THE BOSS Maguire Stomped The Naysayers! But...8 Months Later, Here We Are.

Foordy said:
what did he do before Kevvie "relegated" him, which Kevvie wouldn't have had the power to do anyway.
Click to expand...
Not sure if I should bother answering, but I wanted to look into Ikin's tenure and timeline anyway.

Ikin was formally hired a week or so after Peter Nolan was sacked, but it was announced on Fox Sports literally days after the sacking, so his initial role was likely around the R&R side of things, but Scanlon was formally put into head of recruitment in October 2021 and Ikin's formal role was "Club’s Football and Performance Director".

DD indicated at times that the role was at the same level as Kevvie i.e. both reported to the CEO and neither was the boss of the other. A link to Ikin's first interview is below, which goes across his mindset (articles on Broncos website seemed to have been scrubbed altogether):

https://broncoshq.com/threads/a-fireside-chat-with-ben-ikin.43261/

My interpretation of Ikin's role is that he was 'likely' overseeing everything football related other than the direct footy players and I'd say the assistant coaches. I would think this would also include high performance team, R&R, etc. but I think the intent would've been along the lines of:
Kevvie "we need a new defence assistant coach"
Ikin "I'll look around the league at who's the best performing in that role and fits with the system and get back to you"
Kevvie "I was thinking (insert coach here) is looking promising"
Ikin "I'll add him to the list and get back to you"

And in that way Kevvie doesn't have to worry about looking across the league to find this assistant coach himself... it would be Ikin doing all the leg work, coming to Kevvie with a list of candidates and then the pair of them would make a decision on who to appoint, but Kevvie would have the final choice on his direct staff... maybe DD would be involved or someone like Lockyer given he is accessible from the board and has football knowledge for certain appointments.

That approach would be the same for anything that Kevvie requests... I need a prop, I need a backup fullback, we need a new physio, we need a complete review/overhaul of the high performance/pathways/affiliate clubs, etc.

Instead Kevvie wanted to do everything himself and keep everything under his control... he learnt and saw first-hand from coaches like Wayne and Bellamy, and played under Wayne... so he likely thinks all of that should remain the responsibility of the coach, because he is the one that wears the results... but he's also a rookie coach at the biggest club in the league... he's not Wayne who can be across everything... and Wayne stays hands off with some things or only comes in every now and then if he thinks something is under-performing.

Bellamy has Frank and Bunn to do the running around... Ciraldo has Gus doing the above... Ryles now has Nathan Brown... Peter Parr is somewhere... etc. it makes sense to hire good football knowledge to help out, instead of leaving everything to the head coach... who also has a day to day job of coaching the actual team.

In the end it turns out that Kevvie couldn't actually do everything himself and he ended up losing his job... leading up to that there were plenty of calls about Kevvie not trusting others, etc. so it would seem it was going to catch up to him eventually.

The timeline of Kevvie hired, DD hired, Ikin hired, Ikin transitioned, Ikin leaving and Kevvie sacked is below. Have also included the earliest reporting of unrest between the pair and also reporting of when Ikin was getting left out of recruitment decisions.

30/09/2020 Kevvie hired
3/02/2021 DD hired as new CEO
3/05/2021 DD officially starts as CEO
19/06/2021 Peter Nolan sacked
21/06/2021 Ikin confirms he's leaving Fox Sports. Lockyer during an interview around this time indicates that Ikin is getting his feet under the desk, but contract details are being finalised
28/06/2021 Ikin formally appointed Club’s Football and Performance Director
19/09/2022 Reports Ikin frozen out of key recruitment decisions. Same day CONEHEAD claims Ikin's role is a "made up position" and he should be a "lacky" to Walters. Walters quoted around the time that "Coach, CEO and Chairman are the ones that carry the burden"... link to article below
10/03/2023 Ikin formally changed to Head of Football Operations
8/05/2023 Ikin appointed QRL CEO
26/08/2024 Kevvie sacked

Link to earliest report I can find of Kevvie and Ikin issues: https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/b..._gl=1*mypdou*_ga*MjExNzYwMjc2Ny4xNzQwMTMzMzYy

Comment from Kevvie clearly outlining his thoughts on how a football department should run "The NRL head coach is the hub of a football department. In my 20 years of working at successful football clubs like the Broncos, Storm and even Canberra when I won a premiership there, the coach, CEO and chairman carry the load of the club.”

