NEWS Reynolds says players ‘blind-sided’ as Broncos split with coach Kevin Walters

The Brisbane Broncos have parted ways with coach Kevin Walters just 12 months after he took the club to a grand final.

The Broncos held an end-of-season review before the decision was made to end Walters’ contract, effective immediately.

Sources with knowledge of the situation, talking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation, said the decision was made via a mutual agreement between the Broncos and Walters.

“Aside from playing here, it’s been the greatest thrill and honour of my life to have coached the Broncos,” Walters said in a Broncos statement.

“Coaching in the NRL takes a toll, not just on the coach but also their family – it’s time for me to step away and spend some quality time with my loved ones, who have supported me all the way over the last four years.

“I’m grateful to the club for providing me with the opportunity to be head coach, and we have come a long way from the wooden spoon to last year’s run to the grand final.

“I wish the team and the club all the best.”

Broncos captain Adam Reynolds, who was lured to the Queensland capital by Walters, said the players were “blind-sided”, and learned about the news via the media.

“We were as surprised as anyone when the news broke – we still haven’t heard anything official,” Reynolds told this masthead late Thursday.

“Kevvie is one of the main reasons I came to the club. I’m naturally disappointed. I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t know what else to say until the club communicates with us.

“We’re all trying to find out what’s going on. He’s a great coach and I love his coaching style. It’s been a tough year. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.

“We lost four players from last year’s grand final, and me, Reece [Walsh] and Payne [Haas] have been out for long periods this year. Myself and Ezra [Mam] only played a handful of games together this year.

“I’ve tried reaching out to Kev. I feel for him.”

Reynolds enters his final year at the club in 2025, and knew there was pressure on everyone, including Walters, to start well in the opening eight weeks.

Walters, a five-time premiership winner with the Broncos and former captain with 241 games as a player, took over as coach at the end of 2020.

He coached 99 NRL games - winning 50 of them - making him the third longest-serving coach the club has had.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Kevin, for the enormous role he’s played as head coach over the past four years,” Broncos CEO Dave Donaghy said.

“Kevin put his heart and soul into the club during his time as coach. He is one of the most passionate people you will ever meet when it comes to the Broncos and that helped lift us out of a really difficult time.

“While we will miss Kev and his infectious personality on a daily basis, we certainly don’t want one of the Broncos favourite sons not to stay involved with our great club.”

Walters’ only finals appearance came last season when he led the Broncos within minutes of a premiership, before being run down by Nathan Cleary and the Panthers.

The Broncos failed to return to those lofty heights in 2024 and finished the season in 12th position. That forced the club into a major review of the football department.

Brisbane favourite Ben Te’o and former Parramatta Eels interim coach Trent Barrett had been brought to the club to be Walters’ assistants for next season.

Potential options for the top job in Brisbane include Queensland State of Origin assistant coach Josh Hannay, who missed out on the Eels job that went to Jason Ryles.

NSW State of Origin coach Michael Maguire, who previously applied for the Broncos job, is also expected to be one of the leading contenders given his achievements for the Blues this year.

Queensland State of Origin coach Billy Slater has previously indicated that he is not interested in becoming an NRL head coach. The Broncos may try to tempt him to reconsider.

Ex-Eels coach Brad Arthur has signed a one-year deal with Leeds in the Super League for next year, but could also become a potential replacement candidate.

Other coaches with NRL experience include Jason Demetriou and Justin Holbrook.

Sydney Morning Herald

 

[abashii]

That's how it looked at the beginning of 2023, but at the end of 2023, I'm not sure whether this is true. By the end of the season it was obvious the coach was not able to control the team. They either weren't listening to him or his coaching sucked. He kept telling us it was the former, but if that were true then so was the latter.

Yeah but mostly nah. Time heals all wounds, the fatso debacle doesn't seem as bad with years of distance whereas this season still cuts fresh. Don't forget under Pies we had the playing group split,suffered our worst ever finals loss, then followed it up with a wooden spoon year where players were openly crying on the field after yet another thrashing while the coach turned up to the presser with a precompiled list of excuses. The players looked like whipped dogs and had no ability to work together as a team any more because of the way fatso ran things.

