Kevin Walters: Who is the man behind the Broncos?
From playing to coaching, Kevin Walters has become Mr Brisbane Broncos. This is his journey of heartache and heroics. SPECIAL REPORT
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Kevin Walters, at least in the eyes of the public, is a man of great contrast.
Undisputed Broncos great … yet one who has had his coaching credentials questioned.
Larrikin off the field … but a man who retains a hard-nosed approach to footy that has left some uneasy.
The Brisbane Broncos coach’s life has been entwined with the club since the 1980s, a cocktail of celebration, tragedy and triumph.
This is the story of the rise, fall and rise again of Walters, the man who in February 2023 clinched a $1 million a season, two-year contract extension until the end of 2025.
Read about his life, heartache and Bronco brilliance below >>>
EARLY LIFE
Kevin Walters Senior, a fun-loving builder-carpenter, and Sandra Walters, a nurse, met at a dance in 1961 and welcomed sons Andrew, Brett and Steve in the mid 1960s.
Kevin and twin brother Kerrod were born in Rockhampton on October 20, 1967.
The family ultimately moved to Ipswich in 1969, falling in love with camping trips to
Burrum Heads and Tallebudgera in between endless football matches at the family home on Merton St.
“We claim our mum invented the sin bin,” Kevin said in 2016.
“If we started fighting she’d get the hose out to cool us down or grab us and say ‘OK, you’re out – come and stand over here for 10 minutes’.”
The five brothers would line up for Booval Swifts in local league competitions, soon announcing themselves in their own ways.
Oldest brother Brett was a winger who played for Queensland’s underage teams and was at one time in the sights of the Broncos as well as NRL rivals.
Steve would famously go on to become one of rugby league’s greatest hookers with Canberra, Queensland and Australia.
Andrew was a hooker before a neck injury forced him to switch to backrow, a move that would earn him praise from Wally Lewis in 1987 amid speculation he was in the sights of the Raiders.
Kerrod, too, was a hooker who would become a fixture of Broncos teams for a decade, as well as making sporadic state and national appearances.
“A lot of it comes from my family and growing up in Ipswich,” Kevin said in 2017 of his approach to footy.
“That has always been my theory as well, taught to me by my father, to work really hard at whatever you are doing and to remember that things aren’t always going to be easy.”
Famously those early footy forays at Ipswich would also introduce the Walters clan to long-time teammate Allan Langer.
MAKING THE BIG TIME
The move was inevitable. The club, though, was somewhat surprising.
While Steve had already made the switch to Canberra, along with a string of Queensland players, Kevin’s move in 1987 was more complex.
It had appeared the Broncos’ 1988 entry would go hand-in-hand with Walters’ exit from Brisbane footy with Norths and entry into the NSWRL competition.
However Wayne Bennett’s co-coach deal with the Raiders in 1987 muddied the waters.
So too did Wally Lewis’ giant presence in the No.6 jumper, leaving Walters to decide if he was happy to bide his time as an understudy in Brisbane.
The Bennett factor would win, with Walters following his close mentor south in 1987.
Despite the initial reserve grade appearances, the praise for Walters was almost immediate.
“I don’t go overboard for many footballers, but Kevin is exceptional. I’ve no doubt he would handle Origin football,’’ Test boss and Raiders co-coach Don Furner said in 1987.
Bennett’s return to Brisbane in 1988 fuelled talk Walters would also promptly head back, though it wasn’t until 1990 – a year after the playmaker’s Origin debut – that the reunion came.
CARVING A BRONCOS LEGACY
The “Ipswich Connection” was back.
After two seasons of false dawns and rollercoaster performances, the Broncos were considered bona fide premiership hopes now Langer and the Walters twins were reunited.
So successful was Walters’ return that he would go on to claim the club’s player of the year award, in part after unseating Lewis – shifted to lock – in the five-eighth jumper.
Brisbane would finish second on the ladder and go within one match of the grand final.
The following season Walters earned his first Test cap against Papua New Guinea.
However it was 1992 that became the Broncos’ defining campaign.
A first premiership led to World Cup selection for Walters, who would ultimately throw the final pass to Steve Renouf to score the winning try in a 10-6 final victory over Great Britain.
Bennett hailed the Ipswich trio throughout the 1992 season.
“I’ve been reasonably happy with the way the three of them have worked in attack since late last season,” he said.
“You can’t coach what the three of them can do together.”
That season Kevin also touched on the friendly rivalry that came with playing against brother Steve, a friendly rivalry that almost boiled over during a clash in April.