Quote from the above article indicating that Ikin was being left out of key recruitment decisions by Kevvie:
"The Courier-Mail reports Ikin was frozen out of critical football department decisions at times and was kept at arms length by Walters.
The newspaper reports Walters has now pledged to work on his communication and relationship with Ikin as a result of the talks."

So even though Ikin was transitioned in March 2023, it was clearly happening much earlier than that.

In the below I've put down the hirings, firings, extensions and debuts I can find over the above timeline
- Yellow = Kevvie in charge on his own i.e. before and after Ikin appointment
- Green = Ikin formally in his role of "Club’s Football and Performance Director"
- Blue = Period between earliest reporting of issues between Kevvie and Ikin through to Ikin eventually leaving for QRL CEO

The noticeable ones to me from the gains are the "Money Ball" type signings and clear focus on experience and leaders under Ikin... Capewell, Jensen, Ryan James, Hosking, TMM.

The outs are a clear removal of toxic players and under-performers... Lodge, Milford, TPJ, Croft, Isaako, etc.

I recall an interview early on with Ikin and he indicated that he had a chat with Kevvie that was something along the lines of "what is a broncos player under Kevvie's coaching... how does a Kevvie coached team play"... he did things like that to get Kevvie to focus and help the R&R team to find players that suited what Kevvie would want in a player, etc.

Ikin was unlikely to be an expert in everything, but he seemed to have a good way of looking and evaluating situations, which would be perfect for overseeing the football department... someone able to see the forest, whilst the coach is amongst the trees.

1749111610515.png
 
BroncsFan said:
Not sure if I should bother answering, but I wanted to look into Ikin's tenure and timeline anyway.

Ikin was formally hired a week or so after Peter Nolan was sacked, but it was announced on Fox Sports literally days after the sacking, so his initial role was likely around the R&R side of things, but Scanlon was formally put into head of recruitment in October 2021 and Ikin's formal role was "Club’s Football and Performance Director".

DD indicated at times that the role was at the same level as Kevvie i.e. both reported to the CEO and neither was the boss of the other. A link to Ikin's first interview is below, which goes across his mindset (articles on Broncos website seemed to have been scrubbed altogether):

https://broncoshq.com/threads/a-fireside-chat-with-ben-ikin.43261/

My interpretation of Ikin's role is that he was 'likely' overseeing everything football related other than the direct footy players and I'd say the assistant coaches. I would think this would also include high performance team, R&R, etc. but I think the intent would've been along the lines of:
Kevvie "we need a new defence assistant coach"
Ikin "I'll look around the league at who's the best performing in that role and fits with the system and get back to you"
Kevvie "I was thinking (insert coach here) is looking promising"
Ikin "I'll add him to the list and get back to you"

And in that way Kevvie doesn't have to worry about looking across the league to find this assistant coach himself... it would be Ikin doing all the leg work, coming to Kevvie with a list of candidates and then the pair of them would make a decision on who to appoint, but Kevvie would have the final choice on his direct staff... maybe DD would be involved or someone like Lockyer given he is accessible from the board and has football knowledge for certain appointments.

That approach would be the same for anything that Kevvie requests... I need a prop, I need a backup fullback, we need a new physio, we need a complete review/overhaul of the high performance/pathways/affiliate clubs, etc.

Instead Kevvie wanted to do everything himself and keep everything under his control... he learnt and saw first-hand from coaches like Wayne and Bellamy, and played under Wayne... so he likely thinks all of that should remain the responsibility of the coach, because he is the one that wears the results... but he's also a rookie coach at the biggest club in the league... he's not Wayne who can be across everything... and Wayne stays hands off with some things or only comes in every now and then if he thinks something is under-performing.

Bellamy has Frank and Bunn to do the running around... Ciraldo has Gus doing the above... Ryles now has Nathan Brown... Peter Parr is somewhere... etc. it makes sense to hire good football knowledge to help out, instead of leaving everything to the head coach... who also has a day to day job of coaching the actual team.

