Paul Kent: Tevita Pangai breach more down to character as Anthony Seibold faces the end
Rarely are clubs presented with such a neat opportunity to offload trouble like the one Tevita Pangai offered the Broncos over the weekend. Perhaps, it’s the first small step in turning around the organisation.
Opinion
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It is widely considered unsound advice to take up an offer from the Mongols bikie gang to attend their barbershop opening at any time, let alone just days after it was revealed you were shopping yourself around to rival football clubs.
Still, Tevita Pangai Jr thought it a good idea and so, if he needed the haircut, he certainly got one.
Pangai now has five days to do the impossible; convince the Broncos board that he should not be sacked after the club officially breached him for breaking the NRL’s strict COVID rules by associating with the bikies who are not, if it needs to be said, part of the NRL bubble.
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Pangai’s better choice would have been to follow the advice of the Mongols rivals who prefer, in the interests of self-preservation, to keep their head down.
The Mongols are a relatively new bikie gang in Australia, now challenging the Comanchero for national supremacy and responsible for a number of crimes in recent times that involve moving cars and guns going off.
There is no crime left for them to commit for the first time in Australia.
Just to be clear, no one is suggesting Pangai was himself involved in any crime.
His poor judgment is, however, a clear character breach over and above a COVID breach, as the Broncos allege.
So, if it is not clear already, Pangai is being sacked for a character breach more than a COVID breach, as the Broncos allege.
The Broncos have realised that they have not only stumbled to second last on the NRL ladder but are now asking disaffected fans to cop their players hanging out with bikies in complete disregard of the NRL’s COVID securities, to say nothing of public reputation, as he privately shops himself to rival clubs.
Rarely are clubs presented with such a neat opportunity to offload trouble like the opportunity Pangai offered the Broncos over the weekend.
So it was a sacking of convenience for the Broncos and, perhaps, the first small step in turning around an organisation whose fall this season is stark.
Pressure continues to mount on head coach Anthony Siebold.
Seibold is back in Brisbane, unable to join the club after breaking the bubble last week and said to be working on Broncos’ game plans ahead of Saturday’s game against Canberra.
Seibold’s future at the club is a hot subject at the moment.
Anybody with a phone seemingly received a text on Tuesday, at least one of the three that were circulating, revealing what was supposedly happening at Brisbane.
It would be prudent to delete them and avoid the urge to pass them along.
Many hurtful and unfounded rumours were circulated and, while there seems no legs to the more harmful, it is widely believed the club is currently negotiating a formal separation with the coach.
Other claims, stated as fact, are nothing but mischievous rumour mongering.
It says something about the Broncos, though.
They once laid claim to being the gold standard for NRL clubs but are undergoing open heart surgery for all the league to see.
Watching the mighty fall always makes for painful viewing.
The players are in miserable protest at the club, failing to perform on the field and whinging plenty about the complexity of Seibold’s game plans.
Then, in a season with many lows, a new one was reached last week when it was revealed that Pangai, with two more seasons still remaining in his contract, was so keen to get out of Brisbane he was secretly shopping himself to rival clubs.
It shows where the Broncos are nowadays.
There once was a time when players would take under on their contract to play there, knowing they would be well-coached and have a potential shot at a premiership.
Not so now.
Pangai will now go to market, followed by his reputation as an enormous talent but also one difficult to coach.
He fell out at Canberra after he blued one afternoon about not having a personal locker in the dressing room.
Lockers showed status at the club.
It was explained to him that lockers are earned and the way they are earned is by playing NRL first and that junior footballers coming through, noise he was, still had to earn their place matter how talented.
Pangai, young and potentially brilliant, had no patience for that.
Instead he listened to the sweet nothings being whispered in his ear from Brisbane and liked what he heard enough to make the move.
Now he goes to market with interested clubs knowing what they will get, and what they will get.