Paul Kents comment

Paul kent is just a negative arsehole that only has a career due to sensationalism and headlines.

I mean don't get me wrong I don't think we are going great guns at the moment but to suggest ANY will spend three or more years out of the top 8 is just f***ing ludicrous in this competition.

The only reason Paul kent is on that show is to get publicity for his articles tomorrow. That's why yesterday he had an article about how slater 'deliberate and consciously' kicks players in the head and then banged on about that for 20 minutes.

It's really easy to make a big call like that when nothing's riding on it, I would have loved to have seen his opinion if Ikin got him to put 10k on it
 
As much as I scoffed at the suggestion of the broncos missing the finals entirely for the next three+ years, the thing that immediately struck me when I heard that mentioned was how unfortunate it is that this club is even being talked about like that... It made me want to leap up and go do something about it and I thought to myself that I hoped it had an even stronger effect on the people who can actually make a difference at the broncos... But to be perfectly blunt, I just don't think it will...

While that sort of talk can easily be dismissed, I think it can have a real influence on public perception and for a lot of people out there who might be on the fence as to which code / club they'll choose to invest their time, energy and $$$ in right now... Call them the casual winter fans if you will but the fact is there's plenty of them out there and they're pretty quick to reverberate to whatever is the hottest ticket in town at the time... The mere thought that the broncos may well be on the nose and off the pace long term is worrying to say the least... And especially so because the powers that be at the broncos just don't seem to either get it or they don't know how to start getting the ship in order... If I could use a crude analogy, it's like a back yard that used to be the envy of the neighborhood, slowly but surely slipping to a tired looking, unkept second rate condition...

Anyway, maybe I'm jumping the gun and there's wheels in motion at the club and a master plan to get things going in the right direction... I just hope it's put into action before word of the broncos demise is NOT greatly exagerated..
 
It comes back to what I said earlier in the week - the club now is just another club. We don't have that aura of being a benchmark, neither on the field or off it. The romantic in me wants to associate that decline completely with Bennett leaving, but I think the writing was on the wall before that.

I had hopes Paul White would turn around the ship that Bruno had let list aimlessly in his later years, but while he's certainly continuing the membership and sponsorship input well, the football department is certainly not performing.

That's not to say the Broncos have always looked unbeatable. The early years were marked by well documented fade outs, 1991 was a disappointment, 1994 the Broncos fumbled their way through to the finals and never looked comfortable.

On field we've had bad years before, or even good years with bad finishes, but we've always been able to have the confidence that we'd unearth or recruit a new player or two in key positions and improve.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when that trend went astray, but I think it's as distant as 2000-01. Our big signings then were Scott Prince and Stu Kelly, with the view of replacing Kevin Walters and Tonie Carroll. Prince took a long time to settle in and then his broken leg ruined his time with us. Kelly was never going to be anything great.

2001 - Sailor left for Union.
2002 - Tuqiri followed him.

That was the end of our superb wingers, who doubled as extra forwards to keep us rolling forward. We never recaptured wingers of that type. We've gone from Scott Minto and Stu Kelly, to Tame Tupou and Reece Robinson, to Darius Boyd and Denan Kemp.

Since the retirement of Webcke and the Civoniceva debacle a year later, our front row stocks have been poor too. Average players who can do a job, but not a cornerstone of a pack. Josh McGuire might be a great hope there.

Dunno what it is, but the feeling is that we lose players and replace them with inferior players who never improve. And while in the past we wouldn't accept that and would look elsewhere, these days it seems the club is content to continue on, persevere.

I know I harp on it, but I really think Peter Wallace is an example of that. The fact this is his 7th year at the club and people don't really think any more highly of him than they did when he joined us in 2008 speaks volumes. He hasn't improved. And neither has the team.
 
Kent gets a lot of stick because he plays the counter-argument "devils advocate" minority opinion role.

In my opinion he asks the hard questions. If you hate him because there isn't a simple answer to it (like the Slater kick) then you're the slow wit. Compare with Danny Wiedler who just makes shit up as he goes along and hopes it's true more than 50% of the time. There's a man to hate.

You could find hundreds of football panelist statements that have proved untrue in hindsight.

Kent was putting forward a valid question based on the fact of the Broncos poor performance over the past 3 weeks (and really, since post Origin last year). I don't think we're a shoe in for the finals like we have been for the past 10-15 years.

There's a changing of the guard.

3 years... I hope a bit of a stretch but the wins won't just come easy like they used to.
 
The Storm took off from where we left off.

Salary cap rorting aside, their team and management post 2010 shits all over everybody.
 
