THE COACH Poll: Should Kevin Walters be sacked?

[McHunt]

I think we would all agree that Kevvie should be under scrutiny. I don’t however want to be sacking a coach every 3 years. That’s what bad clubs do. I need to see a strong finish to the season from us and some decent moves with our coaching staff and playing squad.

Kevvie is not getting sacked. An assistant cleanout is sufficient bloodletting. But, he will have to choose their replacements carefully. They will make or break him next season.

 

[McHunt]

lose GF> miss the top 8> bottom 4 + coach sacked

Our current trajectory is eerily similar if we miss the top 8 which is likely at this stage.

Not really. Kevvie's only been given four years so far. Arthur was at the Eels for more than ten. Plus the history the club and the Walters family share. Arthur never had that.

His relationship with the players matters too. Once the coach "loses the dressing room" his days are numbered. We aren't privy to what's being said in private about that, but it doesn't look that way from outside.

He's under pressure though.

Oh, Arthar has another job already, if you haven't heard. Coach of Leeds Rhinos. So rule him out as assistant.

 

[Big Del]

I doubt we'd get Billy, but it's clear he's an astute student of the game. He'd make a brilliant assistant coach.

As for what he's done as an NRL coach, what had Kevvie done? He took the Catalan Dragons from a semi final to the wooden spoon in his two year tenure as head coach there.

He spent a lot of years learning from Uncle Wayne and Da Grub Bellamy .
At 3 or 4 different clubs .Then was the boss in France .

Billy ? How many years as an assistant in an NRL system ?

But he`s still a Queenslander ...

 

[Big Del]

We need a hard nosed person like Maguire

Just remind me of how his stint at the Tigers went ?

 

[mstreet]

Ok

They can please themselves .
Do they play the games on the week end ? Their days are in the past , STFU and let the next gen get on with it .

Anthony Seibold would love to have a beer with you...

 

[McHunt]

He spent a lot of years learning from Uncle Wayne and Da Grub Bellamy .
At 3 or 4 different clubs .Then was the boss in France .

Billy ? How many years as an assistant in an NRL system ?

But he`s still a Queenslander ...

Kevvie has already exceeded our expectations last season. His remit was to reset the culture, not win us an instant premiership. A 4-5 year stint is already longer than anyone expected him to last.

If we fail again next year, I hope the club can somehow move him sideways rather than be sacked.

 

[Big Del]

lose GF> miss the top 8> bottom 4 + coach sacked

Our current trajectory is eerily similar if we miss the top 8 which is likely at this stage.

The 8 or 9 years before that were the deciding factor .
So Kev has at least another 3 or 4 to get to that point .

 

[Foordy]

The 8 or 9 years before that were the deciding factor .
So Kev has at least another 3 or 4 to get to that point .

Not to mention the fact that if Wayne didn't come onto the market, BA would not have been sacked ... Well he would have at least been given the chance to improve things when their injury crisis was over (especially given their star half was out long term)

 

[Big Del]

Ok

Anthony Seibold would love to have a beer with you...

As long as he`s payin .

What positive influence do da Old boys have on the way the team plays
?
What other club caters to their old boys to the extent of consulting ex players about head coahes ?

 

[Mr Fourex]

It isn't even like there are no reasons the team is going so poorly this year. I feel like we've gone over this ad nauseum. The massive injury toll, disrupted preseason and origin are causing so many problems right now that it is understandable we are struggling.

Exactly......if KW was playing with a full strength squad and was then losing like we are, criticisms such as we're reading would be valid.

Pick any other coach you want...how we're going would still be the same.

 

[mstreet]

Sacking Kevie would be a mistake. Although I did call a month back that non of his assistants would survive the year. They jumped ship rather than sacked.

Lee Briers coaching in attack is brilliant as we saw in 23, but it needs perfect conditions for it to work; no injuries, great depth, the talent, stability, form, luck, etc. 23 was an example of everything going your way.

It was obvious in Round 1 the issues at play, outside of injuries to come. The lack of respect for the fundamentals, the effort areas. We just wanted to throw the footy around on every play, rather than work our way into a game. I think the lack of ball control this season started with the idea, we can defend any errors, so keep throwing. Those risky passes didn't work this year, like they did last year; confidence in the playing group started to erode.

I personally believe Areys body is done as a player. With this in mind, I hope Kevie finds assistants that can build a game around respecting the fundamentals, building pressure, and letting players like Mam or Walsh exploit that.

 

[mstreet]

As long as he`s payin .

What positive influence do da Old boys have on the way the team plays
?
What other club caters to their old boys to the extent of consulting ex players about head coahes ?

To be honest, I like it.

It's more a courtesy. We have a rich history in our short time. Those players set the standards for today. Having them around the club for bbqs or helping out with training is great for everyone.

But like any employee, past or present, you need to know when to shut your mouth, and fall in line. Hello Parker and Tallis.

 

[BroncsFan]

I think we would all agree that Kevvie should be under scrutiny. I don’t however want to be sacking a coach every 3 years. That’s what bad clubs do. I need to see a strong finish to the season from us and some decent moves with our coaching staff and playing squad.

Agree with this completely... we cannot just flippantly throw Kevvie out after the success he had last year. His career so far
2021 improved us from spoon where we won 3 games all year... and 2 of those were the first 2 weeks prior to Covid... so he was picking up a team that got 1 fucking win in 18 games of football the year before. He cleaned up the roster to remove a ton of deadwood and set about rebuilding the team which was primarily youth and toxicity.... and he did it with literally no help from the back office (CEO and Nolan were both out the door with DD and Ikin coming in, but not until mid-year).

