NEWS Walters concedes failures in 2024 as Broncos acknowledge slim finals hopes

Brisbane Broncos head coach Kevin Walters has admitted that he’s been left disappointed at the criticism directed towards him and the club during the 2024 season but accepts the results have been far from ideal.

The Broncos entered the 2024 season with plenty of optimism following their Grand Final appearance the previous season but a combination of injuries, representative footy and poor form has resulted in Brisbane sitting outside the top eight with three matches remaining.

The Broncos remain a slim mathematical possibility but Walters conceded that the performance of the club doesn’t warrant a finals berth.

“I’m a realist and I understand the situation with Broncos fans and the media when we aren’t sitting in the eight,” Walters told SENQ.

“Are we happy with where we are sitting? No. We are trying our best to rectify the situation and get back on target.

‘We are in great hands with a good roster and good people who want success.

“We lost our best players over a six to seven week block midway through the season and that’s where we found it difficult this year.

“We didn’t have our captain in Adam Reynolds and we had a couple of other good players who weren’t available during injury which makes the well dry.

“It’s a critical part of the year in which you need to win games during that period to set up your end of the year.

“That’s an area where we failed because we didn’t get the wins on the board as opposed to last year.

“There must be a better solution there with the State of Origin.

"They’re not excuses but they are reasons as to why things haven’t gone exactly to plan.”

Whilst the Broncos remain without stars Ezra Mam, Payne Haas and Reece Walsh, the Broncos are buoyed by the return of winger Selwyn Cobbo for the must-win game against the Eels.

Walters said he’s excited to welcome Cobbo back after the 22-year-old revealed he was experiencing personal struggles off the field.

“He’s come back in great shape and he’s been going well at training,” Walters added.

“Cobbo has been through a bit in the last month but he seems to be on top of that at the moment.

“We haven’t seen him in a Broncos jumper for some weeks now so it will be good to see him back in a Broncos jumper.”

The Broncos host the Eels on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium.

SEN

 

[BroncosFever]

You need luck with injuries to feature in the finals, or you need a ridiculously stacked backup contingency.

Look at Penrith, Edwards was unavailable for a good while and they have Daine Laurie as their backup, he's better than most teams starting fullback, or at least on par. I don't know how the top sides are able to take some of the better players out of struggling clubs, that's not how it's supposed to work.

 

[Santa]

They are not excuses, they just sound, smell and look like excuses…

We were pretty much full strength when we got dusted by both the titans and bulldogs at home with our season on the line, what was the excuse then?

Lack of game time for our main team together? Cobbo forgetting how to defend? The Bulldogs being a good team? Look we played much worse than we did last year, but SOO, injuries and the quality of some of our depth players didn't help.

2025 will be better.

 

[nopatience101]

Lack of game time for our main team together? Cobbo forgetting how to defend? The Bulldogs being a good team? Look we played much worse than we did last year, but SOO, injuries and the quality of some of our depth players didn't help.

2025 will be better.

I would have thought the coach would be responsible for that…

 

[nopatience101]

Yeah it doesn't seem to matter who we have on the field, every week they get smashed by the opposition in the key stats. Some weeks they are good enough to win despite that through some individual brlilliance, but most weeks they aren't.

But it’s apparently got nothing to do with the coach

 

[Santa]

Yeah it doesn't seem to matter who we have on the field, every week they get smashed by the opposition in the key stats. Some weeks they are good enough to win despite that through some individual brlilliance, but most weeks they aren't.

We weren't that great in our key stats last year either: 1st in errors, 1st in ineffective tackles, 5th most penelties, 1st handling errors, etc.

We just had the attack to score from anywhere and our edge defence was a lot better (especially on our line).

Not playing with our main spine most of the season didn't help either (especially without the two players most responsible for dragging us from 14th to 2nd + Capewell IMO). And as good as Hass, Carrigan, Willison and Jenson are, they ain't winning us matches themselves.

 

[Santa]

I would have thought the coach would be responsible for that…

I mean he would be, but like players, coaches can have off years too (especially when half your cap is out injured). Kevvie taking us from the wooden spoon to the grand final in 3 years has earned him some time to fix it up again.

 

[BroncsFan]

You need luck with injuries to feature in the finals, or you need a ridiculously stacked backup contingency.

Look at Penrith, Edwards was unavailable for a good while and they have Daine Laurie as their backup, he's better than most teams starting fullback, or at least on par. I don't know how the top sides are able to take some of the better players out of struggling clubs, that's not how it's supposed to work.

And they're getting Ipap next year... a guy that won 2nd rower of the year a couple years back and signed at tigers for probably >$800k... but they're probably getting him for a pie and coke, because he wants to play at a stacked team that walks into a top 4 spot each year.

He'll come out and kill it next year and it will look like a master stroke, but where is the NRL with their valuation.

 

[Financeguy]

And they're getting Ipap next year... a guy that won 2nd rower of the year a couple years back and signed at tigers for probably >$800k... but they're probably getting him for a pie and coke, because he wants to play at a stacked team that walks into a top 4 spot each year.

