NRL 2022: Payne Haas slammed over contract stand-off as fresh talks loom
As Brisbane bosses prepare to meet with the management of Payne Haas and try to resolve his future, a Broncos great has weighed in.
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Brisbane legend Corey Parker has launched a stinging attack on Payne Haas, calling for the Broncos to axe the superstar prop over his $3 million contract stand-off with the club.
Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy will meet with Haas’ management as early as next week in a bid to strike a resolution to a messy contract matter that has raged at Red Hill for the past four months.
Haas dropped a bombshell on the Broncos in May by asking for an immediate release, a request that was rejected by Brisbane hierarchy.
The NSW Origin enforcer is contracted to Brisbane until the end of 2024 and the Broncos hope fresh talks in the coming weeks will convince Haas to commit to the club for the long haul.
The alternative option is that Haas’ management asks for permission to explore the open market, a scenario that would leave Brisbane resigned to losing the three-time Paul Morgan Medallist to an NRL rival next season.
The Broncos remain confident Haas will stay loyal to the club, but Parker is adamant Brisbane should cut ties with the 22-year-old, accusing him of selfish behaviour that has disenfranchised the dressing room.
“I copped criticism for saying so at the time, but I stand by it: I would have gotten rid of him,” Parker wrote in his Code Sports column.
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“Payne Haas’ transfer demand, both at the time and in hindsight, was an enormous factor in Brisbane’s season.
“It was the first major drama, coming after just 11 rounds. The Broncos were placed fifth, amid a seven-game winning streak.
“It reflected poorly on Payne, whether it was directly his doing or not.
“He’s on $800,000 per season yet claiming he wants to leave the club to get $1 million … what does that say to your teammates?
“That’s the first thing he should have thought of, yet clearly it was far from his main concern.
“If you’re a Kobe Hetherington, Zac Hosking, Jordan Riki or Keenan Palasia, a fellow forward busting your arse on far less money … how are you meant to feel when a guy earning $800,000 says it’s not enough and he wants to leave the club?
“Me personally? I’d have been thinking, ‘Stuff you’.
“It would never be said publicly but that feeling would have filtered through much of the club.”
In the wake of Haas’ request, the Broncos won just six of 13 games, bombing out of finals contention as they plummeted from fourth to ninth.
Ironically, Brisbane’s dismal late-season fadeout could play into their hands at the negotiating table.
Haas battled two shoulder injuries through the State of Origin period and his form dipped so sharply at the back end of the season many NRL rivals would now baulk at the notion of paying him $1 million a season.
Parker has no doubt the Haas affair destabilised the Broncos just enough to miss the playoffs by one win.
“An incident like that doesn’t directly affect performances, necessarily,” Parker told News Corp in his Code Sports column.
“But all of a sudden, when the team is struggling and Payne isn’t at his best, what are those other players thinking? ‘Still want to leave the club for $1 million?’
“It does have a negative impact.
“That bombshell hit before Origin, then resurfaced again after, and we all saw how the back half of the season panned out.
“The Broncos missed the finals, making the latest drop in history from the top four to outside the eight. Payne claimed that he wanted to go to a club where he could play finals footy. What does it all mean now?
“Players and clubs can’t always get it right, but that whole episode was just poor from Payne. Never in the 34-year history of the Broncos have I seen an individual player get booed by the fans.
“It was pretty clear what they thought.”
Broncos prepare for D-Day talks with Haas
Brisbane football boss Ben Ikin has rubbished suggestions the Payne Haas contract wrangle has fractured the club as the Broncos prepare for D-Day discussions with the superstar prop.
Broncos powerbrokers will meet with Haas and his new management in the coming weeks to seek a resolution and finally close the door on one of the most explosive episodes of Brisbane’s turbulent campaign.
Haas dropped a bombshell on Brisbane in May when he sought an immediate release from his $3 million deal, which expires at the end of 2024 – a request that was flatly rejected by Broncos bosses.
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When the Haas saga exploded, the Broncos were fourth approaching the mid-point of the season.
They sensationally crashed out of finals contention, finishing ninth after winning just six of 13 games since Haas advised Broncos management he wanted out.
The three-time Paul Morgan Medallist agreed to delay contract talks until the end of the season to avoid destabilising Brisbane’s season.
Now, with Brisbane out of the finals race, the Haas affair is a matter of urgency for the Broncos, who must sort out the prop’s immediate future before the club launches its 2023 pre-season in November.
Ikin said Broncos officialdom are ready to meet with the Haas camp, with the head of football hopeful Brisbane’s No.1 prop will not officially quit the club.
“We will sit down with Payne and his management to discuss his situation,” Ikin said.
“We value Payne highly at this club and we see him as an important part of our push for better things in the future.”
Significantly for Haas, he will become Brisbane’s highest-paid player from November 1, with his contract salary to rise from $748,000 to $848,000 next season.
That will see the 22-year-old usurp skipper Adam Reynolds as the club’s financial top dog, and make Haas the highest-paid forward in Brisbane’s 34-year history.
Brisbane’s disastrous late-season implosion could have a silver lining for the club.
