Lockyer: Change attitude or face early exit

[Super Freak]

Broncos legend Darren Lockyer says Wayne Bennett’s side need urgent attitude adjustment

August 6, 2018

BRONCOS legend Darren Lockyer has questioned Brisbane’s lack of on-field leadership and claimed Wayne Bennett’s underperforming stars need an attitude adjustment.

In a stinging assessment of the Broncos, Brisbane’s most capped player says the club has too many passengers who don’t want to do the hard yards.

The seventh-placed Broncos slumped to an embarrassing 36-22 defeat to the lowly Bulldogs last Thursday, their fourth loss to a bottom-eight team, which put their hopes of a top-four finish in jeopardy a month out from the finals.

Five-eighth Anthony Milford has not gone close to delivering on his $1 million-a-season price tag, captain Darius Boyd has changed positions and lock Josh McGuire is facing suspension for pulling a rival’s hair.

The Broncos must beat the improving Cowboys at 1300SMILES Stadium on Thursday night to have any chance of making the top four and Lockyer said it was time the senior players stood up.

“I think the Broncos have an on-field leadership issue, especially against the lower ranked teams,” Lockyer told The Courier-Mail.

“They just didn’t roll their sleeves up and want to get into the grind. The only player prepared to make an impact was Korbin (Sims, two tries) and all he did was run hard and play with some intensity.

“The Broncos need to be aware of their leadership dynamic. You can’t just go from game to game relying on everyone in the team thinking they will do their job and that will be enough.

“The leaders in a successful team drive the performance. There needs to be more ownership from some of the senior players.”

The Broncos are the NRL’s richest club but are stuck in the longest premiership drought in the club’s history, having not won a title since 2006.

An entire generation of Broncos players face the prospect of not winning a premiership if Brisbane cannot fire with what on paper is a red-hot squad.

The likes of Alex Glenn (235 games), Andrew McCullough (232) and McGuire (190) are 10-year NRL players still searching for a maiden premiership.

Lockyer, a former captain who played 355 games for the Broncos, said halves Kodi Nikorima and Milford also had to step up.

“There’s a group of players I’m talking about, four or five guys, and that senior group need to take ownership of the results and drive the standards,” he said.

“Darius and Josh McGuire are experienced guys, they do their jobs and I’m sure they are out there talking. But you need guys in the spine to drive the direction of the team. Andrew McCullough, Kodi Nikorima and Milf are a part of it.

“If they started the game with the attitude Korbin Sims had, they would have been fine, but they wanted to roll through what they do at training, thinking if they execute, they will be all right.

“But in the NRL, every week, you have to earn a win. It’s all about attitude at this time of year.”

Retiring forward Sam Thaiday admitted he was running on fumes ahead of his 300th NRL game against the Cowboys.

But Thaiday was adamant the Broncos had the talent to string a consistent run of form together in the back end of the season.

“We’re back on the rollercoaster, it’s been the way our season has panned out this year,” he said.

“We seem to win a couple of games in a row and then lose one, then win three-in-a-row and lose one.

“We’ve struggled to really find that consistency this year but it’s there.

“We’ve shown over the last two weeks (wins against Penrith and Cronulla) when we put our mind to it and play a top-eight team, we seem to bring out fairly good game.

“It’s the bottom eight teams we’re struggling against. I don’t know whether we’re coming in underdone or taking them a bit lightly.

“If you want to do something at the end of the year you can’t be doing those things.

“There are little things to work on but they’re all fixable.”

Source: Courier Mail

 

[Browny]

Finally!!

 

[Alec]

Boyd really does seem like a pretty poor captain. You don't see too many captains thinking they are listening to that Dynamite song while on the field. We don't really have anyone else that's leadership material that also has enough experience at the moment either.

 

[Foordy]

Boyd really does seem like a pretty poor captain. You don't see too many captains thinking they are listening to that Dynamite song while on the field. We don't really have anyone else that's leadership material that also has enough experience at the moment either.

what the **** are you talking about

 

[Alec]

He just throws up his hands in the air all the time.