2022 we were in the top 8 for the majority of the year and the top 4 at round 19, but lost Patty for 4 weeks at an important point of the year and couldn't recover. Missed the 8, but ended the year with a 13-11 record, which is the record we're chasing this year to qualify for the top 8.

2023 2mins from winning the premiership for the first time since 2006 and he would've been the first coach to do it other than Wayne... hell he's the only other Brisbane coach that has made a GF not named Wayne.

Something has happened this year and that needs serious review from the club from all areas:
- High performance need to be reviewed to determine why we are nowhere near as fit as what we were last year given that was a fundamental principal that we built our premiership run on

- R&R needs a serious review and understanding of what our cap position is and where are we heading over the next 3-5yrs... we lost 4 players from our GF team and replaced them mostly with rookies. We have no depth in our second rowers and seemingly have no one coming through... we have no depth in general it seems... why have we got 4 hookers in the Top 30... what's the plan at that position with Mozer coming off contract... the one outside back coming through does not look anywhere near ready, but where's the rest of them? (seriously why is it so fucking hard for us to find wingers to plug in?)

- Coaching obviously needs a review ... for the attack and defense DD and co need to understand if it's the players not able to execute it or is the philosophy not working when it comes to modern league. Or is it because the players needed to execute have been injured / not available and when they have been it's been fine... so the depth isn't adequate, etc.

I will watch with interest on how the coaching staff is built this off season ... to see where they come from and the kind of contacts DD has across the NRL... was it all the storm system and those guys around him or was he able to have his own influence in there?

 

[Dexter]

My concern with KW is the way we are playing not so much the losing.
We would be losing our share with the injuries we have but our lack of attention to the basics is ordinary and that's in the coach.
We play an attacking set like 6 individual plays not a set designed to get us in position to execute a kick or a play with everyone knowing what their part is.
Our block plays don't force the D to make a decision under any duress.
The front runner telegraphs they're not getting the ball making it easy to number up.
That's all coaching, it's effort based, not doing the the 1%.
Under KW Ikin has left and now possibly the entire coaching staff.
There's 1 common denominator.
He has absolutely earned the right to some time but also needs to be on notice
We have a premiership level core , it would be a shame to waste it.

 

[McHunt]

Exactly......if KW was playing with a full strength squad and was then losing like we are, criticisms such as we're reading would be valid.

Pick any other coach you want...how we're going would still be the same.

Enough of this talk about "full strength." A football team isn't its best 17, alone. It's the entire squad who gets you through the season. Planning the top 30 is a coaching strategy in itself.

Luck comes into it, but if you set out without depth and versatility on your edges, and a handful of carefully groomed utilities who are in succession for spine roles further down the track, you're already playing roulette.

Whoever planned this top 30 made two obvious blunders, right from the outset, probably constrained by the cap: our deputy halfback was already not up to the task of replacing Reyno, and we were impoverished in the Kurt Capewell role. If losing a fullback or second rower early on is enough to overturn our laundry basket, the team is not balanced. No matter the vertical talent of the individual players.

 

[Gaz]

Thats the thing though, the coaches are there. I thought of 6 who would be viable candidates. Probably more i've missed.

For me, its about how we finish the year out. Show some fight, some some better form and make the 8 then looking at replacing him is off the table and i reckon what you are suggesting about seeing how we go next year is fair. If we collapse, i think he is gone.

The other scenario is Kevvie himself pulls the plug. He's an emotional guy, but he's honest about things as well. He wants whats best for the Broncos and if we dont make the 8, he might decide he's gone as far as he can because he's said in the past failure in his eyes.

Last season, it appeared Kevin and his assistants had built up a chemistry that the team bought into and it proved successful.

But for whatever reason that seems to be not working this year.

In fact most, if not all the assistants are now going elsewhere and will need to be replaced for 2025.

Something seems amiss and I often wish Ben Ikin was still around.

 

[Mister Wright]

I think last year overshadows exactly where our team is in its development. We had EVERYTHING go our way last year. We barely had any long term injuries or suspensions, we also had players burning from their fall from grace the year before and even the backups were in really, really good form.

This year, I don't think we have put the same 17 out on the park in consecutive games and if we have it hasn't been for any more than 2 games. While I see a lot of people making the argument that a squad is 30 players, not 17, which is true, let's look at the experience we have through our squad. Apart from Reynolds who is almost at 300 games I'm fairly certain our next most experienced player is Oates and he's a winger. Our spine players, although talented are low on experience, especially in big games. Walsh will be a superstar (even bigger than he is already) and so will Mam but they haven't even played 100 games yet and have 3 finals games between them. Walters was really good for us last year, but he also has less than 100 games and also only 3 finals games.

When you have Reynolds go down early in the season (for a prolonged period also) all of a sudden we have a spine with barely 120 games between them and 9 finals games in total. Spine players, particularly halves take time to develop.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that our team hasn't even opened our premiership window yet. For me, 2026 is when we can start thinking about opening the window when Walsh and Mam are close to the 100 game mark, hopefully played a few more finals games and understand what it is to back up season after season to be a successful team. Hopefully Mozer also has close to 50 games by then also. Our forward pack will also have Patty and Payne around the 150-200 game mark and Willison will be around the 75 game mark.

The thought of even sacking Walters this season should be quickly dismissed. Obviously he would need to have a good season next season, but we should be looking at 2026 and beyond as our dominate period.

 

[Santa]

Seems to me that we have forgotten what 2020 was like and become spoilt by 2023. We're just going through a injury/origin slump, which we've been through multiple times before.

Talking about sacking Kevvie is just stupid.