Brent Read: The Broncos must part ways with problem child Payne Haas

Payne Haas is a generational talent on the field, but a liability off of it. It’s time the Broncos showed what they stand for writes Brent Read.

Albert Kelly leaving Red Hill. Picture: Liam Kidston.

If Payne Haas wants out of Brisbane, the Broncos should let him go.

Cut him loose at the end of the season and move on.

Thanks Payne, but even you are not worth the trouble.

The Broncos talk about culture and tradition, but what message does it send to persist with a player who has developed a disturbing habit of finding himself at the centre of integrity unit investigations.

Haas’ rap sheet is lengthening by the day.

He is a generational talent but at some point you have to ask yourself what your club stands for.

The Broncos have lost their way. They have forgotten that the club is bigger than any individual.

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It’s time for Payne Haas to leave the Broncos. Picture: NRL Photos

They started the season with high hopes of a resurgence but the opening two wins were a mirage. Another false dawn it appears.

They are treading water and they need a reboot. Haas would give them the salary cap space to do it. The financial shackles would be removed.

Use the money to chase Cameron Munster or Kalyn Ponga. Improve a spine that is in disastrous shape.

Adam Reynolds can’t do it on his own.

As good as Haas is, at some point you have ask yourself whether he is worth the trouble.

He has been painted as the innocent victim in the latest stoush with halfback Albert Kelly, but he is not without blame.

Haas was apparently sober. If so, how hard would it have been to turn the other cheek and walk away. He was the bigger man, but he didn’t act like it.

Screen grabs from an altercation between Brisbane Bronco players Payne Haas and Albert Kelly.

Instead, he engaged in a public spat with a teammate that was filmed and finished in the hands of the media. Once again, the Broncos famous brand is being dragged through the mud. Once again, Haas finds himself being interviewed by the integrity unit.

Whispers persist that Haas wants out of Brisbane. Some would have you believe he has told his closest teammates that he wants a change.

On the field, there is no sign of discontent. Off it, there is plenty going on. He is at war with his former agent, the case due to head back to the courts next week. He has a new agent working on his behalf and rival clubs are allegedly being sounded out.

Significantly, he will play against the Sydney Roosters on Friday night – the club he has been persistently linked with in recent times.

The Roosters would likely take him in a heartbeat. They are a stronger club than the Broncos at the moment and Haas would be closer to his mentor Sonny Bill Williams.

He would put some distance between himself and some of the distractions in southeast Queensland. The Roosters would back their club and playing group to get the best out of Haas.

It might be exactly the change he needs. More to the point, as ridiculous as it may sound, it might be the change the Broncos need.

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Apparently it wasn’t a GI Jane joke that caused this one which, as absurd as that sounds, might have made more sense than the truth.

Instead, the fuse for this one was lit when, several weeks back and after Brisbane beat Canterbury, Payne Haas was returning from a night of quiet sobriety with family and friends when out jumped Albert Kelly, who was not so sober after celebrating his upcoming birthday.

Kelly took an uncommon liking to Haas’s fresh white shoes and could not ignore the First Rule of the Schoolyard, which says he simply had to step on them and scuff them up.

Haas was having none of it. He had recently bought the shoes from ShoeGrab, Australia’s largest designer sneaker marketplace, so they claim, meaning he was proud of his new shoes and all they represented.

“Don’t step on my f…… shoes,” he told Kelly.

And then a silly drunken scuffle found a lightning rod when Kelly wouldn’t quit and Haas wound up his left hand and smacked Kelly in the mouth.

It was not a massive shot. Even though he was up against someone several weight divisions higher Kelly continued to walk forward.

Love will make you do crazy things.

It was an incident that has occurred a thousand times in the past in rugby league, at clubs from the top of the country all the way down, except for one small difference.

Hiding behind the palm trees was some deadbeat filming it, which immediately created the modern recipe for a scandal.

Payne Haas and Albert Kelly are filmed by a punter.

Suddenly the Broncos were in crisis. There was film to prove it.

As the footage quickly circulated the incident soon became a metaphor for Brisbane’s collapse.

They lost to North Queensland the week after and the Warriors the week after that to undo all their good early work and fall to 2-2 after four rounds.

Surely there was internal conflict at the club.

Or was it a metaphor for Haas’s unhappiness at Brisbane?

It is well known within the game that Haas’s management is currently negotiating an upgraded contract with the Broncos even as they shop him around to Sydney clubs, telling anyone who listens that he wants to live in Sydney.

He is asking for $1 million a year, apparently unaware that players on such a price tag are generally required to have a standing outside the game beyond just what they do in a play capacity.

Payne Haas at Red Hill. Picture: John Gass

It is enough to make most clubs baulk.

Any chance of a million dollar a year player costing them sponsorships through his off-field actions is something of a red flag.

Canterbury has already rejected an approach while many believe the Roosters, once the contracts of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Siua Taukeiaho expire, will have enough room freed up in their salary cap to lure Haas to Bondi when his contract ends at the end of 2024.

Until then it clearly is an adjustable narrative.

Adopt the story of what happened between Haas and Kelly to suit your purpose.

What is certain is that unfortunately, the world being what it is, and the NRL in particular, the game had no choice but to have the Integrity Unit order Haas and Kelly in to explain their actions.

Part of the reasoning is self-inflicted.

The game long ago evaporated its chance to tell the League there was nothing in the incident and be taken on trust. That, combined with a changing world, leaves the game no option but to get involved for purposes of transparency.

It is part of a new world quickly leaving the typical NRL player behind.

Haas has a full book inside the Integrity Unit offices.

Albert Kelly leaving Red Hill. Picture: Liam Kidston.

When Haas and his family were involved in an incident with police in 2019 Haas was ultimately suspended for four games and fined $20,000 because he refused to co-operate with an Integrity Unit investigation because it involved his family.

He was just 19 at the time.

Last year he was fined $50,000 and suspended three games when he was charged with offensive language and intimidating police when a night out went all wrong.

Given his upbringing, he has a deep distrust of authority.

This latest incident will barely have him shaking.

Not a lot of men in the NRL come from backgrounds that offer walk up starts in polite society.

They are young and aggressive and learn violence, even a controlled violence, such is the game they play, is their way forward.

It is part of their currency in life.

The truth is Kelly was drunk and belligerent and Haas spoke to him in the only language he was capable of understanding.

This does not necessarily make it right.

But, in the world they live in, doesn’t necessarily make it wrong, either.

Originally published as Brent Read: The Broncos must part ways with problem child Payne Haas