THE COACH Kevin Walters

[theshed]

It's not that deep.

Brisbane were prepared to offer an extension, but didn't view him as the long term option. The Warriors came in with the longer deal and were offering it right away - the club chose to do right by the player and take the deal.

The issue was not having a suitable replacement lined up. Hosking would have solved that, but Canberra once again blew Brisbane out of the water.

That was kind of my point. We didn’t value Capewell as much as warriors and went all in on Piakura being ready without any other experienced options.

I’m a big fan of Piakura but it was risky to expect him to be up to a full season of NRL without teething pains. Same as Mariner. Same can be said about Cobbo at centre to an extent. All of them have huge and obvious upside but it is a challenge to carry them all at once with the mistakes they will make. Add Ezra, and Walsh to the equation and you are really going to struggle with consistency once your depth starts being tested.

 

[Bish]

Perhaps we use this season to now blood one or two others, expectation has gone, so not as much pressure. Let’s look to next season.
Not saying write this one off completely, points wise we’re not too far off. If we could just find some form and momentum, 3 or 4 straight wins.

Having said that, 3 or 4 completed sets would be nice.

 

[Big Pete]

That was kind of my point. We didn’t value Capewell as much as warriors and went all in on Piakura being ready without any other experienced options.

I’m a big fan of Piakura but it was risky to expect him to be up to a full season of NRL without teething pains. Same as Mariner. Same can be said about Cobbo at centre to an extent. All of them have huge and obvious upside but it is a challenge to carry them all at once with the mistakes they will make. Add Ezra, and Walsh to the equation and you are really going to struggle with consistency once your depth starts being tested.

The issue is if the Broncos compete with the offer, there's Capewell playing on potentially a year or two too long, taking up cap space that may see another player walk out the door. Yes, he would have been handy this year, but 2025-26? With Walsh and Mam off-contract demanding big money? Something has to give.

 

[theshed]

The issue is if the Broncos compete with the offer, there's Capewell playing on potentially a year or two too long, taking up cap space that may see another player walk out the door. Yes, he would have been handy this year, but 2025-26? With Walsh and Mam off-contract demanding big money? Something has to give.

Yea completely agree. I’m just highlighting the problem not claiming to have a solution. Maybe we will look back on it all as the right move as it may mean short term pain for another run at the top.

 

[Big Pete]

Yea completely agree. I’m just highlighting the problem not claiming to have a solution. Maybe we will look back on it all as the right move as it may mean short term pain for another run at the top.

The solution is that they need to be better at their development pathways and rely less on signing the Jaiyden Hunts and Jack Gosiewskis. That role should be filled by players who came through their pathways, but it seems like it's feast or famine.

 

[Manofoneway]

I started this thread but come on fellas. Imagine saying Kev has a bad track record with adversity. The guy came into the biggest shit show potentially in league history, under the most scrutiny of any coach, and made a GF in 2 seasons.

Let’s be fair

The IQ of the children complaining about the coach is very low. Very very low.

 

[Shane Tronc]

Our roster management should take the blame more than Kev. We’ve had bad luck with injuries in the backs but even then we’re too short in back row and middle. Gosiewski, Baker and Hunt haven’t given us enough

 

[Manofoneway]

The solution is that they need to be better at their development pathways and rely less on signing the Jaiyden Hunts and Jack Gosiewskis. That role should be filled by players who came through their pathways, but it seems like it's feast or famine.

Completely ridiculous. We have more home grown players than almost any other club lol. Staggs, carrigan, mam piakura, riki, haas, cobbo, Mariner, Oates, willison, hetherington, walsh.

If you look across the NRL, the amount of players we have developed is insurmountable. The problem is the cap restricts our ability to keep all these players, forces us to go to the market and buy the likes of hunt and gosiewski. Not that either of those players are the problem.

Its very simple. Once the lads hold the ball we will win games.

 

[Big Pete]

Completely ridiculous. We have more home grown players than almost any other club lol. Staggs, carrigan, mam piakura, riki, haas, cobbo, Mariner, Oates, willison, hetherington, walsh.

If you look across the NRL, the amount of players we have developed is insurmountable. The problem is the cap restricts our ability to keep all these players, forces us to go to the market and buy the likes of hunt and gosiewski. Not that either of those players are the problem.

