Sport Confidential: Kevin Walters visits Red Hill, and why the Rabbitohs sacked Josiah Karapani
Kevin Walters stopped into Red Hill to present son Billy with his Broncos jersey to celebrate his 100th game for the club, signalling a thawing of the tension that arose after the club legend was sacked at the end of last season.
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The cold war between the Broncos and Kevin Walters has thawed after the sacked Brisbane coach made a guest appearance involving his successor Michael Maguire.
Walters stopped into Red Hill to present son Billy with his Broncos jersey to celebrate his 100th game for the club in Friday night’s clash against the Bulldogs in Sydney.
Walters Sr was gutted by his termination with two years left on his deal and privately believes he deserved another chance to turn Brisbane around in 2025 after last year’s 12th-placed finish.
But ‘Kevvie’ put aside his personal feelings to make a special presentation to grand-final hooker Walters in front of Maguire and the Broncos squad.
“It was really good,” Maguire said of Walters’ century celebration.
“I have known Billy for a long time. I have had a bit to do with him at previous clubs, I have known him for four or five years now and to see a player play 100 games is pretty special.
“We always talk about playing one game, let alone 100, but I’ve been able to have a few of the boys with Adam Reynolds’ 300th and Jordan Riki’s 100th, now we have another one, so it’s good to see the experience is within the team.
“Kevvie came in and spoke really well.
“It was nice to see a father and son together which was really special.”
THE BRUTAL CALL BEHIND BRONCOS STAR’S LIFELINE
He is the Broncos’ latest backline discovery but not so long ago Josiah Karapani was fighting to save his NRL career after being sacked by South Sydney.
This masthead can reveal how Karapani was forced to seek a Red Hill lifeline after having his contract torn-up by former Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou for missing a video review session.
The 23-year-old goes into Friday night’s clash against the Bulldogs as one of Brisbane’s feel-good stories under new coach Michael Maguire.
Karapani has scored five tries from three games since being called up to the NRL and his form effectively ended the Broncos career of Selwyn Cobbo, who has signed with arch rivals the Dolphins for 2026.
But just two years ago, Karapani was in disarray at Redfern. Signed from the Warriors, he showed promise in Souths’ SG Ball and Jersey Flegg sides and progressed to the NSW Cup in 2022-23 when his Rabbitohs career came crashing down.
“He was at Souths and had a little misdemeanour,” said his manager Matt Desira.
“Josiah turned up late to training, unfortunately missed a whole review session and he was told to move on.”
Former Broncos coach Kevin Walters and Brisbane recruitment chief Simon Scanlan put out the welcome mat last year with a development contract and Karapani has vindicated the second chance.
Karapani made his Broncos debut last year, amassing 10 games, and with Cobbo joining the Dolphins next season, the hard-running, Auckland-born flyer has a golden chance to cement Brisbane’s left wing spot.
“Josiah has been doing really well,” Maguire said.
“He is leaping for the ball well and coming up with some big plays. He’s been working hard and playing well in the Queensland Cup and when the opportunity rightly came, Josiah took it.”
Karapani inked a two-year extension last week and says his ill-fated stint at South Sydney is well and truly behind him.
“The new deal has just made me more motivated and the club trusted me to back myself,” he said.
“To be here for another two years is pretty good. I am truly blessed and grateful for my opportunity.
“I just wanted to be ready for NRL because you never know what can happen.
“That’s part of what this team is, you have to be ready for that next step and once the opportunity comes you have to take it.
“The main thing for me is succeeding for the team. I’m just here to do my job and do the best I can with my abilities.”
HASLER’S SECRET TRICKS EXPOSED
Here are the images that capture Gold Coast coach Des Hasler’s sneaky press conference tactics.
Hasler has been sprung trying to manoeuvre his way out of media grillings amid the crash of the Titans to last spot on the NRL ladder.
Hasler doesn’t like press conferences running for longer than three minutes and makes hand and eye signals to Titans staff to cut them short.
He also regularly calls an end to press conferences himself before Gold Coast media have finished, particularly if he doesn’t like the line of questioning.