In the end it turns out that Kevvie couldn't actually do everything himself and he ended up losing his job... leading up to that there were plenty of calls about Kevvie not trusting others, etc. so it would seem it was going to catch up to him eventually.

The timeline of Kevvie hired, DD hired, Ikin hired, Ikin transitioned, Ikin leaving and Kevvie sacked is below. Have also included the earliest reporting of unrest between the pair and also reporting of when Ikin was getting left out of recruitment decisions.

30/09/2020 Kevvie hired
3/02/2021 DD hired as new CEO
3/05/2021 DD officially starts as CEO
19/06/2021 Peter Nolan sacked
21/06/2021 Ikin confirms he's leaving Fox Sports. Lockyer during an interview around this time indicates that Ikin is getting his feet under the desk, but contract details are being finalised
28/06/2021 Ikin formally appointed Club’s Football and Performance Director
19/09/2022 Reports Ikin frozen out of key recruitment decisions. Same day CONEHEAD claims Ikin's role is a "made up position" and he should be a "lacky" to Walters. Walters quoted around the time that "Coach, CEO and Chairman are the ones that carry the burden"... link to article below
10/03/2023 Ikin formally changed to Head of Football Operations
8/05/2023 Ikin appointed QRL CEO
26/08/2024 Kevvie sacked

Link to earliest report I can find of Kevvie and Ikin issues: https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/b..._gl=1*mypdou*_ga*MjExNzYwMjc2Ny4xNzQwMTMzMzYy

Comment from Kevvie clearly outlining his thoughts on how a football department should run "The NRL head coach is the hub of a football department. In my 20 years of working at successful football clubs like the Broncos, Storm and even Canberra when I won a premiership there, the coach, CEO and chairman carry the load of the club.”

Quote from the above article indicating that Ikin was being left out of key recruitment decisions by Kevvie:
"The Courier-Mail reports Ikin was frozen out of critical football department decisions at times and was kept at arms length by Walters.
The newspaper reports Walters has now pledged to work on his communication and relationship with Ikin as a result of the talks."

So even though Ikin was transitioned in March 2023, it was clearly happening much earlier than that.

In the below I've put down the hirings, firings, extensions and debuts I can find over the above timeline
- Yellow = Kevvie in charge on his own i.e. before and after Ikin appointment
- Green = Ikin formally in his role of "Club’s Football and Performance Director"
- Blue = Period between earliest reporting of issues between Kevvie and Ikin through to Ikin eventually leaving for QRL CEO

The noticeable ones to me from the gains are the "Money Ball" type signings and clear focus on experience and leaders under Ikin... Capewell, Jensen, Ryan James, Hosking, TMM.

The outs are a clear removal of toxic players and under-performers... Lodge, Milford, TPJ, Croft, Isaako, etc.

I recall an interview early on with Ikin and he indicated that he had a chat with Kevvie that was something along the lines of "what is a broncos player under Kevvie's coaching... how does a Kevvie coached team play"... he did things like that to get Kevvie to focus and help the R&R team to find players that suited what Kevvie would want in a player, etc.

Ikin was unlikely to be an expert in everything, but he seemed to have a good way of looking and evaluating situations, which would be perfect for overseeing the football department... someone able to see the forest, whilst the coach is amongst the trees.

View attachment 33578
Click to expand...
Ben Ikin is like Homer’s successful brother Herbert, and Kev is Homer.

Ben let Homer, I mean Kev design his dream car roster and it ended up looking like this:

IMG_7590.jpeg
 
Wow Karl Morris is the last person this club needed to go public with his thoughts. (CM article today)

The guy has a stink on him when it comes to the football club and should just stay away from any type of public comment but right before a critical game he gobs off.
I can't wait for other journos to start pulling this apart and putting their inferences on what he has said.
He really has no ****ing clue l, he's just fanned the flames for more headlines.
 
BroncsFan said:
Not sure if I should bother answering, but I wanted to look into Ikin's tenure and timeline anyway.

