Paul Kent: Kevin Walters’ quest to rein in Brisbane Broncos’ self-entitled posse of players
All Kevin Walters wanted was an opportunity, but what he is getting is the unenviable job of turning around many good players with bad egos, all while the Broncos board fumbles in the dark.
Opinion
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A little instruction on Kevin Walters before he is crowned King of Brisbane on Wednesday.
Back in the day when the Broncos were running laps, or running The Gap National Park, Walters was one of the fun blokes loitering at the back of the group, more often cracking jokes with Allan Langer than attempting to crack a sweat.
Then Langer retired and whether it was because he no longer had Langer there as a foil or the jokes had simply all dried up, Walters transitioned from a back marker to the pacesetter.
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It came as swift as the next summer. He won every run after that.
The point is, Walters always had that inner resolve but was more comfortable being the joker, the bloke liked by everybody.
A similar transition is needed at the Broncos.
Walters is being hired because the Broncos board is fumbling in the dark, the poor souls on their hands and knees searching the floor for a light switch.
Walters’ appointment is the right choice but also a Trojan horse job.
He is there to turn public opinion and save the board as much as he is there to win games.
That’s okay, all he ever asked was an opportunity.
But the Broncos have given him a job.
The Broncos players are the most self-entitled posse of players assembled at any one club in some time. They step around Brisbane like they have actually won something.
They take no care or responsibility for being failures, at least by the truth of their actions.
Wooden spoons were being tossed on the Broncos’ training paddock on Friday morning — the only way fans could express their anger at the club’s first wooden spoon — but Broncos players remained oblivious to any public sentiment the night before and thought it a good idea to hold a baby reveal for Darius Boyd.
The club quickly tried to distance itself, chairman Karl Morris saying he was “disgusted” at the lack of accountability, while saying the club did not know.
Yet the team manager and its social media team were on the field, co-ordinating it all.
The players should have been ordered to pick up the spoons themselves the next morning.
Carry that back to the trophy cabinet.
Walters’ first job will be to turn around many good players with bad egos.
He is pushing against the tide and might need to play the long game, letting contracts expire to let them go gently on their way.
Still, the problems for the Broncos’ board are not over yet. This is best revealed by their ability to leak sensitive information to help their public sell.
The board was split on hiring Walters or Paul Green as head coach. Green interviewed more impressively, it was leaked, but Walters was a popular old boy and so had the support of the other half of the board.
It was a muddy decision that caused some to question whether the Broncos board members really know what they want, without seeing the obvious; most of all, the board wants to save themselves.
Having badly misread the Anthony Seibold appointment the board cannot hope to possibly survive a second failure and so they search for the safe option.
So their decision came down to winning the hearts and minds, or pursuing proven success?
So they appoint Walters, the most popular man in Brisbane behind Alfie Langer, and hearts flutter.
Yet as a safety net they also privately chase Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy to oversee Walters as football director. It insulates them if Walters fails.
Hey, we got Bellamy here to oversee it all, they can claim.
In other words, having won back the fans by appointing a popular Old Boy, they don’t want to lose them again if the Old Boy fails to do what he is employed to do.
The thinking is sound up to here, but then again they behave like guys who always think they are the smartest guys in the room and they blow it.
By leaking the Bellamy strategy without having already signed him they expose themselves to the risk of losing Bellamy, and Bellamy is no sure thing.
He has spoken to the club and the Broncos have been quick to offer whatever conditions he finds acceptable in a bid to sign him.
He can do as much or as little as he wants.
Where next for the club, though, if Bellamy says no?
It remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Walters gets the job on Wednesday, the clown prince of Brisbane finally home.
But it is the other Kevin Walters the club needs, the one out front, and the one they are about to see.
Originally published as Paul Kent: Kevin Walters’ quest to rein in Brisbane Broncos’ self-entitled posse of players