NRL 2020: Phil Gould says Broncos have lost the DNA that Wayne Bennett gave the club
NRL stalwart Phil Gould believes former Broncos coach Anthony Seibold isn’t to blame for the club’s stunning downfall, instead pointing the finger at ‘astonishing’ failures that have contributed to a detrimental culture shift.
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Phil Gould believes Anthony Seibold can rise again and the Broncos nightmare winter is a much deeper story than the tale of a young coach who lost his way.
Master coach Gould believes the Broncos must urgently review its football department in the wake of Seibold’s departure and work out why the DNA which once made the club great no longer exists.
He feels Seibold was “the wrong coach at the wrong time’’, was distracted from the time he landed in Brisbane, and may have suffered from the coaches curse of following Wayne Bennett into the job and trying to change things too quickly.
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Bennett has been touted for a possible return to Red Hill in the next year or two.
“The club needs to have a really good to look at its football program and what it has produced because a failure of this magnitude is just not the head coach,’’ Gould said.
“A head coach does not have the effect on a club in the space of 15 months.
“The whole Bronco thing has astonished us all a bit. It was like it was happening in slow motion but we could all see where it was going.
“There has to be a lot of questions asked as to whether Anthony Seibold was given the support he needed.
“The Broncos system has changed a lot in recent years. In 2012 (chief executive) Paul White and (coach) Anthony Griffin were very kind to give me a look at their system because I had just moved to Penrith.
“I adopted a lot of the culture they had up there with young players but I wonder whether they have moved away from that culture.’’
Gould feels Seibold could return to the coaching ranks in some capacity.
“Absolutely he can. If that is what he chooses to do. He has to take stock and find out where he fits in to it all, whether he comes back as a head coach remains to be seen.
“Some fellows are cut out for it. Some are better suited to an assistant role. He will work out where his niche is.’’
Gould, who could see merit in appointing Kevin Walters or Paul Green the new coach but declined to nominate a favourite, said the problem with coaches following Bennett was they often tried to change things too quickly.
“There have been very few head coaches anywhere that have followed Bennett into a role and had much success straight away. He is a rather unique personality and a rather unique coach. The DNA of Bennett was very much the DNA of the Broncos.
“That DNA no longer exists. Maybe it was too much of a change from Bennett to Anthony. Everyone who has taken over from Bennett has been a rookie and maybe rookies try and change the world too quickly.
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“What Bennett instils in a team is simple but unique. The changes at this stage were far too radical for what the Broncos could handle at that time.
“When Bennett left St George and Newcastle they had similar problem. Coaching against Bennett is not an intellectual battle.
“You know his players will fight for a common cause – physically and mentally they never beat themselves. They are fit. They play for 80 minutes. They defend well. They only have one or two plays but they do them relentlessly and they believe in them. When you play Bennett teams it is a battle of wills and there is anything but a will at the Broncos at the moment.’’
Originally published as NRL 2020: Phil Gould says Broncos have lost the DNA that Wayne Bennett gave the club