Kevvie walked into a shitstorm of broken players with a broken culture and started to turn things around, restore some pride in the jersey. He was the reason we got Reynolds in. Regardless of whether he's the right long term coach he was definitely the right guy to turn things around and leave the club in a better place for the next coach.

Look at the roster and the attitude at the end of 2020 compared to now and tell me honestly that Kevvie isn't leaving behind a far better team than the one he started with.

 

[McHunt]

Yeah but mostly nah. Time heals all wounds, the fatso debacle doesn't seem as bad with years of distance whereas this season still cuts fresh. Don't forget under Pies we had the playing group split,suffered our worst ever finals loss, then followed it up with a wooden spoon year where players were openly crying on the field after yet another thrashing while the coach turned up to the presser with a precompiled list of excuses. The players looked like whipped dogs and had no ability to work together as a team any more because of the way fatso ran things.

Kevvie walked into a shitstorm of broken players with a broken culture and started to turn things around, restore some pride in the jersey. He was the reason we got Reynolds in. Regardless of whether he's the right long term coach he was definitely the right guy to turn things around and leave the club in a better place for the next coach.

Look at the roster and the attitude at the end of 2020 compared to now and tell me honestly that Kevvie isn't leaving behind a far better team than the one he started with.

I honestly don't know. The team seems happier and more laid back. But they're still losing by big margins, while looking happier and more laid back. Kevvie spoke pure bullshit in his press conferences. We didn't hate him for it, but you couldn't take the slightest notice of anything he said. Maybe the players felt the same way.

 

[Sproj]

Seems like Kev released it, before the players were told.

The players review is what got him sacked. lol

We have a News Ltd chairman who continues to be the common denominator in the stupidity of the club.

 

[McHunt]

We have a News Ltd chairman who continues to be the common denominator in the stupidity of the club.

Do you think the firing of Seibold, followed by the hiring and subsequent firing of Kevvie were bad decisions?

I think, in the circumstances, they were probably all correct, or at least reasonable, decisions.

The rest of the roster, though...

 

[Mustafur]

Can’t wait to hear fro Tallis today in the media.
I dare say Kev will leak things through him, might get juicy.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with a few players, who I can see may leverage off this to explore other options.

Surely it’s Madge first, daylight second.
I’d be reaching out to Bellamy and offering a ridiculous offer to try and get him back here again, but we know that won’t happen.
I cannot see the club going down the path of a rookie head coach again.

This club sure knows how to destroy a head coach.

Oh he will be anoying asf now for sure, and watch Parker suddenly be more defensive of the Broncos, that is my bet what will happen.

 

[Mustafur]

Do you think the firing of Seibold, followed by the hiring and subsequent firing of Kevvie were bad decisions?

I think, in the circumstances, they were probably all correct, or at least reasonable, decisions.

The rest of the roster, though...

You forgot the firing of Bennet which he was a key reason it all went to shit and the Hiring of Seibold both diabolical.

We don't have the Answer yet whether Kevvie getting sacked was a good thing either.

 

[McHunt]

You forgot the firing of Bennet which he was a key reason it all went to shit and the Hiring of Seibold both diabolical.

The descent of Bennett and Seibold as played out in the local press, at least we're not witnessing that again.

 

[Sproj]

Do you think the firing of Seibold, followed by the hiring and subsequent firing of Kevvie were bad decisions?

I think, in the circumstances, they were probably all correct, or at least reasonable, decisions.

The rest of the roster, though...

The Seesbums debacle should have seen the whole board sacked. That was a disgrace and handled absolutely atrociously. How anyone kept their job from that alone boggles the mind.

 

[leish107]

Imagine not telling the fucking players first.

I don't think that they got the chance to. This was broken by Badel and the Courier Mail around 8pm last night. It's not like they could quickly gather the playing group together - they're on annual leave with some of them overseas. I assume that the club would have liked to announce this later today and would have somehow informed the players this morning however, the media got the jump on them. Someone internally leaked this to the media before the club had a chance to act. Should they have been better prepared? Absolutely.