Our recruitment has been a disgrace over the last 10 yrs........ we've backed the wrong horse on too many occasions. I remember when DCE had the wobbles at Manly early last year and was asking for a release. Griffin came out and declared that Brisbane were not interested. He rationalised that we had Corey Norman to work with and "as cheif recruitment officer" ....Griffin, was more than happy to do just that. Hindsight is a wonderful tool I guess......

Still.......someone had the foresight to see something in Evans much earlier. Pity it wasn't someone belonging to the Broncos. Instead, we rushed in and re-signed Peter Wallace after he strung a couple good games together. That's worked out well.......:001_rolleyes:

That's where I see our biggest failing in the last decade. Talent spotting. That department needs a major clean out. Finding the right people to fit this role is IMO more important than finding another coach or even buying another half. We need a long term solution to a problem that has been festering for far too many years,

As Coxy said above, we have too many average players who can do a job, but that's it. They'll never amount to anything more.

Paul Kent is quite rightly one of the biggest knobs in the sporting media but unfortunately in this case he has a point that's hard to argue against.
 
I would ask why is it an unreasonable comment, it's a fair observation as much as it annoys. It's a big task to turn a team around in 3 years, not impossible but difficult when we have contracts in place for players we want to shed.

We committed to our youth which only now is looking like a mistake, we committed to a coach who seems to be limited to one style of footy which isn't working. There are few game changing players on the market and plenty of competition to sign them. Some of our stalwarts are past their best, out of form or approaching the end of careers and our back up players don't look up to NRL standard.

All players want to win premierships so we will be under increasing pressure to keep the talent we have when they realise they're in a side that can't compete for a title.

The club is publicly doubting the direction we were going , interesting times ahead for the Broncs and a real test of management for sure. If they can turn this around in under 3 years it will be a job well done.
 
broncos4life said:
I mean don't get me wrong I don't think we are going great guns at the moment but to suggest ANY will spend three or more years out of the top 8 is just f***ing ludicrous in this competition.
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This is it exactly. It's not like making the eight is any great accomplishment these days, certainly not like it was back in the days of a top five. Christ, we made it last year after winning only a single game in the last few months of the comp. Looking back at the last three years of the comp, only Parra have failed to make the eight all three years. There's so much turnover each year you're almost guaranteed to luck into eighth spot at some stage.

But I do understand the sentiment, and I agree with those on here speaking to the decline of the club. It was inevitable, really, but here's hoping that we show the character to drag ourselves back to the top again, and sooner rather than later.
 
Exactly.

The Storm will be in the same position in 3-4 years when Smith, Cronk and Slater retire (and could be 3x worse as all three are born within 6 months of each other - Smith and Slater actually share the same birthday) and when Bellamy moves on.

Golden ages have to end, and that is even moreso in a sport with forced regulation through the salary cap.
 
I'd be happy enough if a couple of seasons of mediocrity pushed us out of the Friday night game every week and back to the occasional Sunday. If we're going to suck, at least let us do it in the daylight.
 
Culhwch said:
I'd be happy enough if a couple of seasons of mediocrity pushed us out of the Friday night game every week and back to the occasional Sunday. If we're going to suck, at least let us do it in the daylight.
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I've ranted here previously, but I actually think the future of the club depends on us getting more Sunday games and bringing the families into the picture, rather than the fleeting corporate hospitality dollars for the Friday night games.

Families don't do Friday nights. It's too hard, unless it's a big game. Families are loyal, corporates go with the winners.

I've never thought about it this way but perhaps the predominantly wet Friday night football for the past 3-4 seasons has moulded us into a boring defensive style of football.
 
i think a better statement would be 'the broncos wont be competitive for 3 years'.

you can get into the 8 even while losing more games than you win. you just have to suck a bit less than 8 other teams. making the finals isnt an achievement, hasnt been for 10+ years. making the top 4 is. getting a win in the finals series is, something that the broncos were unable to do most of the 2000s. making the finals and getting knocked out without putting up a fight is worse IMO than missing the finals.

honestly, with our current roster, i dont see us being a chance of winning a premiership. we have too many overrated over-paid players.
 
the friday night games certainly lack atmosphere imo. theres such a better vibe on sunday arvo's at suncorp.

imo there is absolutely nothing better than sunday arvo timeslot at suncorp.
 
To say that the Broncos are in decline and are losing their reputation as being a mighty and powerful club is fair enough but to say they won't make the finals for at least the next 3 years is ridiculous. I think our problems can be fixed, we need to recruit a halfback that can guide the backs around and can convert position and chances to points, we can easily give the captaincy to Parker as Thiaday isn't captaincy material Imo and recruit backs that have heart and can score points. I don't think we have many problems in the forwards I think the most of the problems are in the backs and halves.
 
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