THE COACH Kevin Walters

[McHunt]

Our attacking sets are simply 4 hit ups and then pass to walsh. Not threatening to any nrl team.

That's patently untrue. Sometimes Walsh kicks on the 2nd or 3rd.

We also died with the ball on the 5th a few times.

 

[broncos4life]

This is my take, largely based on how bloody upset and otherwise angry I am at the moment, so that's the grain of salt flavouring here as I stir the possum.

1.
I can't agree that KW "coached" us to a GF last year. Rather, he and Arey managed a team of superstars to get to the GF. Remove those superstars - Herbie, Flegs, Capewell, Palasia, Arey (injured) and here we are. This year our pack is soft, unfit and lacks direction without ARey and, dare I say it, without a class dummy half. No wonder we are where we are on the ladder.

About the dummy half situation, as I see it, none of the top teams have an average hooker like Billy. Putting it another way, I can never see us winning a premiership against the current top 5 teams with Billy Walters as our 9. For mine, Billy is a great choice as our bench utility but that's it.

Can you imagine how good we would be with say Api K as our number 9, even given our average pack this year?

2.
Major major problem: our fitness levels suck, and we lose against the better sides because we run out of energy, which for mine largely explains why we lost the GF, as well as this year's poor form. For mine, we are exactly where we deserve to be on the ladder given our form so far.

3.
Yet again, our recruitment sucked big time. Last year, we had the best pack of forwards in the comp, we had Herbie whose running metres were outstanding, Capewell's experience and class, Fleg's aggression, ARey's game management and kicking game. Take them out and without equivalent replacements, and here we are.

I am genuinely worried that we will finish this season 3rd last.

Hope I'm wrong.

Palasia and Capewell are superstars? Are they your mates?

 

[Foordy]

This is my take, largely based on how bloody upset and otherwise angry I am at the moment, so that's the grain of salt flavouring here as I stir the possum.

1.
I can't agree that KW "coached" us to a GF last year. Rather, he and Arey managed a team of superstars to get to the GF. Remove those superstars - Herbie, Flegs, Capewell, Palasia, Arey (injured) and here we are. This year our pack is soft, unfit and lacks direction without ARey and, dare I say it, without a class dummy half. No wonder we are where we are on the ladder.

About the dummy half situation, as I see it, none of the top teams have an average hooker like Billy. Putting it another way, I can never see us winning a premiership against the current top 5 teams with Billy Walters as our 9. For mine, Billy is a great choice as our bench utility but that's it.

Can you imagine how good we would be with say Api K as our number 9, even given our average pack this year?

2.
Major major problem: our fitness levels suck, and we lose against the better sides because we run out of energy, which for mine largely explains why we lost the GF, as well as this year's poor form. For mine, we are exactly where we deserve to be on the ladder given our form so far.

3.
Yet again, our recruitment sucked big time. Last year, we had the best pack of forwards in the comp, we had Herbie whose running metres were outstanding, Capewell's experience and class, Fleg's aggression, ARey's game management and kicking game. Take them out and without equivalent replacements, and here we are.

I am genuinely worried that we will finish this season 3rd last.

Hope I'm wrong.

please allow me to respond to each of your points raised.

1.
the same can be said for every premiership winning coach of the last decade (at least). let's start by looking at Cleary. He'd been coaching in the NRL for over a decade and hadn't won shit until he got a hold of this superstar Panthers team. Hell just take Cleary out and they certainly don't get the 3-peat, but they've also got Edwards, Turuva, Martin, JFH and had Korisau and Burton for some of their streak.

then take a look at Robinson. he already had Mitchell, Tedesco, Keary and JWH ... but it took the addition of Cooper Cronk before they won anything.

2.
our fitness levels could be attributed to the shortened pre-season. given the mandatory 8-10 week break players have to have before returning to training and an already shortened pre-season meant we likely had to get more into the ball stuff than just focusing on fitness. throw in rep duties for some players then the stupid bloody Vegas trip and our pre-season was fucked before it started. I'm sure Kevvie has learnt from this.

lets not forget that most of our players hadn't played finals before, let alone made it all the way to the GF. It was also Kevvie's first shorter pre-season.

3.
I agree that we probably could have gone for better fringe players, and keeping Capes for another year would have been Ideal ... but I call hindsight on this one. of the players that left every one of them had a vast majority of people calling for them to be dropped, let go etc.

Just on Capes, I think part of us letting him go was to repay the Warriors for allowing Walsh to leave them early. the other part was to repay Capes for what he did for us. IMO, he was integral in helping drag the club back to the finals. allowing him to secure his long term future (which we couldn't offer) was a way of saying thank you to him.

now if we don't have a disgustingly bad injury toll this year, then this is a moot point anyway.

 

[Broncapz]

It would be nice to be coached to have Penrith's Drive, Reponsibilitiy, Unity, Grit and Strength. Really sets them apart.

 

[Brocko]

On vegas, as mentioned above, I hope we never put our hand up for that shit again.

