Next Broncos coach

Who should it be?


  • Total voters
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I've said this numerous times, I don't think his recent Origin record gets enough recognition. He had us up to our eyeballs in that 2019 series despite NSW having a vastly superior side with better players in basically every single position.

We had guys like Norman, Glasby and Ethan Lowe who wouldn't even make a fourth or fifth string NSW side and yet Kevvie had them playing for us and competing hard right into the last few minutes of the series. To me that doesn't seem to get anywhere near the recognition it genuinely deserves.
Agree fully, NSW has us covered in nearly every position and some by a country mile, and it came down to a buzzer beater in the decider for NSW to win.
 
well it keeps getting pointed out to me that he did well in his first season at Catalans before his squad fell off a cliff in his second season in charge. so he must have done something to see that dramatic a change in their fortunes.

p.s. i'm not the only one concerned about his performance in his ONLY first grade head coaching role to date ... only time will tell if those concerns were justified or not.

I’m not saying you aren’t entitled to an opinion and I understand why people would have reservations.

I am merely trying to work out why this narrative keeps getting pushed by not just fans but media that he is incapable of handling himself in a top job before he has been even given the reigns?

Whether you consider his Catalans stint successful or not depending on how you view it contextually, the fact he has at least coached at a top tier level in club land as well as rep footy means he is far more credentialed than probably 90% of coaches who have walked into a head coaches role.

Here is a list of some recent head coaching roles given to coaches who had less credentials in top tier coaching than Walters

Adam O’Brien with Newcastle
Anthony Seibold with Souths
Brad Arthur with Parramatta
Paul Green with NQ
Trent Barrett with Manly
Paul McGregor with St George
John Morris with Cronulla
Dean Pay with Canterbury

And then if you want to go way back:

Ricky Stuart with Sydney Roosters
Craig Bellamy with Melbourne
Des Hasler with Manly
Ivan Henjak and Anthony Griffin with Brisbane

In summary, I think he deserves at least a chance before we say he isn’t a long term solution. At the very least he will get the players to respond to him, improve culture and would be brilliant coaching our halves. It’s also not like Trent Robinson or Bellamy is available.
 
Agree fully, NSW has us covered in nearly every position and some by a country mile, and it came down to a buzzer beater in the decider for NSW to win.

And it also comes down to playing for Qld rather than your ego
 
Yeah sure, it's a cool saying and sounds good on the internet, but it isn't really true, nor is it any use to anyone who actually watched us play over the last 6 weeks and could see the shift in attitude and application that came about once Gentle was placed in charge.
I'm in broad agreement here and wish Gentle the best, but given the absolute horrowshow we've been since putting Pies in charge I'd say any improvement in our last few games is just as likely to be from not having the Harvard huckster around than from anything Gentle did.
 
Yeah sure, it's a cool saying and sounds good on the internet, but it isn't really true, nor is it any use to anyone who actually watched us play over the last 6 weeks and could see the shift in attitude and application that came about once Gentle was placed in charge.

He may not have won games, but I'd suggest that when you remove the emotion and look at things a bit more rationally, some of the team lists he was basically forced to send out with our injury ravaged roster, not even Craig Bellamy could probably have gotten results that were much better.

He was served up a turd sandwich of a playing roster that had been mentally demoralised for those last 6 weeks and personally I feel he deserves some credit for his willingness to at least give it a decent chew.

I reckon the message of .....give credit where it's due, is fair enough in this case.

However.....it shouldn't be over exaggerated either. The results and performances since he "took over" were as much to do with the players themselves than anything the "coach" said.
 
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Everyone is complaining about the two coaches we had on offer... but get used to it when you come last and underperform you no longer have the privilege of attracting the best coaches and players... the fact that we had a premiership winning coach, and a beloved old boy that has been under the best coaches and coached the best players ever to play our game whilst having fairly decent success doing so as our frontrunners is astounding... like the bulldogs had minimal options and ended up with a coach that coached a decent side to many underwhelming performances... like Trent Barrett’s name would not have popped up once in our discussions if he was still available
 
I didn't see you respond this time, but you chose to respond to a singular part of his argument and that's pretty disappointing. Still, it's nice of you to finally respond to someone arguing against your points. Baby steps.