It’s an embarrassing situation for a club quickly losing whatever relevancy it had left and the Titans and NRL have shown no interest in addressing Hasler’s antics.
While cross-town AFL rivals the Suns have shown improvement since signing legendary Richmond coach Damien Hardwick and are in the top eight, the Titans have crashed into wooden spoon favouritism under Hasler.
Hasler slapped a media ban on his entire team for two months in the pre-season and has also done his best to avoid the media and certain questions entirely.
A couple of months ago he brought his weekly press conference forward to a Tuesday morning to avoid talking about dropping star forward David Fifita.
He then moved another to Canberra, which had no local interest and went for 46 seconds, and last week delayed it three days until Saturday afternoon, when no local media was able to attend.
You’d think a club like the Titans, which boasts the lowest membership in the NRL, would be seeking promotion and relevancy – not avoiding it.
CLUBS AT WAR WITH NRL OVER PNG
The NRL is facing an explosive showdown with club bosses following complaints over salary-cap concessions for new expansion franchise Papua New Guinea.
Sport Confidential can reveal the existing 17 clubs will move to block the Rugby League Players Association’s call for the NRL’s other expansion team, Perth Bears, to be given salary-cap assistance.
There is also a looming drama over PNG, with NRL club chiefs to raise issues with Australian players receiving cheap accommodation in Port Moresby on top of tax-free salaries.
The current NRL salary cap is $11.8 million but for PNG, their payment ceiling will effectively be around $17 million with their tax-free benefits.
That means Papua New Guinea will have a $5 million advantage over NRL rivals _ a massive fiscal differential that could see PNG make monster offers in excess of $2 million for the likes of Jahrome Hughes, Isaiya Katoa, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Nathan Cleary.
RLPA boss Clint Newton also wants salary-cap relief for the Bears, a position backed by Norths legend Billy Moore, but it will go down like a lead balloon with NRL club bosses.
The Dolphins did not get assistance for their entry in 2023 and South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly said the clubs had spoken to ARLC boss Peter V’landys and NRL boss Andrew Abdo.
“It’s a huge concession for PNG _ we’ve raised those concerns with the ARL Commission,” Solly said.
“In fairness to Peter and Andrew, they’ve said that they would continue to consult with us, as they understood more about what those concessions are.
“Everyone in the game wants the Papua New Guinea and Western Australia teams to be successful, however the agreement with the Commission was that they would both be fully salary cap and football department cap compliant.
“If there’s to be a change in that, the Commission needs to discuss it with the expansion committee.”
The other flashpoint surrounds rental assistance for NRL players in PNG. The PNG squad will live in “resort-style” accommodation with full security, but the clubs will push for players with the 19th team to pay full market rental rates, as they would if living in Australia.
“Accommodation is super expensive in Port Moresby,” said one club official. “If the players are going to get tax-free dollars, they should pay full freight for rent, not get cheap or assistance with accommodation.”
BYE BYE KALYN?
Has Kalyn Ponga played his last State of Origin game for Queensland?
There is a very real possibility that is the case if Ponga decides to switch Test allegiances to New Zealand.
Ponga has played a straight bat in recent times when asked about his Test ambitions.
He is yet to play for the Kangaroos and a recent precedent involving former Maroons fullback AJ Brimson’s switch to England has paved the way for Ponga to follow suit to New Zealand.
Ponga, 27, has played 10 sporadic Origin games for Queensland since his 2018 debut.
But after being ruled out of next week’s Origin decider with a foot injury, he may never be seen in Maroon again if he decides to commit to the Kiwis for the year-ending Pacific Championships.
DES DUMPS DYNAMOS
Embattled Titans coach Des Hasler has dumped two of his most dangerous players to reserve grade this season.
The Titans are anchored to outright last spot on the ladder going into a much-needed bye this weekend.
Hasler will get a week off to regroup and try to salvage something from the final third of the NRL season.
He is also fighting to save his job.
The two-time premiership coach has attempted to spark the Titans in recent months by making some big decisions, with little success.
First he sent $1 million forward David Fifita to the Hostplus Cup, where he made one appearance before undergoing ankle surgery.
