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Seibold will march to the beat of his own drum at Broncos
October 31, 2018
Anthony Seibold was among a group of drummers who helped musical acts Queen and Five perform We Will Rock You at the opening of the 2000 Brit Awards but the Dally M coach of the year has never faced as much scrutiny as he will when he takes charge of the Brisbane Broncos.
Seibold was confirmed on Wednesday as just the fourth Broncos coach since the club was founded in 1988 after finalising a four-year deal to succeed Wayne Bennett from 2020, but there are few who doubt he will begin his dream job next season.
It is now up to Brisbane and South Sydney officials to negotiate a swap between Seibold and Bennett, preferably before their players return to training in the coming weeks.
The two main issues are expected to be the difference between Bennett's pay at Brisbane and Seibold's at Souths, along with the futures of their respective coaching staff, who are also under contract for next season.
Both clubs and coaches say they are prepared to wait until 2020 but it will be awkward at best if they don't make the move immediately.
Regardless of when he starts, Seibold has some work to do to win over Brisbane's former players as the likes of Glenn Lazarus, Shane Webcke, Chris Johns and Steve Renouf have been vocal in their criticism of how Bennett has been treated and/or the passing over of Kevin Walters for the job.
Following Bennett in a job has proved such a difficult task the Broncos lured him back in 2015 after he had left the club in 2009 to coach St George Illawarra and then Newcastle.
Bennett, Griffin and Ivan Henjak are the only people to have coached Brisbane, while his anointed successor at the Dragons in 2012, Steve Price, did not see out the full term of his contract before being replaced by Paul McGregor in 2014.
The difference between Seibold and those who have taken on a coaching role after Bennett in the past is that he has been an NRL head coach and did such an impressive job in his first season with the Rabbitohs that Brisbane identified him as their next long-term coach after missing out on Craig Bellamy.
While Souths officials are disappointed by Seibold's decision after giving him his chance as a head coach this season and offering him an extended contract beyond next year, the lure of coaching at the club he began his playing career proved too much.
Seibold never played first grade for the Broncos but he spent four seasons in under 23s and reserve grade from 1992, when the club won their inaugural premiership in 1992, before beginning a journey that took him to France, Canberra, London and Wales.
After playing 14 first grade matches alongside the likes of Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart and Brad Clyde at the Raiders in 1997 and 1998, he joined the London Broncos, which were owned by Virgin founder Richard Branson.
It was through Branson that Seibold and four of his Broncos team-mates were asked to be drummers at the opening of the 2000 Brit Awards.
He later played for Hull KR before returning to Brisbane to lead their Toowoomba Clydesdales feeder team and got his start in coaching by following John Dixon from the Broncos to the Celtic Crusaders as his assistant at the new Welsh club, which won promotion to Super League in 2009.
In 2010, Seibold was named the RFL coach of the year after his first season in charge of South West Scorpions in Wales and he returned to Australia to continue his apprenticeship under Bellamy at the Storm before joining Trent Barrett at Manly and moving to Souths as an assistant in 2017.
Source: NRL.com