Since that Catalans season, what has he be doing? Learning from those that many would say are the absolute best coaches the game has ever seen. So here's his resume.

Assistant to Wayne Bennett
One win away from the GF with the Catalans Dragons
Assistant to Craig Bellamy
Halves coach under Wayne Bennett
Assistant to Wayne Bennett
Queensland State of Origin coach

I'll be damned if I am going to judge him based on a singular season that occurred over a decade ago in a half assed competition where players go to waste time and earn some cash before they retire, in a team that had players who didn't even speak English. The imports they had were Casey McGuire (30), Brent Sherwin (32), Steve Bell (34), Dallas Johnson (28), Chris Walker (30), Adam Mogg (33), Dane Carlaw (30) and Clint Greenshields (28). Not terrible but also if we remember back to how shit all of them were at the back end of their careers, and the fact that most of them played less than half of the games for them that season you can see why they did so terribly. Also the rest of the team was filled with nobodies and the other clubs had pretty impressive rosters that year. Context is nice, we can't just say 37% and be done with it. Quite frankly, the fact he won 37% of games with the team he had is pretty impressive.

This post deserves a standing ovation.
 
Everyone is complaining about the two coaches we had on offer... but get used to it when you come last and underperform you no longer have the privilege of attracting the best coaches and players... the fact that we had a premiership winning coach, and a beloved old boy that has been under the best coaches and coached the best players ever to play our game whilst having fairly decent success doing so as our frontrunners is astounding... like the bulldogs had minimal options and ended up with a coach that coached a decent side to many underwhelming performances... like Trent Barrett’s name would not have popped up once in our discussions if he was still available

Who's complaining about the coaches available?
 
I reckon the message of .....give credit where it's due, is fair enough in this case.

However.....it shouldn't be over exaggerated either. The results and performances since he "took over" were as much to do with the players themselves than anything the "coach" said.
I think it comes down to just how highly we value Coaches at Origin level.

I think there are some very clear and obvious examples of where a Coach has had a tremendous impact on the result of a series, be that through inspired selections, clever tactical work or even just being able to rally the troops at key moments in the series. In the more recent era, I think Fatty in 95, Wayne in 2001 and then Mal in 2006 and the early part of that dynasty are clear examples of the Coach being absolutely decisive in getting a result.

I think it's also fair to acknowledge that at times the gulf in talent between the two sides makes it less relevant who is Coaching them. The latter part of that Queensland dynasty as well as the subsequent 3 in a row they won after the 8 series streak where Queensland just had so many elite players at their disposal that even a genuinely brilliant Coach like Bellamy just could not overcome the gulf in talent.

Similarly, Fittler now has a squad that is several levels above what Queensland can muster, especially in the key spine positions and I think that largely dictates his level of success over say Laurie Daley, who probably only had to hang on for just one more series and he'd have been the one enjoying all the success now.

I think if you put Kevvie in charge of that NSW side and Fittler in charge of Queensland, I'd suggest that Walters would be the one aiming for a third series in a row, but I know this, I'd be far less confident in saying that Fittler could have got Queensland into the dying moments of the 2019 series with our chances still alive.
 
I'd even give a pass for missing the 8 if we actually compete every week but mostly have less than 10 point losses.

If we still drop our bundle and get smashed anytime we give up more than 6 points, I'll have serious concerns about him too. I do agree we have the cattle to make the 8 but definitely not to challenge seriously.
We will get beaten by a mixture, occasional solid smackings, more honourable defeats and some good wins. The only focus is regaining the strongest culture. Sure, win loss will be considered after 12 months but the club and KW will want to cut out the unaligned, the players not putting in.

It simply be a better season. Even if we miss the 8 the team continuing, every player KW wants to keep on into season 2022 will form a strong bonded inner core. It's who we have brought on board starting in 22, that will be the season in which KW must perform. He'll get just this season to select from this group and whomever he buys between now and season '22.
The board will settle for an improving team and lots of faithful sons holding the team together...for one year.
 

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