Ikin was formally hired a week or so after Peter Nolan was sacked, but it was announced on Fox Sports literally days after the sacking, so his initial role was likely around the R&R side of things, but Scanlon was formally put into head of recruitment in October 2021 and Ikin's formal role was "Club’s Football and Performance Director".

DD indicated at times that the role was at the same level as Kevvie i.e. both reported to the CEO and neither was the boss of the other. A link to Ikin's first interview is below, which goes across his mindset (articles on Broncos website seemed to have been scrubbed altogether):

https://broncoshq.com/threads/a-fireside-chat-with-ben-ikin.43261/

My interpretation of Ikin's role is that he was 'likely' overseeing everything football related other than the direct footy players and I'd say the assistant coaches. I would think this would also include high performance team, R&R, etc. but I think the intent would've been along the lines of:
Kevvie "we need a new defence assistant coach"
Ikin "I'll look around the league at who's the best performing in that role and fits with the system and get back to you"
Kevvie "I was thinking (insert coach here) is looking promising"
Ikin "I'll add him to the list and get back to you"

And in that way Kevvie doesn't have to worry about looking across the league to find this assistant coach himself... it would be Ikin doing all the leg work, coming to Kevvie with a list of candidates and then the pair of them would make a decision on who to appoint, but Kevvie would have the final choice on his direct staff... maybe DD would be involved or someone like Lockyer given he is accessible from the board and has football knowledge for certain appointments.

That approach would be the same for anything that Kevvie requests... I need a prop, I need a backup fullback, we need a new physio, we need a complete review/overhaul of the high performance/pathways/affiliate clubs, etc.

Instead Kevvie wanted to do everything himself and keep everything under his control... he learnt and saw first-hand from coaches like Wayne and Bellamy, and played under Wayne... so he likely thinks all of that should remain the responsibility of the coach, because he is the one that wears the results... but he's also a rookie coach at the biggest club in the league... he's not Wayne who can be across everything... and Wayne stays hands off with some things or only comes in every now and then if he thinks something is under-performing.

Bellamy has Frank and Bunn to do the running around... Ciraldo has Gus doing the above... Ryles now has Nathan Brown... Peter Parr is somewhere... etc. it makes sense to hire good football knowledge to help out, instead of leaving everything to the head coach... who also has a day to day job of coaching the actual team.

In the end it turns out that Kevvie couldn't actually do everything himself and he ended up losing his job... leading up to that there were plenty of calls about Kevvie not trusting others, etc. so it would seem it was going to catch up to him eventually.

The timeline of Kevvie hired, DD hired, Ikin hired, Ikin transitioned, Ikin leaving and Kevvie sacked is below. Have also included the earliest reporting of unrest between the pair and also reporting of when Ikin was getting left out of recruitment decisions.

30/09/2020 Kevvie hired
3/02/2021 DD hired as new CEO
3/05/2021 DD officially starts as CEO
19/06/2021 Peter Nolan sacked
21/06/2021 Ikin confirms he's leaving Fox Sports. Lockyer during an interview around this time indicates that Ikin is getting his feet under the desk, but contract details are being finalised
28/06/2021 Ikin formally appointed Club’s Football and Performance Director
19/09/2022 Reports Ikin frozen out of key recruitment decisions. Same day CONEHEAD claims Ikin's role is a "made up position" and he should be a "lacky" to Walters. Walters quoted around the time that "Coach, CEO and Chairman are the ones that carry the burden"... link to article below
10/03/2023 Ikin formally changed to Head of Football Operations
8/05/2023 Ikin appointed QRL CEO
26/08/2024 Kevvie sacked

Link to earliest report I can find of Kevvie and Ikin issues: https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/b..._gl=1*mypdou*_ga*MjExNzYwMjc2Ny4xNzQwMTMzMzYy

Comment from Kevvie clearly outlining his thoughts on how a football department should run "The NRL head coach is the hub of a football department. In my 20 years of working at successful football clubs like the Broncos, Storm and even Canberra when I won a premiership there, the coach, CEO and chairman carry the load of the club.”

