Monday Buzz: Brisbane Broncos appoint Kevin Walters as coach
Brisbane will formally name Kevin Walters as the club’s new coach on Wednesday - but the decision split the board in two. Phil Rothfield also reveals the major condition for the appointment.
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Kevvie Walters has won a split decision over Paul Green and will be named coach of the Brisbane Broncos on Wednesday.
He will be formally offered the contract on Monday.
The reasoning behind the appointment is the big story here and an issue that has split the Broncos board over several weeks of intense discussions.
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Green was originally the favoured candidate because of his experience, the two grand finals and a premiership victory at North Queensland.
Those backing him were prepared to cave and agree on Walters with one condition; that the club sign a director of coaching of the calibre of Craig Bellamy. It was the compromise.
The Green supporters on the board were of the opinion Walters couldn’t do the job on his own.
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Not while he is facing such an enormous rebuild of the roster and shake-up of a poor culture.
Yet they desperately wanted Kevvie’s passion and his personality to lift a group of players that have been down and out for months.
This is Kevvie’s go. He’s a good fella and players love being around him. Players lift for him.
He will immediately fix a depressed dressing room.
He will bring back the old boys who have been sniping from the sidelines for two years.
They might not make the top eight next year but they’ll obviously improve.
The more technical aspect of operating a football department will come with Bellamy in 2022.
The full rebuild will begin when Anthony Milford and Jack Bird, who are soaking up $2 million of the salary cap, are off contract.
Bellamy will attract footballers on the cheap; just like he has done at Melbourne Storm over such a long period of time he will turn average players into outstanding footballers.
He will also fix the culture.
Players going on late night poker-machine binges and visiting bikie hair salons will not be tolerated.
Bellamy will handle the big picture planning and the discipline.
Kevvie can concentrate on coaching the team week to week.
It’s a great combination.
Out of respect to Melbourne Storm, Bellamy will wait and make his decision public at the end of the season. The Broncos wanted to announce the package deal on Wednesday but he won’t budge.
It has been difficult for the Storm to try to convince Bellamy to stay in the southern capital.
Their CEO Dave Donaghy is also heading to the Broncos and is hardly in a position to persuade him to stay at the Storm.
Plus their chairman Matt Tripp is stuck in Victoria and can’t get into Queensland for a face-to-face meeting with Bellamy. It is too late now anyway.
For Green it’s a tough call. He apparently presented brilliantly at the job interview on Thursday.
Yet at the end of the day he was regarded as too experienced and too qualified to work under Bellamy.
He is a great football coach who will probably now take charge of the Maroons State of Origin team.
But he will be back in the NRL in the not too distant future because he is a proven winner.
On this occasion he was the wrong man at the wrong time.