Kevin Walters to clean out Brisbane Broncos’ roster: 18 players in firing line

Kevin Walters is a proven winner. And he has had enough of Brisbane’s mediocrity. Who will survive the upcoming brutal cleanout?

18 Broncos players are on thin ice. Picture: Che Chorley

An extraordinary 18 players are playing for their futures at the Broncos as coach Kevin Walters prepares to preside over one of the most ruthless cleanouts in Brisbane’s 33-year history.

Walters showed he is not afraid to make tough calls by dumping Anthony Milford to the Intrust Super Cup, and now the entire playing group is on notice following Friday night’s 46-6 Darwin debacle against the Eels.

The Sunday Mail can reveal just 11 players will survive to be part of the Broncos’ top 30 next season, leaving two-thirds of Brisbane’s current squad to prove they can be part of a Red Hill rebuild.

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Brisbane’s recruitment-and-retention arm is forensically analysing their salary cap, with Walters telling The Sunday Mail he will spend the next month deciding who to help, hire or fire following the Broncos’ worst start to a season in 22 years.

Broncos coach Kevin Walters is prepared to make the tough calls to make Brisbane a force again.

Walters, a proven winner as a player, has had enough of Brisbane’s mediocrity. A purge is coming. The Brisbane coach sprayed his players in the sheds following Friday night’s 40-point drubbing and he took aim at them publicly at the press conference, accusing the group of abandoning front-row sensation Payne Haas.

The Broncos have 13 players off-contract and more than $3 million to spend as Walters confirmed he is putting Brisbane’s full-time roster under review.

“I am doing that, definitely,” Walters said.

“A little bit has to happen for us to do what we want to do with this roster.

“We have played some good teams so far this season and I now have a fair idea in my head of what I want to do, who I want to keep, and I’m working towards that over the next month or so.”

Rarely in Broncos history has there been so much uncertainty over the composition of their full-time roster.

Brisbane currently have a raft of free agents, including skipper Alex Glenn, Kotoni Staggs, Anthony Milford, Jesse Arthars, John Asiata, Xavier Coates, Dale Copley, Tom Dearden, Danny Levi, David Mead, Tesi Niu, Keenan Palasia and Ben Te’o.

Brisbane’s highest-paid player Anthony Milford is unlikely to be offered a new deal for next season as part of the Walters purge.

Of those 13, The Sunday Mail understands only four players — Coates, Staggs, Dearden and Niu — are safe for next year. Te’o is tipped to retire, while Dearden may yet choose another path if he accepts a three-year deal from the Cowboys.

Contracted players who need to lift their game, or risk being either axed or offloaded under subsidised deals, include Matt Lodge, Corey Oates, Tom Flegler, Richie Kennar and Rhys Kennedy.

The brilliant Haas is at the vanguard of Brisbane’s players who are secure for 2022. Walters is also pleased with the progress of Pat Carrigan, Herbie Farnworth, Jamayne Isaako, Ethan Bullemor and Jake Turpin, while emerging back-rowers Jordan Riki and Brendan Piakura both recently signed three-year upgrades.

There has been speculation around the possibility of Tevita Pangai Jnr being offloaded, but Broncos bosses have praised his attitude following the COVID breaches that put his career under threat last year.

With Haas, Pangai Jnr has been Brisbane’s best player in the past fortnight, terrorising the Panthers and scoring Brisbane’s only try against the Eels on Friday night.

But Walters is fast accepting he has a scrumbase crisis on his hands. Playmakers Milford, Dearden and Brodie Croft are all well down on form and Croft, contracted until the end of next year on a $450,000 deal, must lift or face being moved on.

While a plethora of players are in the firing line at the Broncos, Walters accepts he must also take some responsibility for educating the club’s next wave of NRL top-liners.

“I’m more than happy to be working with the current roster we have and it’s my job to get some more improvement out of the players,” he said.

“The roster in every organisation is a work in progress.

“Some rosters are more stable than others but everyone is always looking to improve their rosters and we’re the same.”

The Broncos are under mounting pressure to deliver some significant recruitment scalps.

Brisbane are currently in talks with Souths halfback maestro Adam Reynolds and have been linked with Eels wizard Mitchell Moses, while the Broncos approached Penrith’s Queensland Origin utility Kurt Capewell in pre-season.

On the open market, Queensland Origin hitman Jaydn Su’A, who started his career at the Broncos, is one of the few representative-quality forwards yet to sign a new deal.

Broncos players struggle in the TIO Stadium heat. Picture: Scott Davis - NRL Photos

Asked if he will convert talks into a formal offer for Reynolds, Walters said: “If you wear a seven jumper these days you are linked to the Broncos, so that’s part of it.

“We are a big club, we are a strong club. It’s great to know other players want to come and play at the Broncos, that’s what it is all about.”

Former Broncos skipper Corey Parker has urged Brisbane to urgently address three key recruitment areas — signing a senior playmaker, a fullback and a ball-playing lock.

“For me, the No.1 priority for the Broncos is a top-shelf playmaker,” Parker said.

“They need to get a stable, established halfback.

“The Cowboys have bought Chad Townsend and I think that is a perfect purchase. He has played almost 200 games and won a premiership, he is a great professional and will steer the Cowboys around.

“I also think the Broncos need a fullback. If they don’t have the salary-cap space and want to persist with Jamayne Isaako at 1, that is fine, but the next target should be signing a mobile, smaller No.13.

“With where the game is going and what the Broncos currently have on their roster, they are missing a mobile lock who can created some ruck speed in midfield.

“I love a lot of things Jake Turpin does at hooker, his work-rate, toughness, tenacity and commitment is unquestioned, but he isn’t the most creative No.9.

“If the Broncos don’t have a creative nine, they can benefit from a creative 13 such as Cameron Murray, Isaah Yeo, Nathan Brown and Victor Radley.

“Nathan Brown is still off-contract, so someone like him would be ideal.”

Parker said the Broncos were suffering on the field from an identity crisis.

“In 2015, when we made the grand final at the Broncos under Wayne Bennett — and ‘Kevvie’ was there as his assistant — our identity, our style was flat and fast.

“We used to have a set called the flat-fast set. Everyone would push up through the middle third and we would tear up the advantage line. If we got a fast play the ball, we took off through the middle and created space out wide.

“Kevin Walters needs to identify the style of football he wants to play ... and then buy players to fit into his style at the Broncos.”