“I was just about to run in and act as referee, as I always used to,’’ he joked after a tangle between Steve and Kerrod.
“I think Stephen was put off his game. He usually loves to rev up against us.’’
BECOMING A SENIOR BRONCO
By the mid 1990s Walters was an Origin and Test star and dual premiership winner.
He was a fixture of a star-studded Broncos side that would be regular finals fancies.
However stormy waters approached.
The Super League war in 1995 led to Broncos players at one point being booed by their own supporters, a gesture that sparked Walters into action.
“The players spoke about going around and applauding the fans during the week,” he said after a match in July.
“We wanted to be sure they knew we appreciated how loyal so many of them have been.”
The saga would eventually force Broncos players to be overlooked for the 1995 Origin series, as well as briefly consider boycotting the opening rounds of the 1996 season.
In March 1996, with the war still rumbling, Walters revealed a switch to Europe remained an option.
“England is an option for me if I can’t play for Super League; it is my best option rather than the ARL at this point in time,’’ Walters said.
“I have confidence in Super League pulling something out for us if things don’t go our way in court. Super League has lived up to their word to the players so far.”
Walters would go on to help the Broncos claim the 1997 Super League title, 1998 NRL crown and, in what was due to be his swan song season as skipper, the 2000 grand final.
After a stint with Warrington in 2001, he returned to make five more appearances for the Broncos that year before retiring for good. He finished with 292 NRL matches, 20 Origins and 11 Tests.
COACHING CAREER
It appeared the perfect fit.
Newly retired Kevin Walters, back at the Broncos in 2002 as the backs coach.
Joining Glenn Lazarus (forwards coach) and Gary Belcher (assistant), Walters made his first steps towards a career with the clipboard.
Walters had already taken the reign as coach of feeder team Toowoomba.
However, after modest club returns in the coming seasons, amid speculation Wayne Bennett would step down, Walters revealed he’d be happy to leave if it meant greener pastures.
“I would leave if I had to,” Walters said in September 2005.
“I would assume he’s (Bennett) in that seat for a long time to come.
“I want to coach at an NRL level, and hopefully at the Broncos one day.
“But if it doesn’t work out here, I would consider going elsewhere.”
Within a month the call was made for him as Bennett famously chopped Belcher, Lazarus and Walters following another finals flop.
In 2014 Walters re-evaluated his dismissal.
“I could not see what Wayne was getting at, but I can now,’’ Walters said.
“The experience I have gained has been invaluable for my coaching but at the time I just not could see that positive when it happened.”
Walters would link with QCup club Ipswich for 2006, impressing enough over the coming seasons to land a role with Super League club Catalans for 2009.
By the end of 2010, with an enhanced reputation, Walters returned as Craig Bellamy’s assistant at the Melbourne Storm.
Walters would go on to reunite with Bennett as backs coach of the Knights in 2014, then as assistant at the Broncos in 2015.
That same season he was named Queensland’s Origin coach, leading the state to two series wins from four attempts between 2016 and 2019.
“I think that is one of the things I have learned over a number of years, is that you need to back yourself and your judgment and I would be doing myself and the team a disservice if I tried to come in there and be Mal (Meninga, outgoing Maroons coach) or be Wayne and not be myself,” Walters said before his appointment in 2015.
LANDING THE DREAM JOB
The endorsements as head coach in Brisbane came from league royalty including Johnathan Thurston and Darren Lockyer.
Yet Walters’ completion of a 30-year circle at the Broncos was not without drama, with reports club old boys were gagged from backing him too much amid fears of an “easy option” backlash.
However the appointment was widely praised by supporters when it was rubber-stamped on September 30, 2020.
“I am so thrilled,” Walters said.
“This is something I have been working towards for 20 years, since I finished playing in 2001. I wanted to one day be the head coach of the Broncos and now I’ve got it, it’s in front of me.
“I always chased the dream and now the dream is here, I have to make it a reality.”
The challenge, of course, was rebuilding a Broncos legacy that had been more dark comedy than inspiring tale in recent seasons under Anthony Seibold.
Under Walters the club would show glimpses of a rebirth, steadily climbing to 14th in 2021.
“I have to perform,” an honest Walters said in October 2021.
“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.”
The results did come in 2022 … for a while at least.
The almost unbelievable late-season fade out led to the Broncos missing the top eight that seemed a formality with a month to go in the campaign.
In September 2022 Broncos great Gorden Tallis, a close friend of Walters, warned against sacking the coach.
“If they move Kevvie on, the club will turn into the Wests Tigers. It’s as simple as that,” Tallis told Triple M.