He'll come out and kill it next year and it will look like a master stroke, but where is the NRL with their valuation.

Lets be fair, they would have some money to spend with losing JFH, Luai, Turuva and May. And Papali'i was no longer wanted at the Tigers...

I don't remember any articles that suggests they got him "for a pie and a coke" either...from memory they moved on him after they lost the battle for Fifita.

 

[Jedhead]

Lack of game time for our main team together? Cobbo forgetting how to defend? The Bulldogs being a good team? Look we played much worse than we did last year, but SOO, injuries and the quality of some of our depth players didn't help.

2025 will be better.

It might be better in terms of injuries, but I don't see the quality of our depth improving much if any. I also think our defensive system is non-existent and so that can improve immeasurably. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone in the building or anyone coming into the building capable of achieving that either.

I'm hoping DD is up late at night sweating his spine out in the process of finding and recruiting the right people to rectify this. otherwise 2025 will be another 'also ran' season.

 

[Santa]

It might be better in terms of injuries, but I don't see the quality of our depth improving much if any. I also think our defensive system is non-existent and so that can improve immeasurably. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone in the building or anyone coming into the building capable of achieving that either.

I'm hoping DD is up late at night sweating his spine out in the process of finding and recruiting the right people to rectify this. otherwise 2025 will be another 'also ran' season.

Its not all negative. With all our injuries, we at least got to try some players out who seem to have benefited from some game time. Willison, Te Kura, Mozer, Rogers, Madden, even Hunt, etc. They're all be better for next year. And we learnt who not to ever pick again... Baker... and Sailor is leaving....

 

[Battler]

We have been terrible this year, but I do think that NRL and Origin being played at the same time is ridiculous. The NRL just need to have a month block for Origin: your team dropping games to shit teams (weird how we always play the wahs during Origin) because you're missing guns feels horrible and dimishes the integrity of the comp.

 

[Wolfie]

I keep saying it, the results with the players missing for me arent an issue. The manner of a lot of our defeats are.

 

[BroncsFan]

Lets be fair, they would have some money to spend with losing JFH, Luai, Turuva and May. And Papali'i was no longer wanted at the Tigers...

I don't remember any articles that suggests they got him "for a pie and a coke" either...from memory they moved on him after they lost the battle for Fifita.

They definitely have cap space available, but tigers are paying some freight so they'll be getting him cheaper than market value

 

[pennywisealfie]

I keep saying it, the results with the players missing for me arent an issue. The manner of a lot of our defeats are.

Exactly, it's not the defeats themselves, it's what's on display. With the way things are trending with all of these excuses and such, I really don't think it's worth getting excited about 2025 at all.

 

[theshed]

That first loss to the Titans was basically the death knell for the season. Our attitude/play that game was one of the worst I've seen.

We were without Reynolds but otherwise had a strong team, playing a Titans team with bloody Chris Randall and Tom Weaver in the halves. On top of that the Titans had injuries during the game and we conceded 36points to that reserve grade strength team.

Can't blame Origin for that shit.

On top of that on top of that, they started the second half with 12 players

 

[Jason Simmons]

He broke his hand last week and will likely be out for the rest of the season...... what does that say?

Injuries happen....?

Injuries happen. That’s why we have a squad, not a team.

Storm have been without Munster for most of the season and without Hughes, Paps and various forwards at varying times of the season. They also had at least as many players in origin as us.

How is their season looking?

Penrith have been without Cleary for most of the season.

How are they going?

Fact is outside of our top 13, we have few in our squad who deserve to be in the NRL based on their performances when called upon this year, yet our coach heaps praise on them, despite many of them clearly not being up to the job.

Our squad is poor overall compared to the better teams and then there are the coaching issues, selection issues, discipline issues and obviously, recruitment issues.

We’re outside the top 8 because that’s where we deserve to be. As a club they don’t even acknowledge these issues, let alone address them.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

It wasn't so much the front line injuries for me. It was the depth injuries. None of Hoeter, te kura, pereria, madden or hunt would have got more than 2 or 3 games AT MOST any year, yet they would have got 10+ this year if they AS WELL weren't injured. We were relying on depth BELOW our depth players so when people couldn't perform (eg baker, Oates, etc) we had no one to replace them with.

 

[Manofoneway]

So many reasons why this year has been bad - Shortened pre-season. 5 rep players played footy until November - Couldnt return for preseason training because they needed 10 weeks off. Pre-season was also cut short a the other end for the exhibition in Vegas. Manly & Roosters had like one or two rep players missing from preseason - we had 5! We went into the season massively undercooked.

Then you have the injuries to key players - Expensive prop, star halback, fullback and the rest. Ridiculous injury toll this year and right over the origin period. Mam & Piakura were also not training with the main squad during origin and they have been our worst defenders. Probably needed to train with the squad most throughout that time and they were unavailable for training during origin. All of these things contribute and all of a sudden, our third string fullback and 4th string outside backs look very ordinary.