Quote from the above article indicating that Ikin was being left out of key recruitment decisions by Kevvie:
"The Courier-Mail reports Ikin was frozen out of critical football department decisions at times and was kept at arms length by Walters.
The newspaper reports Walters has now pledged to work on his communication and relationship with Ikin as a result of the talks."

So even though Ikin was transitioned in March 2023, it was clearly happening much earlier than that.

In the below I've put down the hirings, firings, extensions and debuts I can find over the above timeline
- Yellow = Kevvie in charge on his own i.e. before and after Ikin appointment
- Green = Ikin formally in his role of "Club’s Football and Performance Director"
- Blue = Period between earliest reporting of issues between Kevvie and Ikin through to Ikin eventually leaving for QRL CEO

The noticeable ones to me from the gains are the "Money Ball" type signings and clear focus on experience and leaders under Ikin... Capewell, Jensen, Ryan James, Hosking, TMM.

The outs are a clear removal of toxic players and under-performers... Lodge, Milford, TPJ, Croft, Isaako, etc.

I recall an interview early on with Ikin and he indicated that he had a chat with Kevvie that was something along the lines of "what is a broncos player under Kevvie's coaching... how does a Kevvie coached team play"... he did things like that to get Kevvie to focus and help the R&R team to find players that suited what Kevvie would want in a player, etc.

Ikin was unlikely to be an expert in everything, but he seemed to have a good way of looking and evaluating situations, which would be perfect for overseeing the football department... someone able to see the forest, whilst the coach is amongst the trees.

View attachment 33578
Click to expand...
In all seriousness, this is such a high quality post. Thank you for actually putting the data out there for what many of us have discussed or even disagreed on.

The Ins and Outs during that period, except for Reynolds, is so clearly of higher quality. It’s even more staggering than I realised
 
Sproj said:
What did he say?
Click to expand...
- "We are the biggest club in the game and we have to do better"

- “I have found some of their performances this year bewildering, with some brilliance in between"

- “They don’t seem to have that consistency there, that is missing at the moment, but there are no concerns here"

- "I’m not there every day, but I have asked the football department to give me some feedback if there is some discontent and I’ve had nothing come back of that nature"

- “I have asked questions. We had a board meeting last week, we had ‘Madge’ in to talk about things and one of the directors was at training and they called me and said the players have been nothing but positive of Madge"

- “Myself and the directors walk around the club and we get a feel if there’s some major issues. We see none of that. The issue we see is Madge has come into reset a team and it could take longer than we thought"

- “We knew from where we were last year it wasn’t going to be a quick turnaround and we’re very supportive of Madge"

- "he is looking to address issues and his playing group at the moment"

- “Talk about Madge being sacked is ridiculous, he said. II don’t know how anyone can seriously think that when we aren’t even halfway through the season. It' preposterous"

- “There is a re-education process of what Madge wants and that change takes time"

- "he wants them to act like professional athletes. I have seen the softer side of him, I have seen how generous he is, but our players are well paid to do a job. He wants the players to do their job"

- “The board’s role is getting the right people in the right places and that’s been a struggle over the last few years"

- "Could we do things better? Of course we could, but overall we are trying to support the coach and the football department as best we can"

- “Madge has a framework he believes will work. If he didn’t have the answers, I would be concerned, but I know he’s got the experience and intelligence to do that. The way he deals with the players is terrific. I personally can’t be more impressed. Madge has a plan.”
 
Redfern_1980 said:
- "We are the biggest club in the game and we have to do better"

- “I have found some of their performances this year bewildering, with some brilliance in between"

- “They don’t seem to have that consistency there, that is missing at the moment, but there are no concerns here"

- "I’m not there every day, but I have asked the football department to give me some feedback if there is some discontent and I’ve had nothing come back of that nature"

- “I have asked questions. We had a board meeting last week, we had ‘Madge’ in to talk about things and one of the directors was at training and they called me and said the players have been nothing but positive of Madge"

- “Myself and the directors walk around the club and we get a feel if there’s some major issues. We see none of that. The issue we see is Madge has come into reset a team and it could take longer than we thought"

- “We knew from where we were last year it wasn’t going to be a quick turnaround and we’re very supportive of Madge"

- "he is looking to address issues and his playing group at the moment"