Haas’ form went south in the back half of the season and, equally, his value will have plummeted in the eyes of NRL rivals, some of whom were prepared to pay $1 million for the Test prop earlier in the year.
There is a view Haas’ shock release request was the powderkeg moment that blew up Brisbane’s season, but Ikin insists it did not anger Broncos players.
“The Payne Haas issue I have found fascinating,” he said.
“The commentary from the outside is how does a player like Payne ask for a release and then turn up to training the next day and look his teammates in the eye and expect to remain engaged and connected?
“The players don’t care. Seriously, they do not care.
“I ended up having a chat with Payne once I became less emotional and more objective about it and the truth is Payne Haas asked for a release. He was entitled to do that. He is within his rights to do that.
“But the thing he did straight after that is when that request was rejected, he immediately reaffirmed his commitment to giving his best for the club.”
BRUTAL BRONCOS GRILLING TO DECIDE WALTERS’ FATE
Brisbane football boss Ben Ikin says Kevin Walters must answer “tough questions” about the club’s horror late-season slide as part of a full-scale review that will determine if he coaches the Broncos next season.
News Corp can reveal Brisbane hierarchy commenced the club’s end-of-season review on Tuesday with Broncos players summoned to Red Hill for a series of one-on-one interviews with chief executive Dave Donaghy.
Walters will be quizzed by Brisbane officialdom in the coming days as the Broncos ask the coach to explain how his side went from fourth to ninth in a disastrous six-week stretch that derailed their finals charge.
The Broncos have a ruthless history of sacking coaches, with Ivan Henjak (2010), Anthony Griffin (2013) and Anthony Seibold (2020) all given the bullet after missing the finals just once.
Off-contract at the end of next year, Walters has missed the finals in consecutive seasons and is under mounting pressure to reignite the Broncos after the longest playoffs absence in the club’s 34-year history.
Speaking for the first time about Brisbane’s top-eight implosion, Ikin says the Broncos must be mindful of sacking another coach, believing Walters is capable of edging the club closer to their first title since 2006.
Asked if Walters is the coach to lead the club forward, Ikin said: “Yes I do.
“With Kevvie, the only thing I can judge is did he win more games this year than last year and the answer is yes.
“For Kev, even though he takes the brunt of it (criticism of Brisbane’s failure to make the finals) publicly and I get that, he also signed up for that.
“If you didn’t know before Anthony Seibold what happens to you if you don’t win in Brisbane, well we all knew after that - and Kevvie is at that point now.
“But the journey we go on over this next week is not to just sit Kevin Walters down and say you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that, how are you going to get better.
“Each department, led by our CEO, will undergo a forensic review about how they performed, how they can get better and the coach’s part in that is how he will lead that.
“I’m not going to guarantee anyone their position for any length of time, it’s up to the individual to argue their case and that’s what the review process is about.
“We’re asking tough questions to get a sense of whether or not anybody in any of the key positions has the right answers to move the football program forward again.”
Walters finished with a winning 13-11 season this year. His 13 victories represented an 85 per cent improvement on the seven matches Brisbane won in his first season in charge at Red Hill in 2021.
Ikin said Brisbane’s review is not a witch-hunt designed to bring down Walters, but rather explore ways to beef-up the Broncos’ football program to make the club a bona fide title contender.
The Broncos football boss confirmed the player performance reviews.
“We have this silver-bullet theory in rugby league that if you kill the coach and you get a new one, it (a club’s problems) will all solve itself,” he said.
“Football programs win premierships. We want to build a world-class footy program that contends every year. The Storm and the Roosters have shown us that you can do it.
“Today (Tuesday) was player reviews and the department reviews are at the end of the week.
“The players came in and went down the Green Mile to Kevvie’s office where it starts and they bounced along from office to office where they go from the head coach to the head of performance to the assistant coaches (to discuss their performance).
“There will be questions about things that happened this year in our football program for multiple people that need answering, so that others can understand what took place.
“If you can argue your case, and demonstrate that you have learnt from your successes and failures this year and have a plan about advancing the program, then you keep your job.
“We got closer to a premiership this year. We didn’t finish where we wanted to finish, but we got closer to a premiership and the responsibility for everybody in this off-season is to build a plan to get closer once again.
“We have to keep closing the gap until we get ourselves into contender status and once you start contending, like the Storm and Roosters, there is no reason why it should ever stop.”
Ikin believes Brisbane players struggled to cope with the hype after a superb seven-match winning streak propelled the Broncos into the top four.
“It’s one thing to manage failure, it’s another thing to be able to manage success,” he said.
“So when we won seven in a row, there’s a whole lot of people, and it happened unconsciously, we started to enjoy that success.
“A little bit of the discipline, the steel that had found its way into what we were doing week to week, prior to the winning run, started to fall away a bit, partly because we have a young squad.
“When that discipline erodes, it starts in between training sessions, then it finds its way into training and eventually it’s Friday Night Footy, you have lost four games on the trot and you think how the hell did that happen?
“Some would call it hubris, an inflated sense of self, but the good thing, if there is one good thing to take out of the finish to the season, is we got a lesson in what it takes to be a great club.”
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