The impact it has on pre season would be incredible.

3 of the 4 teams have been pretty ordinary all year.

 

[winslow_wong]

On vegas, as mentioned above, I hope we never put our hand up for that shit again.

The impact it has on pre season would be incredible.

3 of the 4 teams have been pretty ordinary all year.

Well if we go again we gotta go the roosters route via Fiji it seems

 

[BroncsFan]

Well if we go again we gotta go the roosters route via Fiji it seems

**** that... just send the Souths Logan team over and keep our boys in Aust training as per normal... the yanks won't know the difference anyway

 

[Santa]

This is my take, largely based on how bloody upset and otherwise angry I am at the moment, so that's the grain of salt flavouring here as I stir the possum.

1.
I can't agree that KW "coached" us to a GF last year. Rather, he and Arey managed a team of superstars to get to the GF. Remove those superstars - Herbie, Flegs, Capewell, Palasia, Arey (injured) and here we are. This year our pack is soft, unfit and lacks direction without ARey and, dare I say it, without a class dummy half. No wonder we are where we are on the ladder.

About the dummy half situation, as I see it, none of the top teams have an average hooker like Billy. Putting it another way, I can never see us winning a premiership against the current top 5 teams with Billy Walters as our 9. For mine, Billy is a great choice as our bench utility but that's it.

Can you imagine how good we would be with say Api K as our number 9, even given our average pack this year?

2.
Major major problem: our fitness levels suck, and we lose against the better sides because we run out of energy, which for mine largely explains why we lost the GF, as well as this year's poor form. For mine, we are exactly where we deserve to be on the ladder given our form so far.

3.
Yet again, our recruitment sucked big time. Last year, we had the best pack of forwards in the comp, we had Herbie whose running metres were outstanding, Capewell's experience and class, Fleg's aggression, ARey's game management and kicking game. Take them out and without equivalent replacements, and here we are.

I am genuinely worried that we will finish this season 3rd last.

Hope I'm wrong.

Don't worry, you're completely wrong on all accounts :)

 

[Manofoneway]

Don't worry, you're completely wrong on all accounts :)

Lol. That summary gave me a good laugh.

 

[Brocko]

Don't worry, you're completely wrong on all accounts :)

Santa adding to his naughty list.

 

[BroncosFever]

1.
I can't agree that KW "coached" us to a GF last year. Rather, he and Arey managed a team of superstars to get to the GF. Remove those superstars - Herbie, Flegs, Capewell, Palasia, Arey (injured) and here we are. This year our pack is soft, unfit and lacks direction without ARey and, dare I say it, without a class dummy half. No wonder we are where we are on the ladder.

I stopped reading after your first point, I have to be honest.

Did he coach us out of our wooden spoon years or was he just managing superstars then as well?

Capewell and Palasia superstars? You're taking the piss.

 

[Foordy]

It would be nice to be coached to have Penrith's Drive, Reponsibilitiy, Unity, Grit and Strength. Really sets them apart.

This line of thinking is the issue IMO.

you can't compare the 2024 Broncos with the 2024 Panthers. it's unrealistic, and unfair to the players and coaching staff.

The 2024 Panthers are the finished product after starting their rebuild in 2016 (and they weren't coming from as far back as we had to).

 

[kman]

I have utmost respect for Walters but he's credentials as a head coach really have taken a massive slide. He doesn't seem to me like the coach to make the tough calls and like Cobbo said a good bloke, but not a good Coach.

 

[McHunt]

About the dummy half situation, as I see it, none of the top teams have an average hooker like Billy. Putting it another way, I can never see us winning a premiership against the current top 5 teams with Billy Walters as our 9. For mine, Billy is a great choice as our bench utility but that's it.

Can you imagine how good we would be with say Api K as our number 9, even given our average pack this year?

I stopped reading after your first point, I have to be honest.

What in tarnation.

 

[Manofoneway]

I have utmost respect for Walters but he's credentials as a head coach really have taken a massive slide. He doesn't seem to me like the coach to make the tough calls and like Cobbo said a good bloke, but not a good Coach.

Utmost respect.. Pretty sure you have trashed him and Billy every chance you get. Unusually quiet last year though. Nice to see you back :)

 

[McHunt]

Utmost respect.. Pretty sure you have trashed him and Billy every chance you get. Unusually quiet last year though. Nice to see you back :)

Nice to see you pair on the same page now.

 

[kman]

Utmost respect.. Pretty sure you have trashed him and Billy every chance you get. Unusually quiet last year though. Nice to see you back :)

I have trashed Billy quite a bit and stand by my remarks of him. As for Coach Walters I did think he was doing well for us a coach, but how we're dropped and not recovering is very concerning.

 

[Manofoneway]

I

I have trashed Billy quite a bit and stand by my remarks of him. As for Coach Walters I did think he was doing well for us a coach, but how we're dropped and not recovering is very concerning.

I would consider the panthers performance much improved. I think we have turned our corner!