Its very simple. Once the lads hold the ball we will win games.

The issue is they develop a lot of marquee talent.

Just about every player you've named is a rep. player who eat up a huge chunk of the salary cap.

For a development club, they don't develop enough solid first graders to help balance the cap so they're either getting fleeced by managers to pay top dollar or they're letting those players walk out the door.

If you look at Penrith, they lose a lot of marquee players but they can easily plug and play somebody else. The Broncos don't have that luxury and they're relying too heavily on their affiliates to bail them out.

 

[Battler]

We’ve lost our two best spine players for long periods, both of which are also leaders in the team. It’s not really fair to point to riff, who have established their system over the past decade+, and the storm, who have one of the best coaches of all time, as examples of teams coping with key players out.

 

[Allo]

Completely ridiculous. We have more home grown players than almost any other club lol. Staggs, carrigan, mam piakura, riki, haas, cobbo, Mariner, Oates, willison, hetherington, walsh.

If you look across the NRL, the amount of players we have developed is insurmountable. The problem is the cap restricts our ability to keep all these players, forces us to go to the market and buy the likes of hunt and gosiewski. Not that either of those players are the problem.

Its very simple. Once the lads hold the ball we will win games.

It's about the squad guys and balancing positional coverage with NRL-standard replacements

All the players you've named are first 17. we still have up to 13 players to fill in the gaps with either older good cup players or seasoned NRL players looking to keep their careers going that have something to offer.

Baker was a bench at best Rooster discard that has shown nothing to deserve being signed, Hunt was a fringe middle at the Dragons and Jetski has bounced from club to club and hasn't performed since his early days at Manly and just fell into our lap.

That is terrible off-season recruiting when you only have rookies to replace Herbie, Flegler and Capewell.

 

[Scorchie]

Forgot about Jayden. He injured?

 

[Manofoneway]

It's about the squad guys and balancing positional coverage with NRL-standard replacements

All the players you've named are first 17. we still have up to 13 players to fill in the gaps with either older good cup players or seasoned NRL players looking to keep their careers going that have something to offer.

Baker was a bench at best Rooster discard that has shown nothing to deserve being signed, Hunt was a fringe middle at the Dragons and Jetski has bounced from club to club and hasn't performed since his early days at Manly and just fell into our lap.

That is terrible off-season recruiting when you only have rookies to replace Herbie, Flegler and Capewell.

Who do you suggest we sign given the players available at the back end of last season? Also consider that Herbie (850k), Flegler (800k) and Capewell (650k) could not fit into our cap with the likes of Carrigan, Walsh, Haas, Mam and the like.

I mean seriously, the replacements for those players were actually quite good at the back end of last year.

1. Willison replaces Flegler - A like for like replacement almost at a fraction of the cost. A Broncos developed player mind you.
2. Cobbo replaces Herbie - Another like for like replacement, another broncos developed player
3. Piakura replaced Capewell - At the back end of last year Piakura was playing well so no reason not to think this was a bad decision. Another broncos developed player.

There is literally no logic to your argument whatsoever. Its just totally baseless. Baker, Gosiewski, Hunt and the like are all players that are there to fill the 13 other spots you are talking about and injuries aside, probably don't get a game.

Ill say it again, our errors are killing us. That's about it.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

The issue is they develop a lot of marquee talent.

Just about every player you've named is a rep. player who eat up a huge chunk of the salary cap.

For a development club, they don't develop enough solid first graders to help balance the cap so they're either getting fleeced by managers to pay top dollar or they're letting those players walk out the door.

If you look at Penrith, they lose a lot of marquee players but they can easily plug and play somebody else. The Broncos don't have that luxury and they're relying too heavily on their affiliates to bail them out.

The problem isn't that we don't develop "solid" players, it's that the media talks about our 16 and 17 year olds like they are Darren lockyer or Allan langers clones. That stuffs us up in a few ways.
1. These young guys actually start to believe this and don't put in the hard yards to keep developing their game in the reserves
2. We can't keep them because other teams also buy into the hype and pay overs to buy them
3. Other teams keep their juniors easier because ours are getting all the attention and all the money thrown at them.

