NEWS Walters' record compares with early Broncos: Maranta

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Founding Brisbane Broncos chairman Barry Maranta has hit out at critics of coach Kevin Walters and says his first four seasons at the helm compare favourably with the initial four years of the club.

Walters has been savaged for missing finals for the third time in four seasons under his stewardship but founding coach Wayne Bennett had the same record from 1988-1991 before winning the first of his six titles.

"When we targeted Bennett we gave him five years to get us into a grand final. The team we delivered for him initially was a virtual State of Origin side," Maranta told AAP.

"We got into a grand final and won it (in 1992) in the fifth year.

"What I want to point out is that Kevin has had four years as coach and got us into a grand final in the third (in 2023) without the playing staff that we had then. No other Broncos coach has done that.

"The expectations have got quite stupid and the critics want to crucify Kevvie but people that don't understand history go off on a tangent and it doesn't help in any way."

Walters has been the subject of an online newspaper poll where the majority of respondents said he should be sacked. That won't happen as the club CEO Dave Donaghy has publicly stated. Maranta does not believe sacking coaches is the answer to the club's issues when they are performing poorly.

He put his money where his mouth is back in 1991 when the cacophony of external noise to sack Bennett was at its loudest.

"It was a Sunday night and we had just been beaten and I went home and was watching Channel 10," Maranta recalled.

"They were running a poll where they were asking people if they wanted Bennett sacked.

"I rang our media guy and I said, 'tell everyone in the media that I am going to make a statement on Monday'.

"Monday was the day Bennett used to talk to all the rugby league writers but instead of the usual four or five the whole place was chock-a-block with 30 or 40 media from every channel and outlet."

Maranta said Bennett's "eyes nearly popped out" but he told him not to worry as he fronted the press, who were expecting him to announce that the coach would be punted.

"I then made the statement, 'Thank you for attending. We have just extended Wayne's contract as coach for another five years'. That blew them all away," Maranta said.

Bennett, already on contract for 1992, won that year and added two more titles (1993 and 1997) in that period.

Maranta is convinced Walters will lead the Broncos to title glory and said calls for him to be sacked were just as out of order as the push for Bennett to be axed.

"I know Kevin is a Bronco through and through. He's had four or five different coaching jobs and has learned under Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett," Maranta said.

"He has done all the learning process and I know him as a serious competitor and someone that doesn't put up with mediocrity.

"Kevin understands our Broncos culture and that is significant when you appoint people."

Canberra Times
 
The expectations have got quite stupid
How low should they be then? We just finished 12th and missed the finals 3 of the last 4 attempts under Kev. Adam O'brien has made the finals 4 out of 5 years and he is constantly under pressure. More than that the club in general has won nothing for almost 20 years and in the time since the last grand final win only made the top 8 as many times as a poxy little club like the Sharks lmao
 
I'm not so sure about the comparison.

1. By 1988 WB had won a title in the then BRL, overcoming a Wally Lewis-led Wynnum Manly (a unit now considered to be about the BRL's best-ever), after two disastrous Grand Final defeats in '79 and '84. So he had demonstrated a capacity to not only succeed but also to deal with and learn from failure.

2. WB was very much into roster refresh and regeneration and was quite prepared to pension off those in the tail end of their playing productivity - I'm not sure KW has it in him to muster the cojones to show the door to the one and only Wally Lewis.

3. From 1988 to 1991 the Broncs were showing more or less solid improvement year to year: 7, 6, 2 then 7 * (I'd forgotten about that one but it's not quite in the leaue of dropping from 2 to 12 is it ?). Indeed when they won their first six games in '88, many thought that the center of Rugby League gravity had all but permanently shifted north of the border and I'd bet many of the players themselves started to think that too. Wayne though, by medium of his 2 years in Canberra ('86, '87), knew better, that 3 x SoO per year was one thing, but consistent week-to-week prep/playing at a level they were yet to be accustomed to was another ...

[ * Finishing position on the regular season table, not the subsequent playoffs. ]

Has any accounting ever been made for the late-season 2022 collapse, or een
 
[ FInishing off the previous post, after some impromptu "intervention" by the user interface ]

Has any accounting ever been made for the late-season 2022 collapse, or even more recently what did (or didn't) happen in the 2023/2024 pre-season that seemed to set the course for this failed campaign ?
 
The 92 and 93 spine so good tho

Broncos started in 88 .
That was some frustrating times till they won it .

Like Maranta said Bennet had the Origin team every week end the 1st cpl of years.
But Qld had been white washed in Origin a year or two before, so ...
 
I don’t understand how this is relevant from Maranta?!
The first 5 years the Broncos were finding their feet in the comp. New team, new competition etc etc…
How the **** is any of this relevant to an established, former powerhouse?!
Came off a wooden spoon, but still not a new team.
If the bears get compared to Broncos ‘88, ok maybe similar…
 
Oh great, so Kev has literally set the club back 35 years!
Well maybe we can set the club back to the days of trading our best forward Civoniceva for the soft as shit Clinton. That would probably be equal to getting rid of Carrigan and signing Baker(if he wasn't at the club).

Quick someone invent a time machine so I can go back and bring a young Craig Bellamy into the future to coach the Broncos like it should have been post Bennett. The Baby Broncos effort was easily one of the finest games we played as a team. We had like six debutants, a shitload of players in origin camp and half a dozen players injured.
 
Well maybe we can set the club back to the days of trading our best forward Civoniceva for the soft as shit Clinton. That would probably be equal to getting rid of Carrigan and signing Baker(if he wasn't at the club).

Quick someone invent a time machine so I can go back and bring a young Craig Bellamy into the future to coach the Broncos like it should have been post Bennett. The Baby Broncos effort was easily one of the finest games we played as a team. We had like six debutants, a shitload of players in origin camp and half a dozen players injured.
That game against the tigers seems like a lifetime ago. What year was that? I assume Bellamy was the coach?

Would have caused an uproar punting Bennett for Bellamy, and rightly so. Hindsight wonders.
 
That game against the tigers seems like a lifetime ago. What year was that? I assume Bellamy was the coach?

Would have caused an uproar punting Bennett for Bellamy, and rightly so. Hindsight wonders.
2002, Bellamy's first game as a coach. As for causing an uproar many here at the time saw Bellamy as getting the reigns and were extremely disappointed that he left to go to Melbourne(can't blame him though, an opportunity to coach now when your ready is a hard thing to pass). As much as we loved Bennett for what he did for the club we saw Bellamy as the future. We have had Bennett twice, Henjak, Griffin, Seibold and Walters since 2006 and all the club has to show for it are two grand final losses and a spoon.
 
2002, Bellamy's first game as a coach. As for causing an uproar many here at the time saw Bellamy as getting the reigns and were extremely disappointed that he left to go to Melbourne(can't blame him though, an opportunity to coach now when your ready is a hard thing to pass). As much as we loved Bennett for what he did for the club we saw Bellamy as the future. We have had Bennett twice, Henjak, Griffin, Seibold and Walters since 2006 and all the club has to show for it are two grand final losses and a spoon.
The silverware in the cabinet would look very different if we went with Bellamy. Might have to build another cabinet.
 
It’s not a fair comparison - apart from the subjective stuff about the Broncos new to the top competition etc, the Broncos objectively won more games in those first few years and only missed finals because we had a top 5 format back then, not a top 8..

1988-91 : Won 57, Drew 1, Lost 30 (65%)
2021-24: Won 48 Lost 48 (50%)
 

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