 

[Sproj]

These are the captaincy choices in my opinion:

1. Boyd - Really does seem to be a terrible captain but kind of has it by default
2. TPJ - The most likely of all the candidates but can't seem to stay fit and is still far too raw
3. Thaiday - Is retiring and not intense enough
4. Milford - He is the wild card for mine, is a star but like the team, splutters hot and cold too much, is probably the fulcrum of the spluttering, so maybe the captaincy might fast track consistency, does not scream captaincy
5. McCullough - Just not a good enough player, will not win a premiership while he is sole hooker, heck even as part-time hooker most likely
6. McGuire - He would have been my choice last year but something is off with him this year, does have a tendency to divide the locker room which is never good
7. Glenn - I would be tempted to give it to him to be honest purely because of lacking other options and since the current captain is really, really poor at it, is one of the few guys who is super consistent, that on its own gives him a leg to stand on as a leader
8. Gillett - Is injured and therefore not an option
9. Bird - Here is the interesting one, he could go well as captain but needs to find a spot in the side first (hopefully at 9) and is also injured meaning he is also not an option at present.

 

[Harry Sack]

Why do people seem to think that TPJ will make a good captain? I've seen it mentioned a number of times.......I just can't picture it at this point.

 

[Cult]

4. Milford - He is the wild card for mine, is a star but like the team, splutters hot and cold too much, is probably the fulcrum of the spluttering, so maybe the captaincy might fast track consistency, does not scream captaincy

When in the history of sport has this ever actually happened?

 

[Sproj]

Why do people seem to think that TPJ will make a good captain? I've seen it mentioned a number of times.......I just can't picture it at this point.

Because he seems to care and actually gets fired up, not too may other players in the side seem to. Plus, he genuinely intimidates the opposition. Again, not many players in this current side are able to do that.

 

[Sproj]

When in the history of sport has this ever actually happened?

It is a really good question, I don't know. Just spit balling mainly.

I seem to vaguely recalling it helping Graeme Smith for SA in cricket, Steve Smith to an extent, Ricky Ponting to an extent. In league, it sort of seemed to help Inglis, Woods. Again, not really sure any of these really worked that well though.

 

[Harry Sack]

Because he seems to care and actually gets fired up, not too may other players in the side seem to. Plus, he genuinely intimidates the opposition. Again, not many players in this current side are able to do that.

Yeah, but that's not the whole role and I think that's what I'm getting caught up on. He's already our forwards leader having, IMO, taken that role off McGuire. Therefore he's already a leader on the field.....but I just can't see him doing the other stuff. Press conferences, talking with the refs etc. Not yet anyway. Like you said in your post, far too raw

 

[Sproj]

Yeah, but that's not the whole role and I think that's what I'm getting caught up on. He's already our forwards leader having, IMO, taken that role off McGuire. Therefore he's already a leader on the field.....but I just can't see him doing the other stuff. Press conferences, talking with the refs etc. Not yet anyway. Like you said in your post, far too raw

Yep, you're not wrong that's for sure. That said, every time he gets interviewed, he gives good answers that are genuine and seemingly honest. He still has that hot-headedness in his game on the field though, so once he matures, he looksl ikely to be the best option for sure with Carrigan the most promising of the other kids.

 

[WASSHHH]

Yep, you're not wrong that's for sure. That said, every time he gets interviewed, he gives good answers that are genuine and seemingly honest. He still has that hot-headedness in his game on the field though, so once he matures, he looksl ikely to be the best option for sure with Carrigan the most promising of the other kids.

I wouldn’t discount Fifita down the track either.

 

[Sproj]

I wouldn’t discredit Fifita down the track either.

Funnily enough, he was the other one I had in the back of my mind. The good thing from that is that it seems you have three guys who look like genuine leadership material and as this current side shows, you really need that, particularly without a strong outright captain. If you haven't got that but you have a good leadership group, that can go a long way to alleviating that leadership problem.

 

[Alec]

Why do people seem to think that TPJ will make a good captain? I've seen it mentioned a number of times.......I just can't picture it at this point.

I can see it happening once he matures a bit. He's still a bit hot headed right now, but he plays with heart, which is what you want to see.

 

[Socnorb]

When in the history of sport has this ever actually happened?

First 2 years for Steve Smith.

 

[winslow_wong]

Locky just saying what everyone on this forum has said since hodges retired.

 

[Wolfie]

We have experience, but we dont have leaders. In the past we have had them in abundance, we just dont have it now. Boyd and Glenn are the only real leaders we have imo, but i'm not convinced they are the type of leaders we need.