As for the players being 'blindsided' by this, I struggle to believe that. The feedback from the review was obviously not favourable for Kevvy - Badel confirmed this during an interview with James Graham this morning. And what else is Reno meant to say? 'Yeah, we shit-talked him during the review but needed to keep it on the down-low as his son is still in the team and we didn't want to make it anymore awkward? But, colour-me-shocked, we didn't think they'd actually sack him'.

 

[Nashy]

I don't think that they got the chance to. This was broken by Badel and the Courier Mail around 8pm last night. It's not like they could quickly gather the playing group together - they're on annual leave with some of them overseas. I assume that the club would have liked to announce this later today and would have somehow informed the players this morning however, the media got the jump on them. Someone internally leaked this to the media before the club had a chance to act. Should they have been better prepared? Absolutely.

As for the players being 'blindsided' by this, I struggle to believe that. The feedback from the review was obviously not favourable for Kevvy - Badel confirmed this during an interview with James Graham this morning. And what else is Reno meant to say? 'Yeah, we shit-talked him during the review but needed to keep it on the down-low as his son is still in the team and we didn't want to make it anymore awkward? But, colour-me-shocked, we didn't think they'd actually sack him'.

As if that's any better. Let me adjust my post to suit.

Imagine not telling the fucking players before the media.

 

[Harry Sack]

I do wonder who leaked it though. A Kev supporter on the board?

 

[Nashy]

I do wonder who leaked it though. A Kev supporter on the board?

News Ltd own the club I guess.

 

[Battler]

I know how he feels: I was also ‘blindsided’ that my club went from a grandfinal to looking like headless chooks with zero structure the instant we lost Arey and/or Walsh to injury

 

[winslow_wong]

Oates:

“From what I know, no one really knew. These decisions, I guess, aren’t made by the players, all this stuff is made above us by the people higher up in the board. We never sat down and had a meeting. There’s nothing that has been said in our group chat with players having meetings. But look, I don’t think it’s ever made by the players, to be honest. It’s always made from the above, from the people that run the club and control the club, us as players, we have to go out there and just do our job each week and train and play, and that’s what we have to do and that’s what we all stick to.”​

​

“I don’t really want to look. I was really shocked, because you got to sort of feel for Kevvie and his family and sort of what he’s probably had to go through in the last 12 hours, it’d honestly be really hard.”​

​

“I honestly thought that they probably would have given him next year, that’s my honest opinion, I really did, so, I believe it probably is a harsh part call.”​

​

“Going into these holidays I’m probably going to keep it the same, I’m just really enjoying the holidays before I make any decisions."​

So what’s happening with Oates next year?

 

[the_next]

To be honest I have no doubt that Kev was also blindsided. There is no way he stepped down.

I applaud the club for making the decision now.
Most clubs would have given him 6 or so weeks next year then pulled the trigger. Then 2025 is also a write off. Look at Parra.
The boards feedback from the players must have been that damming with little to no positivity.
Lets also remember Kev had lost 2 of his assistance for next year add to that Ikin had already left.
Seems there might be good reasoning people around him are leaving.

Whilst Reynolds makes it sound like he is shocked, I expect his review of Kev, along with the likes of Carrigan and Haas were not too glowing.
I guess if the reviews were all done completely professionally Reyno’s true thoughts will never come to the surface.

I think behind closed doors there would be good reasoning as to why the club made the choice it has.
Otherwise, we are fucked.

 

[Sproj]

So what’s happening with Oates next year?

He said he is going to take holiday and then make any decisions.

 

[Totally Unr3al]

For all those praising this move just remember how the last time we got a coach in who didn’t give a stuff about the broncos culture went? He literally burnt the whole place down and did the unthinkable and we won the spoon.

It took Walter’s to come in and restore a lot of that and he 100 per cent has earnt the right to fix the issues next year.

This whole thing just screams west tiger type mismanagement . We’re we will be bouncing from coach to coach for years while our board get off Scott free.

Hope I’m wrong but I really do see this setting back the club for years to come .

You make good points but there is not a lot to be set back from
We are in a massive hole…

 

[Financeguy]

So what’s happening with Oates next year?

If Madge is coach i cant imagine Oates will be kept on...from memory in that Tiger Town documentary Madge deliberately targeted Oates when they played the Broncos which Tigers won and he has only gone downhill as a player since then.