- “Talk about Madge being sacked is ridiculous, he said. II don’t know how anyone can seriously think that when we aren’t even halfway through the season. It' preposterous"

- “There is a re-education process of what Madge wants and that change takes time"

- "he wants them to act like professional athletes. I have seen the softer side of him, I have seen how generous he is, but our players are well paid to do a job. He wants the players to do their job"

- “The board’s role is getting the right people in the right places and that’s been a struggle over the last few years"

- "Could we do things better? Of course we could, but overall we are trying to support the coach and the football department as best we can"

- “Madge has a framework he believes will work. If he didn’t have the answers, I would be concerned, but I know he’s got the experience and intelligence to do that. The way he deals with the players is terrific. I personally can’t be more impressed. Madge has a plan.”
Click to expand...

Thanks very much…so he has the full support of the board? Uh oh.
 
The thing is Madge went out of his way to go up to Cherbourg with Cobbo at the start of the year to try and gain his confidence. Fat lot of good that did.

Cobbo was also being mentored by the great Pearl. Fat lot of good that did.

The only constant I can see here is 'fat'.

Cobbo had one great breakout year and the rest has been slim pickings.

Morris is another living and growing fat of of this club. I'm sick to the back teeth of people signing up with our club to gain rockstar status to then relax and grow fat on our once great name.

We need Morris and the rest of the gravy train troughers to be trimmed as useless fat.

I mean Staggs on a rumoured $800k ....please!
Piakura on $650K...please!
Even Walsh on whatever figure close to a $mil. This season he's made more mistakes than any other season he's played first grade and he's been out for a good chunk of it.

Trim the fat FFS!
 
Jedhead said:
The thing is Madge went out of his way to go up to Cherbourg with Cobbo at the start of the year to try and gain his confidence. Fat lot of good that did.

Cobbo was also being mentored by the great Pearl. Fat lot of good that did.

The only constant I can see here is 'fat'.

Cobbo had one great breakout year and the rest has been slim pickings.
Click to expand...
I see what you did there.
 
theshed said:
Shiba going from journeyman Q Cup contracted player to origin in one preseason: 1 point to Madge
Click to expand...
Definitely have to give it Madge for this. And Shiba himself of course. The rise has been dramatic.

When the idea that Shiba would start the season at centre first came about I thought there is no way, this is just Madge getting messaging out to guy like Mariner and Cobbo to not take the position for granted. When he actually started I thought this will last about 2 rounds and is just to make a point that Madge will reward hard work and a bit of a kick up the pants to everyone, and honestly I backed the statement but hoped Shiba wouldn’t cost us too much. Even after he started well I thought this can only last so long. Fast forward and he is now one of our best backs and playing for QLD is insane. He hasn’t just been good, he has been that good that him being unavailable for us this next round is a huge blow.
 
broncos4life said:
Definitely have to give it Madge for this. And Shiba himself of course. The rise has been dramatic.

When the idea that Shiba would start the season at centre first came about I thought there is no way, this is just Madge getting messaging out to guy like Mariner and Cobbo to not take the position for granted. When he actually started I thought this will last about 2 rounds and is just to make a point that Madge will reward hard work and a bit of a kick up the pants to everyone, and honestly I backed the statement but hoped Shiba wouldn’t cost us too much. Even after he started well I thought this can only last so long. Fast forward and he is now one of our best backs and playing for QLD is insane. He hasn’t just been good, he has been that good that him being unavailable for us this next round is a huge blow.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was in full support of him getting a run but I followed the same thought process you did.

I keep waiting for the wheels to fall off but to his credit he just keeps showing up. I don’t think his selection can even be questioned. Just a super reliable, hard worker without much flash
 
His yardage and defence have been the big surprises to me.

The first game vs rorters where he came out of the line on no one was like... **** here we go this won't last long.

Since then he's had some really big defensive moments and he's basically leading our back 5 in meters per game... and when you watch him in yardage he's actually pretty physical and getting post contact meters.

He'll be coming up against Crichton who hasn't been stopped this origin series, so he'll have a battle on his hands, but hopefully he can stand up to it and keep on this rise
 
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