Despite claims of a rift between the coach and football operations chief Ben Ikin, in January 2023 the Broncos opened contract negotiations with Walters in a bid to secure his future.
Somewhat controversially, the Broncos secured Walters on a two-year extension in February 2023.
However the move was justified when he led the club to that season’s grand final, although they ultimately fell to a thrilling 26-24 defeat.
FAMILY HEARTACHE
It was the crippling news that privately buckled the rough and tough footballer.
Wife Kim, the daughter of prominent Toowoomba boxing identity “Buddy”, passed away in February 1998 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
The high school sweethearts had celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary the previous month, and had three sons – Jack, 6, Billy, 3, and Jett, 16 months – together.
After visiting his wife’s family in Toowoomba the day after the news broke, Walters trained with the Broncos at Kelvin Grove, his sons Jack and Billy playing on the sidelines.
“I had to take my mind off things for a while,” he said.
“Kim was a brave woman, a wonderful wife and mother.”
Kim, 29, loved rugby league and despite her illness went to the football to see Kevin ply his trade.
“I enjoy the lifestyle of football. I don’t know any other life,” she said in an interview in her second year of marriage.
At the time of Kim’s death Walters’ teammates marvelled at the way he was able to put on such a brave face.
One of his closest friends, Glenn Lazarus, admitted he did not believe anyone could understand what Walters had been through.
Out of the tragedy came a ray of hope, with Wesley Hospital ultimately launching the Kim Walters Choices Program in a bid to raise funds for breast cancer research and support.
A MODERN FAMILY
Thirteen years after meeting, Walters would marry Narelle Bristow in the Whitsundays 2012 in a union that gave the league star a second chance at family bliss.
In 2005, the family opened up about how they got back on their feet when Bristow came into their life.
“I definitely think she has been wonderful for us and especially with the boys initially,” Walters said of Bristow.
“She has worked very hard, does all the stuff a mother needs to do. It must be very hard juggling everything, but she manages to do it, I couldn’t hope to be as organised as she is.”
After son Harry was born in 2003, Ava arrived in July 2005.
“Billy had previously said he was hoping for a family of all boys,” Narelle joked.
“I think he just liked the idea of a family of five boys like his dad, carrying on the Walters tradition of male dominated families. But he has actually been the softest and most maternal out of all of them with Ava.”
Billy Walters would go on to forge his own NRL journey, starting with the Storm and Wests Tigers before linking with his dad at the Broncos in 2022.
In February 2020 Kevin joked he switched allegences to the Tigers to support his son.
“Yes, I will be cheering for the Tigers,” Walters said.
“I think they can go all the way.”
LIFE OF THE PARTY
Much like partner-in-crime Allan Langer, Walters has long fostered the reputation as a larrikin in league.
From gags as a regular on The Footy Show and Fox League to one-line quips at training, Walters is known as a man who loves a laugh.
In 2015 he admitted that reputation potentially cost him coaching jobs.
“Possibly. I always see the positive in anything and that can be (misinterpreted as) a bit of a prankster. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.
“I like to have fun and there are times for that. I feel I’m a good judge of who and can’t play, who is a dickhead, who doesn’t want to be part of something really special.
“I wouldn’t have been to France … if I wasn’t passionate about my coaching or serious about it.”
In 2000, in the wake of Queensland’s infamous 56-16 Origin loss to NSW, the rep-retired Walters joked he’d be unsympathetic to the returning Broncos.
“Even if our blokes forget about that Origin touch-up by the Blues I’ll make sure I keep reminding them,” he said.
In 1992 Walters cheekily made a name for himself as a singer when he teamed with Kerrod and Langer to release Hey, Hey We’re The Broncos.
The single, based roughly on the famous track Hey Hey We’re The Monkees, raced to No.1 in Queensland on both the B105 and Australian Record Industry Association charts.
The trio would later confess they had little musical ability.
“We only did it as a gimmick,’’ Kevin said.
OFF-FIELD INCIDENTS
‘WE’RE STILL GOOD MATES’
In August 1995 police were called to a Brisbane hotel to break up a fight between Broncos players Walters, Peter Ryan and Chris Johns.
One car attended the scene of the disturbance, at the Paddington Tavern, but the players had left by the time police arrived.
Walters, who the following night appeared on television news bulletins with marks above and below his right eye, confirmed he had been involved in an altercation with Johns and Ryan.
“What happened was Johnsy and I had been geeing Rhino up like we often do,’’ Walters said. “We overstepped the mark a bit this time and a few punches were thrown. Some punches did connect, but nobody was knocked to the ground. I got my black eye from the game. It wasn’t from the fight.’’
