Anthony Seibold and the Broncos Part II: Why Brisbane helped sacked coach resurrect career at Manly
PART II: Despite his role during the most turbulent time in Broncos history, Anthony Seibold received a glowing character reference from Brisbane hierarchy to help resurrect his coaching career.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A glowing character reference from the Broncos helped Anthony Seibold resurrect his NRL coaching career and set up a spicy showdown with Brisbane legend Kevin Walters.
Walters and Seibold will go head-to-head as NRL coaches for the first time in Friday night’s Magic Round clash between the Broncos and Sea Eagles at Suncorp Stadium.
It has been five years since Walters and Seibold faced off for Brisbane’s top job to succeed Wayne Bennett, with the latter winning the role before being replaced by the former in 2020.
Walters and Seibold had a coaching alliance that has transformed into them now being fierce NRL rivals.
The duo were once State of Origin allies in 2016, with Seibold assisting Maroons head coach Walters, before the lustre of the prestigious Broncos job put them on a coaching collision course.
When former Broncos CEO Paul White activated the interview process to find Brisbane’s successor to Bennett in 2018, Walters and Seibold were suddenly rivals.
Four men were short-listed for the Broncos job: Walters, Seibold, Michael Maguire and Jason Demetriou.
Seibold got the job, inadvertently driving a wedge into his relationship with Walters.
But he didn’t last long, with the Broncos axing Seibold in 2020 as they hurtled towards the club’s first wooden spoon.
Walters edged out the late Paul Green to replace Seibold as Broncos coach and has lifted them into top spot on the ladder following a 7-2 start to the season.
Walters denies there is friction between him and Seibold.
“Not at all,” he told Triple M before missing Brisbane’s captain’s run on Thursday due to illness.
“People try to (bring it up) but I deflect it away.
“Anthony’s in a new role at Manly and we congratulate him on his appointment there.
“He is a long-term coach and wants to be coaching in the NRL. He’s worked hard to get back into that Manly job and is doing a good job with them.”
While it was the demise of Seibold at the Broncos that eventually landed Walters his dream job, the club played a role in their sacked coach’s resurrection.
When Des Hasler’s future at Manly started looking shaky last year, Seibold emerged as a candidate to take the reins at Brookvale.
Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn is close to Broncos counterpart Karl Morris and turned to him for advice.
“I definitely wanted to get the inside scoop (on what happened at the Broncos),” Penn said.
“Give it to me, pros and cons. He was super honest and said it was a mixture of a whole range of things.
“The good thing after that conversation was I could sit down with Seibs and have an honest conversation with him.
“He admitted he could have handled it better. No one shied away from anything. It was all on the table.”
Despite essentially sacking him from the Broncos, Morris has maintained a friendship with Seibold and said he deserved another shot in the NRL.
“We keep in touch on a personal level,” Morris said.
“When he was here it was very difficult due to Covid. We had a close relationship during such a difficult period of time.
“I think he is a good fella.
“At the beginning Manly were looking for someone to assist Des and I just gave Scott a frank personal reference of how I found Anthony.
“I said to Scott that he went through an extraordinary and unusual period of time at the Broncos and I thought he deserved a second chance.”
Penn said Morris’ reference gave him comfort that Seibold could succeed at Manly following his tumultuous time at the Broncos.
“It was a specific conversation, but the important thing was to understand some of the ins and outs,” Penn said.
“It obviously didn’t end well for anyone. When things like that happen you want to understand why that happened. There were a number of reasons and everyone has owned them – that’s all you can ask for. If people own up to it and say they would do it differently.
“To be fair, (Seibold) had been transparent about the experience. There wasn’t a lot of new information. It was confirming a lot of the things we went through. “He was on the front foot from the get go. He definitely wasn’t happy about the way it all ended and definitely wanted to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
While Seibold oversaw the most dramatic crash in Brisbane’s 35-year history, Walters has orchestrated a remarkable revival.
The “Kev-olution” has seen Brisbane climb from the 2020 wooden spoon to top spot after nine rounds of the 2023 premiership and into title contention.
Broncos assistant coach John Cartwright, who worked with Seibold at Manly, said Brisbane’s former mentor would be chasing bragging rights upon his return.
“I got to know Seibs pretty well at Manly,” he said.
“We haven’t spoken a lot about football, so I’m not really across his time at the Broncos. But he did his time at rugby and he got his chance back at Manly and they are going really well.
“Every coach wants to go back and do really well against their past team.
“He has always spoken about being a career coach, he has gone away and worked in another game. He is a student of the game and he has landed back on his feet at Manly.”
It has been a slow road back to the top for the Broncos, with Walters leading Brisbane to 14th in 2021, ninth last year and now firmly in finals contention.
The five-time premiership-winning player has made some difficult decisions during his three years at Red Hill and Cartwright said that had helped the Broncos get to where they are now.
“He has got the roster right,” he said.
“It has taken a lot of hard work to get the roster where it is now, it is never easy to move players on when they are contracted. He made some really tough decisions that only good coaches make.
“If you sit back and hope the problem goes away, your career goes away. He made some tough calls and he has backed it up.
“He showed confidence in these players and they are starting to repay it.”
And nothing would be sweeter right now than a victory against Seibold’s Sea Eagles to continue the Broncos’ charge.
