last year, and when Reynolds isn't there to balance and conduct it, we've seen the results.

Assistants have their specialties and input into the overall game plan I'm sure, so I don't expect Kev to be coaching every single player 24/7 on every part of the game, but a head coach should be able to make some noticeable change if plans A and B aren't working, regardless of who he has on the field.

I worry he's not enough of a respected hard-arse to get the players to pull their heads in and play simple but tough football.

Of course it could be a case of what a lot of us believe in that the team just can't use their brains on the field regardless of what they are coached to do.

 

[Galah]

I still don't know what sort of coach he is.

Strikes me as a man manager that can roll with the good times and does his best to keep his players in good spirits, which in itself is not a bad thing.

But I'm yet to see any change to the ad-lib style that worked last year, and when Reynolds isn't there to balance and conduct it, we've seen the results.

Assistants have their specialties and input into the overall game plan I'm sure, so I don't expect Kev to be coaching every single player 24/7 on every part of the game, but a head coach should be able to make some noticeable change if plans A and B aren't working, regardless of who he has on the field.

I worry he's not enough of a respected hard-arse to get the players to pull their heads in and play simple but tough football.

Of course it could be a case of what a lot of us believe in that the team just can't use their brains on the field regardless of what they are coached to do.

This is an amazing description of Walters. I wholeheartedly agree with this.

 

[Skathen]

I still don't know what sort of coach he is.

Strikes me as a man manager that can roll with the good times and does his best to keep his players in good spirits, which in itself is not a bad thing.

But I'm yet to see any change to the ad-lib style that worked last year, and when Reynolds isn't there to balance and conduct it, we've seen the results.

Assistants have their specialties and input into the overall game plan I'm sure, so I don't expect Kev to be coaching every single player 24/7 on every part of the game, but a head coach should be able to make some noticeable change if plans A and B aren't working, regardless of who he has on the field.

I worry he's not enough of a respected hard-arse to get the players to pull their heads in and play simple but tough football.

Of course it could be a case of what a lot of us believe in that the team just can't use their brains on the field regardless of what they are coached to do.

So, would you say that he's a good person, like a good bloke, but don't think he's a good coach? Like, he's not the best coach, he's all right. Feeling like he's just a good person and that he's not a coach? The way he coaches is a bit weird you guess?

 

[Allo]

So, would you say that he's a good person, like a good bloke, but don't think he's a good coach? Like, he's not the best coach, he's all right. Feeling like he's just a good person and that he's not a coach? The way he coaches is a bit weird you guess?

I'll put it this way: the rest of this year and first half of next year will be the litmus test on whether he is on the right path.

 

[Totally Unr3al]

I still don't know what sort of coach he is.

Strikes me as a man manager that can roll with the good times and does his best to keep his players in good spirits, which in itself is not a bad thing.

But I'm yet to see any change to the ad-lib style that worked last year, and when Reynolds isn't there to balance and conduct it, we've seen the results.

Assistants have their specialties and input into the overall game plan I'm sure, so I don't expect Kev to be coaching every single player 24/7 on every part of the game, but a head coach should be able to make some noticeable change if plans A and B aren't working, regardless of who he has on the field.

I worry he's not enough of a respected hard-arse to get the players to pull their heads in and play simple but tough football.

Of course it could be a case of what a lot of us believe in that the team just can't use their brains on the field regardless of what they are coached to do.

This is very well said

On your last point, if that’s the case, a good coach will make the tough decisions that need to be made…

 

[McHunt]

More non- mentioning. There were about 6 others I could not quote.

More non- mentioning. There were about 6 others I could not quote.

Thanks, stalker. You could always try ignoring me. Saves bleating EVERY FUCKING TIME I post.

 

[McHunt]

The gloves are off boys, you watch how hard he mashes that keyboard now. Kevvie and his extended family won’t know what hit them.

Your glove is off with your hand on your ****.

 

[lynx000]

Thanks, stalker. You could always try ignoring me. Saves bleating EVERY FUCKING TIME I post.

Poor diddums does not like being caught out.

 

[Culhwch]

Poor diddums does not like being caught out.

Careful, he'll tell his mum you're picking on him and then we'll all be in trouble.

 

[Manofoneway]

It's lose lose for kevy today. We win and everyone gives the credit to reyno. We lose and everyone will blame kevy.

Unbelievable to think a bloke who has been a key player in all but one of our clubs premierships is so unpopular with some of the fans.