“There is no problem between the three of us. We are still good mates.’’
‘NOT A GOOD COACH’
Once was bad enough but the doubling down by Broncos players on Walters’ coaching ability crippled his credibility.
First, playmaker Tyson Gamble – who has since switch to Newcastle – in September 2022 served a backhander to his mentor by declaring halfback Adam Reynolds was the “mastermind” and the “go-to man for everybody”.
“Kev’s the coach but Reyno is the go-to man for everybody. If you’ve got a question about the team or footy, you go to him,” Gamble said on the Marshie’s Corner podcast.
“It’s not a knock on Kev but ‘Reyno’ has been around for so long.
“Kevvie really understands footy and he’s a good bloke in getting the team up and about but the modern day is so different to the way Kevvie played footy.”
Selwyn Cobbo, the raw talent who rose from unknown winger to Origin player in 2022, delivered the more damaging blow.
“I reckon he’s a good person,” Cobbo said on the Back of the 135 podcast in October.
“He’s a good person, like a good bloke but I don’t think he’s a good coach. He’s not the best coach but he’s all right.
“I feel like he’s just a good person but I don’t reckon he’s a coach. Even though he experienced footy, been through all the grand finals and all that, but I feel like he’s not a coach.”
Cobbo later released a statement via the Broncos’ website to defend Walters and claim his comments had been “taken out of context”.
‘MORE LIKE A PACK OF C**TS’
Tensions between Walters and Brisbane exploded in 2019 after the Broncos were sensationally accused of stealing a key slogan to promote their new season.
Walters’ wife Narelle labelled the club a “pack of c**ts” after discovering one of Brisbane’s new marketing slogans – Better Never Stops – was identical to the title of her husband’s formal proposal to coach the Broncos.
Despite missing out on the top role at the time, the Walters clan were left gobsmacked after seeing buses and banners across Brisbane promoting the Broncos’ 2019 season using the same three words from his formal job interview.
“Driving around the city today, I noticed the broncos (sic) have launched their 2019 marketing campaign. The exact theme Kevin presented in his ‘interview’,” Narella wrote on a private social media account.
“What’s the collective term for a group of horses/broncos? A team?
“More like a pack of c**ts.”
A Broncos spokesman scoffed at the claims they plagiarised Walters’ proposal, saying the phrase was one of a number of quotes that came out of an internal club survey.
The Broncos provided a copy of documents from June 2018 showing staff quotes, including “Better Never Stops”.
Narelle would later post again: “I was simply expressing my frustration at the coincidental timing.”
DRESSING ROOM SPRAY
In September 2022 talk of a dressing room revolt emerged amid complaints Walters delivered a heavy-handed dressing down of his players.
Players Kotoni Staggs and Kurt Capewell defended Walters despite claims the coach was too harsh on his troops after a 53-6 loss to the Eels a month prior.
“There were no complaints,” Staggs said of the dressing room blast.
“I don’t know where you media boys got that from, but there was no-one here complaining.
“We were all there listening, we took it (Walters’ emotional address) on board.
“That’s what you want from a coach, to point out the things the guys have done wrong.
“We’ll back Kevvie giving us a spray. You can’t always let things slide, you need to hear from the coach when he speaks and a lot of people listened.”
EMERGING ORIGIN BANS
Senior Queensland stars, including Sam Thaiday, jumped to the defence of Walters after he dished out bans to eight Emerging Origin players in 2016.
Walters ruled out selecting Valentine Holmes, Cameron Munster, Ben Hunt, Anthony Milford, Dylan Napa, Jarrod Wallace, Edrick Lee and Chris Grevsmuhl for Queensland after they broke curfew during camp.
“Being a new coach you have to stamp your authority and that’s what he (Walters) has done here,” Thaiday said.
“Those guys have learned a hard lesson and they will have to work their butts off to make sure they impress and put their hand up to get picked (for Queensland next year).
“We are only getting older in the Origin team and we are going to need some of these younger guys to fill a void at some point.”
Walters said he was extremely disappointed with how the young players had behaved.
“It was explained to them in the environment they live in now, they need to make smart choices and unfortunately for them they didn’t and we’ve acted accordingly,” he said.
In 2017 Walters summed up his approach to life.
“I try to treat people the way I would like to be treated,” he said.
“I think I am a fair person in the way I treat people through life. Everyone in life gets hit for a six now and then and it is the way you handle it and the way you treat people around you when that is happening that’s the key.”
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