PART ONE — BULLYING, BACKSTABBING, LIES: INSIDE SEIBOLD’S BRONCOS NIGHTMARE
Anthony Seibold was subjected to vicious bullying and relentless criticism rarely seen in the NRL during his disastrous tenure at the Broncos, according to Brisbane chairman Karl Morris.
Seibold will face the Broncos for the first time since being axed from Brisbane’s top job when he leads Manly into Friday night’s Magic Round showdown at Suncorp Stadium.
It has been nearly three years since Seibold’s dramatic 20-month reign at Red Hill came to an end, opening the door for Broncos legend Kevin Walters to replace him as head coach.
The Seibold era at the Broncos will be remembered as the most turbulent period in Brisbane’s 35-year history.
Wayne Bennett, the architect of all six of Brisbane’s premierships, was infamously sacked via voicemail in December 2018 to make way for Seibold’s arrival on the back of him being crowned Dally M coach of the year in his rookie season with South Sydney.
That sent the Broncos into a stunning downward spiral, culminating in Seibold’s dismissal on the way to Brisbane collecting the NRL’s wooden spoon for the first time in 2020.
During his controversial stint at the Broncos, Seibold was attacked by former Brisbane players, became the victim of cyber bullying and social media rumour mongering, and was compared to a “cancer” by a club shareholder.
Morris, who has remained friends with Seibold, said he has never seen an NRL figure come under such intense pressure.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
“The pressure he was under by all of those people and the relentlessness of it.
“When we did the investigation in relation to the social media issues, over 85 per cent of it was taken down within 24 hours. It was the beginning of the change in the way people saw and thought of sports people in terms of social media.
“It was not only unfair but also unkind. It was full-on and inconceivable to me that people would write certain things that they wrote.
“There were a few people that should know better.”
The 2020 NRL season proved to be the perfect storm for Seibold and the Broncos on the back of a 58-0 hiding in week one of the 2019 finals.
The Broncos started the season with back-to-back wins before the emergence of Covid forced the suspension of the premiership for two months.
When the season resumed, the Broncos were beaten 34-6 by Parramatta and then 59-0 by the Roosters, which remains the club’s heaviest ever defeat.
They went on to lose six straight matches and the pressure quickly intensified on Seibold, who seemed to have few answers to arrest Brisbane’s dramatic crash.
The joy of a 26-8 win against lowly Canterbury was short-lived when the Broncos were flogged 48-0 by Wests Tigers and Seibold coached Brisbane for the last time against Bennett’s Rabbitohs in round 13, losing 28-10.
Seibold opted to remain in Sydney after that game for family reasons and didn’t coach the Broncos again.
His departure less than two seasons into a five-year contract was confirmed as Brisbane hurtled towards the spoon.
“It wasn’t working,” Seibold said of his time in Brisbane.
“It wasn’t healthy at all for anybody. At the end of the day it was done.
“People like Karl Morris and the club were good people. I don’t want to look back too much.”
After a few months in the wilderness, Seibold resurfaced as a coaching consultant with Newcastle for 2021 before joining England’s Test Rugby team with Eddie Jones.
He made his return to the NRL head coaching ranks with Manly this season following the sacking of Sea Eagles great Des Hasler.
On Friday night, he will ironically sit in the home team’s coaches’ box at Suncorp Stadium for the first time since 2020. Only this team, wearing Sea Eagles colours.
Morris said Seibold deserved a second chance in the NRL following his Broncos firestorm.
“I thought his time in Brisbane was very difficult for a number of reasons,” Morris said.
“There was Covid, his family remained in Sydney and it was post-Wayne. It wasn’t easy for him.
“History had showed he was a good coach. He was coach of the year (in 2018).
“Sometimes bad things happen to good people and his experience at the Broncos was unbelievably unique in relation to a lot of things.
“Sometimes people land at a place at the wrong time. I was hoping that was the case when he was here at the Broncos because I know how stressful and awful it was for not only him, but all of us.
“I thought some time away from the game would help him learn some new skills and he could come back stronger somewhere else.
“I’m very pleased that he’s got another opportunity. I think he’s a good person.”
The seeds for Seibold’s failed era at the Broncos were sewn when the club’s most successful coach ever in Bennett was pushed out the door despite wanting to go on.
The Broncos haven’t played finals football since the 2019 debacle against the Eels, but Walters now has them sitting in top spot on the ladder heading into Magic Round.
The revolving door at Red Hill has stopped spinning, with board member Darren Lockyer insisting the Broncos were a much more stable club in 2023.
“Well it was chaotic after Wayne left,” Lockyer said.
“There was a lot of movement of players and movement of staff. It created a very unstable organisation.
“I felt more than anyone for Anthony. He went through a hell of a lot in those two years and I am really happy for him to see he got another start at Manly.
“I hope his season goes well, just not in Magic Round.
“That just adds to the rivalry between Manly and the Broncos. Obviously there is the history from the first-ever game but now with Seibs coaching Manly he is up against Kevvie.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Anthony Seibold and the Broncos Part II: Why Brisbane helped sacked coach resurrect career at Manly
Gus’ ‘doctored’ claim ignites NRL conspiracy
The NRL Grand Final’s controversial no try scandal has taken a wild turn despite the game releasing the angle the decision was based on.
Kangaroos selection shocks: NRL legends’ Test careers appear over
Mal Meninga has dropped a major selection bombshell by overlooking both James Tedesco and Kalyn Ponga for Kangaroos selection, with the list of surprise omissions and debutants not ending there. See the full squad.