NRL 2022: Broncos blow finals chance after loss to Dragons, Kevin Walters fighting for his job
The heat is on coach Kevin Walters in the wake of the Broncos’ disastrous end to the season, which fizzled out after a disappointing loss to the Dragons, ending their slim finals hopes.
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Besieged Brisbane coach Kevin Walters is fighting for his job in the wake of the Broncos’ dismal top-eight capitulation.
Walters was left to digest the pain of missing the finals in back-to-back campaigns after Brisbane’s slim playoffs hopes came crashing down with a disappointing 22-12 final-round loss to the Dragons at Kogarah.
For the first time in Brisbane’s decorated 34-year history, the Broncos have missed the finals in three successive seasons, with Walters having presided over finishes of 14th and ninth since succeeding wooden-spoon failure Anthony Seibold.
Now the heat is firmly on Walters. The club legend is off-contract at the end of next season and Broncos bosses will spend the coming days and weeks deciding whether Walters is the right coach to get the glamour club back into finals contention.
To compound his misery, Walters has missed out on a $50,000 performance bonus he stood to pocket if Brisbane made the finals.
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“It’s been the story of our past few weeks, we couldn’t get off the canvas,” Walters said after the Dragons defeat, which represented Brisbane’s fifth loss from their past six games.
“I am disappointed for the players and our fans and sponsors that we couldn’t take the next step and play finals.
“I’m hurting like the rest of us. We tried our best and we have to get back into it next year.”
Despite the late-season fadeout, the Broncos finished the season with a respectable 13 wins — almost double the seven victories they posted in Walters’ rookie campaign last year.
But Brisbane’s 13-11 win-loss record was little solace for Walters, who vowed to put the entire club under the microscope in a bid to break the Broncos’ 16-year premiership drought.
“I’m taking 13 wins as an improvement,” he said.
“I thought we could have made the eight this year, but when I look at it in a few days, 13 wins is a lot more than we had last year and we brought some good players through.
“I was animated after the game because I’m passionate and I want to drive these guys to be better. The season is over. Words don’t mean much now, but we have to look at ourselves, the staff and players, and turn it around.
“We just couldn’t finish the season off the way we wanted to.
“We lacked effort and discipline over the past six weeks. We had that discipline for the first 20 weeks and we just let it go.”
The Broncos looked certainties to play finals this season when they surged to fourth after 19 rounds, but their woeful late-season collapse has left shattered Brisbane players, including skipper Adam Reynolds, lost for answers.
“It’s a tough one to figure out,” Reynolds said.
“I don’t know what to put it down to, we have to look at things in the off-season.
“As a club we are very disappointed.
“There were patches this season where we were good, but the last month has been so disappointing.
“We put ourselves in a position to do something in the finals, but the last month we’ve lost our way and we have to use this hurt and hunger going forward for next year.
“We started off the year really well, but it was a waste in the end there.”
BRONCOS’ SEASON ENDS IN DISASTER
It’s official. The Broncos are gone.
Brisbane’s shocking late-season collapse is complete with the Dragons delivering a heartbreaking bullet to the Broncos’ season with a gutsy 22-12 victory at Sydney’s Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
The struggling Broncos went into the final-round clash needing victory over the Red V — and then praying for a Wests Tigers upset against Canberra on Sunday to conjure a miracle and play finals football.
But the miracle is now a mirage, with a Ben Hunt-inspired Dragons side playing with more hunger, grit and fire to send the shattered Broncos crashing out of the finals race.
It is the first time in Brisbane’s 34-year history they have missed the finals in three consecutive seasons.
Trailing 16-12 with five minutes to play, Brisbane dared to dream, but Dragons centre Mat Feagai produced one of the greatest tries of the modern era, beating eight defenders in an epic 50-metre charge to bury the Broncos.
When centre Kotoni Staggs was sin-binned three minutes from time, the Broncos received their last rites for 2022.
FINALS FADEOUT
Brisbane’s freefall is one of the most dramatic in recent memory.
Kevin Walters’ troops were flying in fourth after 19 rounds, but five losses in the past six weeks sent the Broncos into a tailspin and they will rue their ninth-placed finish.
This Dragons display was another kick in the guts. The Broncos had everything to play for, but they were sloppy from the outset against a Dragons side that led from start to finish as Dally M Medal contender Hunt put the boot into his former club.
CAPEWELL’S CONCERN
The Broncos bought Kurt Capewell from Penrith to impart premiership-winning habits on Brisbane players.
In the past five weeks, Capewell’s form has gone south, blighted by 27 missed tackles, and his woeful performance against the Dragons crystallised the lack of energy and intensity in Brisbane’s forward pack at the business end of the season.
Capewell dropped the ball three times — twice in the opening 16 minutes — and he came up with a shocking 52nd-minute miss on Tyrell Sloan that almost led to a Dragons try.
If the Queensland Origin back-rower is the heartbeat of Brisbane’s defence, it explains why the Broncos have barely had a pulse without the ball during their late-season slide.
The Broncos need more leadership and consistency from Capewell if they want to be a bona fide finals force next season.
TROUBLESOME TOM
The Broncos must spend the pre-season finetuning Tom Flegler, who is one of the most ill-disciplined players in the NRL.
The contest was just nine minutes old when Flegler was sin-binned and placed on report — yet again — for a possible shoulder charge on Feagai which, ironically, left the Broncos prop dazed as well.
The Queensland Origin prop can’t keep falling foul of match officials with moments of reckless intent.
RED HILL REJECTS
The Dragons had no less than six ex-Broncos in their side and Jack Bird, Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough, Ben Hunt, Tautau Moga and Jaydn Su’A relished nailing the coffin shut on Brisbane’s season.
Bird summed up the passion of the Red Hill Rejects, showing great desperation to outmuscle Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan for the opening try of the match in the sixth minute.
McGuire had a running battle with Adam Reynolds and there was no more dangerous former Bronco than Hunt, who underlined his class with the booming 40-20 kick that led to Feagai’s 36th-minute try for a crucial 10-6 half-time lead.
When Hunt darted wide to put Cody Ramsey over five minutes after the break, it would prove a deadly bullet to Brisbane’s season.
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