Broncos 2022: Two reasons Broncos should give Kevin Walters every chance
There will be dozens of questions asked in the Broncos’ internal review following their dreadful end to the season, but two factors are in Kevin Walters favour.
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Sometimes it takes more courage to hold your nerve than it does to give in to calls for change.
Coach Kevin Walters has some hard questions to answer after his side’s epic fade out but it will be a surprise if his tenure at the Broncos does not last until the end of Adam Reynolds’ contract in 2024.
There will be dozens of questions asked about everything from fitness to focus in the Broncos’ internal review following their dreadful end to the season, but one simple query matters above all else.
Do the coach and the captain still have each other’s backs?
If, as we sense, the answer is yes, then Walters should be allowed to proceed with Adam Reynolds at his shoulder next season, when Reece Walsh and a fit Herbie Farnworth should give the Broncos the starch they were lacking in the last month of the season.
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If the Broncos make the finals next season, it would make sense for Walters to stay on for the final year of Reynolds’ contract. Walters currently has no deal for 2024.
Of course, if the club has a shocker next season, it’s a totally different discussion.
The Broncos should know early next season whether their horrendous fade-out this season was a blip or a pattern.
The challenge for the Broncos is not to sack Walters, but squeeze the best out of him after a strange season which finished in heartache, but still only two wins behind decorated coaches Trent Robinson and Craig Bellamy.
If Walters lacks a strong voice in his assistant coaches then the club should hire one.
But there are two reasons why he should be given every chance and neither has anything to do with his prowess as a coach.
The first because is there is no suitable option to replace him. The coaching talent pool is a shallow as a baby’s bath pool.
The options among recycled coaches have no appeal. The experienced coaches have too many scars and the emerging ones don’t have enough scar tissue for a job of such magnitude. The job is too big for a rookie and the best one (Cameron Ciraldo) is gone.
The Broncos have been in existence for 34 years and only one man – Wayne Bennett – has truly been at peace with the pressures of coaching them.
Bennett coped with the pressure because he almost seemed to feed off it.
Walters, while emotional and at times lacking deep self-belief, seems to handle it reasonably well. But the Broncos’ recent form slump is the first time he has really been put under media pressure which will now ride with the club during the off-season.
The other concern about axing Walters prematurely is it will stir up the old boys network who were so angry and vocal when Anthony Seibold got the job ahead of Walters four years ago.
People can say the outside noise doesn’t matter, but at the Broncos it just does.
The last thing the club needs is that sort of circus again. It would make life unbearable for the new man.
Much has been said about Tyson Gamble saying Reynolds, not Walters, is the man to talk to about match plans.
That may not be a flattering appraisal of the coach, but it’s not totally damning either. Australian coach Mal Meninga and Storm coach Craig Bellamy used to let the likes of Cameron Smith and Billy Slater have a huge say in team plans, and would say, “If you’ve got great minds, why not use them?’’
Review to decide Walters’ future after ‘worst ever’ collapse
The Broncos have ordered a full-scale review into the team’s stunning disappearing act this season.
Kevin Walters’ coaching regime will be put under the microscope as the club probes the collapse which saw it slide from a top four perch just five weeks ago to miss the finals after five losses in six weeks.
No team in NRL history has been in the top four as late in the season and missed the finals.
Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy said while the club has improved significantly on last season’s effort the late season fade-out had left the club short of where they wanted to be.
“Everyone at the Broncos is disappointed with how the last couple of weeks have played out, especially at home,’’ Donaghy said.
“We will have a cold hard look at the good, bad and the ugly from the season as a collective and work through the best ways to ensure the program keeps growing.
“We aren’t going to shy away from the disappointment we have felt the last few weeks. We have some well credentialled, highly capable leaders in the program and we’d like to see them take the program to the next level.
“We’ve been happy with the club’s progress over the past 18 months, but we’re not where we want to be consistently just yet. We will identify areas to improve and the steps we have to take to do so.
“We will undertake the same review process we did last year. When you look back on it, we had seven wins last year and undertook a process which was internal to find areas we wanted to improve and focus on.
“I feel like largely we have made improvements and we will look into things and implement a program for the pre-season and into next season.
“It’s never one thing, there’s always a number of factors. But it’s important to have cool heads and make sure you are documenting everything to ensure you are learning from it.
Broncos lock Pat Carrigan, who returned from a four-match suspension against the Dragons, lamented Brisbane’s poor defence over the final six weeks.
“We tried to take easy options,” he said.
“At this time of year the teams that are going well are tightening the screws and making it a grind and we didn’t do that.
“We had our fate in our own hands and let it slip.
“The review will start over the next few days, but this is a tough one to accept at the moment.”
While they faded badly at the end the Broncos did however manage 13 wins compared to just seven last season and it is the first time since Canberra in 1999 that a club has failed to make the finals after having more wins that losses (apart from points deductions).
Walters was being touted as a coach of the year contender a month ago but the Broncos collapse has left a cloud over his long term future.
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