NEWS Walters: the art of the deal

The Broncos are showing faith in Kevvie Walters by allowing him to prematurely renegotiate his September 2020 contract, currently worth around $400K. He will immediately switch to a week to week "standard employment contract" based solely on performance, with handsome incentives for on-field success. He will earn major bonuses if he meets Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as making the playoffs. The deal includes the go-ahead to shop for fresh talent in his football department. The terms will include a period of notice, thought to be three months.

This means he can now theoretically be sacked before his previous contract would've expired at the end of the 2022 season. But it also means neither party needs to sweat over whether to renew his contract. It's good to go until it isn't.

Donuts and Ikin are also on standard contracts with no fixed terms, and intend to phase out the expensive player options that crushed the club in previous years.

Kevvie says:


“I’m not expecting any favours from anyone here. I have to perform. Every club has to get results and we’re no different. I’ve said for a while I want to be here long term and I intend to do that. But I’m not a fool either. I’m not kidding myself. It’s about getting results and I need to get results to stay in the role which is pretty clear."

“I want to be here for longer. We’ve had some player movement which hasn’t provided stability and what the Broncos need is stability across the playing group and the coaching staff. I never saw myself as a short-term appointment. I want to be here for a while, but to do that everybody at the Broncos has to perform and I’m no different.”

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A firm grip on the Gold

Walters’ agent Chris Orr:


“The Broncos want Kevvie to be their long-term successful coach. The Broncos are looking to throw all their support around Kevvie by increasing resources, whilst taking away any contractual questions by entering an employment agreement. This means Kevvie will be rewarded on results whilst also increasing stability across the club.”

Donuts:

“We’re in discussions with Kevin, so I’d prefer not to comment for now. Look, Kev’s our coach. He’s our guy and he’s determined to succeed. There’s been quite a bit of change here in recent times, but we feel that with a number of things falling into place, the opportunity exists to build on where we currently are."

“We’ve prioritised investment in our football program and supporting our coach, staff and players. The growth I’ve seen in Kev as a coach and in the program led by Ben Ikin has been tremendous. The pre-season starts Monday and we believe the group led by Kev will continue to grow on the gains we saw at the back end of last season. It’s for them to do, but I’ve got the confidence and belief in them that they will. There’s real value in stability and continuity. I’ve been really impressed with Kevvie in the last three to four months. He’s certainly grown.”

Former future of the Broncos Tommy Dearden:

“I had been at the Broncos since I was 13 years old and I took things from a lot of people that helped me on my journey. Kevvie was pretty strict in the pre-season last year about playmakers playing their own game and being their own player on the field. That’s one thing I learnt from ‘Kevvie’: to be my own player out there."

“Your confidence always takes a knock when you lose so many games in a row. You go out and play to win, but I was struggling to get a win for a very long time. It’s been a tough start to my career, but I took some confidence moving to the Cowboys and getting that win against the Dragons. "

"One thing I have taken from Kevvie is having that belief in my game. He wished me all the best when I left. It’s a part of football sometimes that players move clubs and that happened to me. I learnt a fair bit from Kevvie in the short amount of time I was working with him, so I’m grateful for the time I had with him.”


McHunt
 
The only "bargaining chip" that Kevvie has right now is that the team finished the season quite well but to be perfectly honest, that counts for nothing now.. especially after a couple of trials against teams that I would expect will be lingering in the top half of the bottom 8 in the upcoming season.

If we come out and win well against Souths, suddenly he's got a lot more going for him but as it stands, I am not sure what would motivate them to rush out and settle his future. The Dragons have done this a couple of times now, they did it with McGregor and they've just gone and done it with Griffin. McGregor failed them and honestly with Griffin, outside of 2011 which had Darren Lockyer in the team, you can't really say he's had any success in the NRL.
 
Yeah ideally you sack Matterson or Cartwright and pay Ciraldo as much as a head coach to be an “assistant” coach while paying Kev minimum wage to continue to be the guy who yells about pride in the club at half time.

Ciraldo has shown to be a top shelf defensive coach and players respect him so much that he is an actual draw card.
yeah , but he still isn't a proven head coach. I think it will be good to see how fitzgibon goes as head coach as he has had the same trajectory, both defence coaches in good systems.
 
yeah , but he still isn't a proven head coach. I think it will be good to see how fitzgibon goes as head coach as he has had the same trajectory, both defence coaches in good systems.
Agreed. There’s an interesting study about football and NBA managers/coaches and trying to quantify at what point you should sack a coach and how long a “honey moon period” should be. I can’t remember the exact details but even if we give Kev the entire of last season as a honey moon period, we should know where he sits as a coach by the end of round 10.
 
Agreed. There’s an interesting study about football and NBA managers/coaches and trying to quantify at what point you should sack a coach and how long a “honey moon period” should be. I can’t remember the exact details but even if we give Kev the entire of last season as a honey moon period, we should know where he sits as a coach by the end of round 10.
yeah as long as our settled spine gets a decent crack we should see where he's at , but i still think he can be that figure head for us even if he isn't the coach to get us a premiership.
we just need to keep progressing on an upwards trajectory and not keep jumping ship and reinventing the plan.
 
Agreed. There’s an interesting study about football and NBA managers/coaches and trying to quantify at what point you should sack a coach and how long a “honey moon period” should be. I can’t remember the exact details but even if we give Kev the entire of last season as a honey moon period, we should know where he sits as a coach by the end of round 10.
I tend to agree 10 rounds is a good period to evaluate but what is a realistic pass mark in terms of win/loss?

