NRL finals 2023: How wooden spoon whacking is driving Broncos’ premiership push

“It was tough at the time but we knew if we stuck together we would find the light.” The Broncos have opened up on the harrowing experience driving them to greatness.

Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters shared five premierships.

Enforcer Tom Flegler believes the wooden spoon whacking which remains the club’s darkest memory has played a key role in driving the Broncos premiership revival.

Flegler, 24, will join the Dolphins next year on a four-year deal worth around $3 million and is desperate to end his five season first grade career with the Broncos with a premiership that history tells us may be out of reach at his new club.

The Tully prop is having one of his best years and believes the fibre gained during the Broncos horror show wooden spoon season of 2020, when he played 13 games, has driven the team to better days.

“I suppose when you are coming through we were all young boys at the time playing against men,’’ Flegler said.

“It was tough at the time but we knew if we stuck together we would find the light and the end of the tunnel and it is paying off now.

“A lot of us boys have been there since we were 18 and we look back now and think how much we have matured and becoming mates with each other on and off the field.’’

Tom Flegler scores a rare try in round 27. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

“Coming from where we have been. We got the wooden spoon a few years ago. When you start off in your career you’re still trying to find your feet. You don’t realise what is important and what is not.’’

The Broncos ruthless decimation of the Melbourne Storm on Friday night has them stalking the Panthers’ for premiership favouritism with bookmakers believing all other teams are making up the numbers.

The Broncos will play the winner of this weekend’s match between Newcastle and the Warriors and will start a long odds on favourites no matter who they face.

Remarkably, they are injury free and have a fortnight to rest any minor niggles. And that after most of their players had a fortnight off before the Melbourne match.

“To go further in the season we definitely need to go to another gear,’’ Flegler said.

“I believe we have got that in this team. They say the bigger the game the simpler the game has to be. The big games are won on defence.’’

The Broncos game plan against the Storm seemed simple but effective.

They constantly seemed to run at gifted hooker Harry Grant who subsequently seemed off key in attack. Cam Munster also had an off night.

Most importantly, the Broncos’ attitude had a killer edge that is a trademark of most premiership teams.

At the start of the year a pass mark for the Broncos would have been making the eight but the bar has steady risen to the point where anything less than a premiership would seem a letdown of sorts.

Wayne and Kev: New chapter in NRL’s most complex relationship

Hirer. Firer. Mentor. Rival. Dreammaker. Heartbreaker.

Wayne Bennett has been all of these to Kevin Walters and now there’s another twist.

You could write a book about the relationship between Walters and Bennett and every chapter would be unique and compelling.

Over the years Bennett has been to Walters 21st birthday, his engagement party, his wedding to his late wife Kim and her funeral and many other big moments in his life.

They shared five premierships at the Broncos but before all that Bennett told a teenage Walters he and twin brother Kerrod could only grow by splitting up.

Kev joined Wayne at Canberra and the bond grew so firm that when Wayne urged Kev to rejoin him at the Broncos in 1990, Walters took Brisbane’s $25,000 contract ahead of the Dragons’ $75,000 offer.

Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters have had an up-and-down relationship. Picture: Jono Searle

Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters during their time together at the Broncos. Picture: Darren England

And yet – and yet – there have been chastening moments as well, the latest coming in Andrew Webster’s The Wolf You Feed where Bennett said he did not want Walters to coach the Broncos from 2019 because “I didn’t think he was up for the job.’’

If that comment had been released a few years ago when Walters was trying to get a first grade job it would have genuinely hurt him because he is more sensitive than he lets on.

Bennett would know this because he once said “he (Kev) needs you to believe in him.’’

But as he blazes his way towards a likely grand final appearance which could settle all coaching arguments in his favour this is a mildly chastening rather than confidence-destroying moment for Walters.

Put it down as another intriguing blip in one of the most complex, interesting relationships in rugby league.

At times the Kev-Wayne union has been as warm as a mother’s cuddle, at others as cold as a Siberian sunset.

Bennett is used to this type of complex friendship because he has a lot of them.

Walters is not. “Mate, I’m from Ipswich – we don’t have smoke and mirrors up there,’’ he once said with trademark angular grin.

It was Bennett who first alerted The Courier-Mail to the emergence of the Walters clan when he told us in 1985 “you simply have to get a photo and do a story on the five Walters brothers from Ipswich – they are going to be talked about for decades.’’

Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters shared five premierships.

Bennett has seen Walters’ journey as a coach from close range.

He sacked Walters as an assistant coach in 2005 because he believed Walters needed to get out of his comfort zone at the Broncos and grow.

Shocked and shattered, Walters made one particularly smart call – he refused to whinge publicly – and headed off the France and Melbourne to learn his craft. He and Bennett did not speak for several years.

Then, suddenly, the duo were back together as a union at Newcastle, not simply coaching but flatting together.

And when Wayne returned to coach Brisbane he called in Kev as “the Anthony Milford whisperer’’ in the belief that he could make the difficult connection with one of the game’s most enigmatic players.

Then, suddenly, Kev left.

Wayne Bennett's latest biography, 'The Wolf You Feed'.

Hot. Cold. On. Off. But nothing was forever.

Often in rugby league one fallout is the end of a relationship but it has never been the way with Kev and Wayne.

When Bennett saw Walters giving the Broncos an old fashioned dressing room spray on television he phoned him to say “be careful, that’s not you.’’

There was also a rumour that when several players were caught out having a massive night on the tiles during Walters first camp as State of Origin coach, one of Walters first phone calls was to Bennett.

Like old soldiers who went to war together, they share so much history there are times when they cannot offend each other.

Walters, for instance, does a particularly good impersonation of Bennett’s voice.

When I asked him to do it at this year’s season launch he said “I won’t because he’s not here’’ but, once on stage, the showman within got the better of him and he did a one of his better “Waynes.’’

Don’t go to a launch in Sydney expecting you will see Ivan Cleary do his best Anthony Seibold or Trent Robinson dig out his finest Des Hasler.

But with Kev and Wayne it’s just different …

Originally published as NRL finals 2023: How wooden spoon whacking is driving Broncos’ premiership push