Salary cap is a joke. We wouldn't have to pay what we did for piakura for example if he was playing for the tigers. Coby black and mozer are gonna be other examples I bet. Guaranteed there are players their age in their positions who are far better but we have hardly heard of them at all and the team they play for pays half the amount to keep them.

Salary cap is a false economy that is punishing us big time. It's took the panthers 2 premierships and 3 minor premierships to start being under the Salary cap pressure we were under before we even made the gf ffs, we finished 9th the year before and we had to let go of 3 of our starting 17 haha

 

[Allo]

Who do you suggest we sign given the players available at the back end of last season? Also consider that Herbie (850k), Flegler (800k) and Capewell (650k) could not fit into our cap with the likes of Carrigan, Walsh, Haas, Mam and the like.

I mean seriously, the replacements for those players were actually quite good at the back end of last year.

1. Willison replaces Flegler - A like for like replacement almost at a fraction of the cost. A Broncos developed player mind you.
2. Cobbo replaces Herbie - Another like for like replacement, another broncos developed player
3. Piakura replaced Capewell - At the back end of last year Piakura was playing well so no reason not to think this was a bad decision. Another broncos developed player.

There is literally no logic to your argument whatsoever. Its just totally baseless. Baker, Gosiewski, Hunt and the like are all players that are there to fill the 13 other spots you are talking about and injuries aside, probably don't get a game.

Ill say it again, our errors are killing us. That's about it.

And your argument is solely based on something surface-level without considering other factors.

Errors come from complacency, complacency comes from comfortability, comfortability comes from no competition

You do realise that Willison, Mariner, who is there now because Cobbo moved in and is in this case the actual Herbie replacement, and Piakura were the depth that provided that competition right?

the entire team know they're getting picked next week regardless of how they perform because there's no one else to replace them.

whether that's a conscious thought or not, it does not and will not ever work out well

 

[Big Pete]

Who do you suggest we sign given the players available at the back end of last season?

Improve the pathways so they can bring more players through the system. After U/19s, the cupboard gets very bare at the Broncos.

It's not something they can fix short term, but they need to get it right long term as a development club.

You talk about replacing Farnworth, Flegler & Capewell, but who replaces Mariner (I know you said Cobbo, but it was Mariner who came into the team), Willison & Piakura? Te Kura, but who else?

The problem isn't that we don't develop "solid" players, it's that the media talks about our 16 and 17 year olds like they are Darren lockyer or Allan langers clones. That stuffs us up in a few ways.

It's both, the Broncos constantly target marquee talent with big reputations, so they're naturally going to have a bigger profile. The thing is, these players aren't typically from their catchment - they're either from New Zealand or the Gold Coast like Black and Mozer.

That's not to say the Broncos are awful, it's just highlighting a deficiency in the system.

 

[Manofoneway]

It's not something they can fix short term, but they need to get it right long term as a development club.

You talk about replacing Farnworth, Flegler & Capewell, but who replaces Mariner (I know you said Cobbo, but it was Mariner who came into the team), Willison & Piakura? Te Kura, but who else?


It's both, the Broncos constantly target marquee talent with big reputations, so they're naturally going to have a bigger profile. The thing is, these players aren't typically from their catchment - they're either from New Zealand or the Gold Coast like Black and Mozer.

That's not to say the Broncos are awful, it's just highlighting a deficiency in the system.

I was replying to the previous comment saying we replaced Flegler, Herbie and Capewell with Baker, Hunt and Gosiewski.. We didnt.

We have decent second string outside backs that are injured. Hoeter would be my pick to replace Mariner in an ideal world if he wasnt injured. Karapani was great too last night. Israel Leota is another name coming through that will start to put pressure on our wingers. There will be some competition for spots but the argument your making is more towards the salary cap rather than Brisbane's ability to develop players.

 

[Big Pete]

the argument your making is more towards the salary cap rather than Brisbane's ability to develop players.

That was my argument from the start...

And again you can address this by developing those type of players instead of relying on marquee talents.

I was replying to the previous comment saying we replaced Flegler, Herbie and Capewell with Baker, Hunt and Gosiewski.. We didnt.

Ok, but then the point becomes who were they replaced by. I'll pay Karaipani, albeit, not an ideal situation but Leota is a year behind where Mariner was in 2023.