Looking at our draw i would think we would need wins against Dogs x2, Cows, Warriors, 1 of Sharks/Eagles so 5:5 seems like a pass but would need 7+ wins to earn any sort of extension.
 
I tend to agree 10 rounds is a good period to evaluate but what is a realistic pass mark in terms of win/loss?

Looking at our draw i would think we would need wins against Dogs x2, Cows, Warriors, 1 of Sharks/Eagles so 5:5 seems like a pass but would need 7+ wins to earn any sort of extension.
Well to make the 8 you need to win roughly half your games so 5/10 would be a pass. That being said it’s more about how we win or lose to an extent. Though 10 bravely fought losses won’t cut it.
 
Well to make the 8 you need to be win roughly half your games so 5/10 would be a pass. That being said it’s more about how we win or lose to an extent. Thought 10 bravely fought losses won’t cut it.
Yeah, i'm not sure if we can coast on the competitive losses against the likes of Panthers, Sharks, Manly etc anymore. Need to start being judged on wins and ladder position.
 
I feel it is unreasonable at this point in time. Put simply, he needs to prove that his nrl coaching ability demands a better deal.

Clearly he has been put on an incentivised contract because there are some doubts he has that ability. I would think he would have to meet certain kpi,s that he agreed to at the time it was offered.

Gives me no confidence it appears he now wants to opt out before a ball is kicked in anger. 2022 is the last chance saloon for Kevin the way it stands unless he can extract another year.

I honestly hope he’s the coach for us - but sorry I have my doubts.

It's not unreasonable to request a contract extension for a single year in the final year of your contract (it's not like he is demanding a 5 year deal to be one of the highest paid coaches in the game).

of course that doesn't mean the club have to grant his request, they have plenty of option open to them, if they are unsure if Kevvie is an option past this season
 
No other club is threatening to sign Kev so it would be wise of DD & co to wait atleast a few rounds and see the improvements (if any) and make a call from there.
The issue is, I don’t see anyone who would do a significantly better job other then WB, Bellamy or Robinson - but as we all know, none of them are coming here.
Another change of coach would only cause more disruption to this player group imo. Someone like Haas has already been coached by three different head coaches (four if you want to include Peter Gentle) at the Broncos and he is still only 22.
 
Whether they stick with Kevvie or find a replacement, I trust that DD will get it right, he's got everything else right
 
I'm taking the same line I did when we had WB.

You NEVER sack a coach unless someone better is ready. Sacking WB was the worst thing this club has done in its history, and the cost has been enormous.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't rate Walters, he's no Seibold, I'd probably give him a 3/10 in the coaching ranks but any potential replacements are either a coin toss on whether they fail or succeed, or known rubbish coaches.

So why sack him? As long as the playing group like him, give him time, as long as he needs and hope for a turnaround.

Sacking him just because he's shit without someone better, is madness. I like @theshed 's idea of getting someone like Ciraldo on big bucks as an assistant potentially ready to step up if Walter's results don't improve.
 
So why sack him? As long as the playing group like him, give him time, as long as he needs and hope for a turnaround.
I have not followed the footy closely at all this off season but are we sure they like him?
 
I have not followed the footy closely at all this off season but are we sure they like him?
They seemed to be playing for him end of last year, we haven't heard any rumours about playing group being mad which are quick to surface.

I can't say for sure, but he also seems like a loveable sort of guy, can't see why they'd hate him.
 
They seemed to be playing for him end of last year, we haven't heard any rumours about playing group being mad which are quick to surface.

I can't say for sure, but he also seems like a loveable sort of guy, can't see why they'd hate him.
Yeah all I saw was them whining about the training but as I said haven't really been paying attention.
 
It's not unreasonable to request a contract extension for a single year in the final year of your contract (it's not like he is demanding a 5 year deal to be one of the highest paid coaches in the game).

of course that doesn't mean the club have to grant his request, they have plenty of option open to them, if they are unsure if Kevvie is an option past this season
Yeah not saying it’s unreasonable to seek a contract extension but unreasonable at this point in time.
Guess I'm being selfish - in that if I have to put up with yet another year of mediocre football this year - don't want to know I have to the year after.
 
Yeah not saying it’s unreasonable to seek a contract extension but unreasonable at this point in time.
Guess I'm being selfish - in that if I have to put up with yet another year of mediocre football this year - don't want to know I have to the year after.
how do you know this when we haven't even started the season ?
 
how do you know this when we haven't even started the season ?
Of course I don’t know - why I said ‘if’. However as smarter people than me have said ‘Trials are as much about the coach as the players’
Both our trials were below standard compared to our opposition. As such our coach feels he needs an extension before the season starts.
Are you confident enough in Kevins ability, at this point in time, to want him to coach on in 2023?
 
Of course I don’t know - why I said ‘if’. However as smarter people than me have said ‘Trials are as much about the coach as the players’
Both our trials were below standard compared to our opposition. As such our coach feels he needs an extension before the season starts.
Are you confident enough in Kevins ability, at this point in time, to want him to coach on in 2023?
certain abilities yes , but as I've said it's pointless punting him unless you have a Bellamy or robbo to come in.
stability is what we need atm not another change of direction, so my first step if we fail is the assistants. the hierarchy has mentioned about putting the right people around Kevvie so that's what we should do.
 

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