Last week he dropped reigning Ken Irvine Medallist Alofiana Khan-Pereira to the reserves ahead of the Titans’ loss to the Cowboys.
‘AKP’ scored an NRL-leading 24 tries in 2024 to be crowned the competition’s leading tryscorer. He has scored 53 tries in 53 NRL games.
Now he is languishing in the reserves for the Ipswich Jets, whom he scored a double for against the Brisbane Tigers.
Khan-Pereira deserved to be dropped for his lack of effort against the Eels a fortnight ago, but something has gone wrong for him to fall off a cliff like that.
SPOTTED
The Queensland State of Origin team having dinner at Maroons legend Billy Moore’s restaurant Augello’s in Mooloolaba on Monday night.
SHOOSH
Which Queensland NRL club is allowing a player agent to wield far too much power? And no, we’re not referring to the controversial Isaac Moses.
SHOOSH II
Staff at which club are becoming increasingly concerned about the erratic behaviour of their coach? He blanks them when they say hello and confuses people with mixed messages.
ORIGIN STAR ON THE OUTER
He is the Queensland Origin squad member without a home for 2026.
Dolphins prop Josh Kerr has been shopped to the Broncos as the Redcliffe cult hero looks to continue his career in the NRL next season.
Kerr has been rewarded for his brilliant recent run of form, named as Queensland’s 19th man for the Origin decider against NSW this Wednesday night in Sydney.
Despite his addition to Camp Maroon this week, Kerr remains off-contract at the Dolphins and salary-cap pressures threaten to squeeze him out of Redcliffe.
Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf is keen to keep Kerr but the 29-year-old is exploring the open market as a free agent.
His management have offered his services to the Broncos but it’s understood Brisbane bosses have no plans to make a formal play for the athletic Indigenous All Stars forward.
Kerr has amassed 108 NRL games since his debut for the Dragons in 2019 and has produced some outstanding performances over the past two years for the Dolphins.
Kerr is happy at the Dolphins but made it clear recently he won’t be short-changed as he looks to secure his NRL future.
“We’ve had chats with my manager and missus and that too, I’m very happy and comfortable here. It’s my junior club, I want to see it succeed.
“However, I’ve done the thing in the past where I thought I was playing for love at a club but you learn very quickly it’s a business and they don’t really give a shit.
“There’s a difference between loving a club and wanting to play for it and them having a look at that and taking advantage of that.
“I’m never going to be put in that position ever again and as hard as it could be (to leave) … I want to stay, but I will never do that again.
“I will never be that person that gets taken advantage of by a club ever again, that’s something I’m very strong on.”
BRONCOS GO COLD ON STORM HULK
Storm grand-final prop Tui Kamikamica’s rumoured move to the Broncos has fallen through, opening the door for an English Super League move.
Sport Confidential revealed a fortnight ago that Kamikamica’s manager had offered his services to the Broncos for next season to bolster their front-row stocks following the exit of Martin Taupau.
Broncos coach Michael Maguire was open to the idea and did some due diligence with Brisbane’s recruitment-and-retention team.
But the Broncos have opted not to make an offer for the off-contract prop, who played in last year’s grand final against Penrith and is captain of the Fijian national team.
The Storm are battling salary-cap pressures but have not given up hope of retaining the monstrous 31-year-old, who may have to take a pay cut on his current deal of around $400,000 to stay in Melbourne.
Kamikamica had all-but sewn up a deal with South Sydney but coach Wayne Bennett was forced to abandon his pursuit due to salary-cap constraints.
Warrington coach Sam Burgess is understood to be keen on the hulking Fijian and could win his services if the Storm are unable to come to terms with the 126-game veteran.
KIRA’S COWBOYS COUP
The Cowboys have locked up another boom prospect with Mason Kira receiving a contract upgrade and extension.
The former Queensland under-19s forward has been promoted from the Cowboys’ development roster to a full-time deal in 2026, plus also inking a 12-month extension for the 2027 season.
That keeps Kira away from the clutches of new expansion team Perth Bears, who will join the NRL in 2027 and whose foundation coach Mal Meninga will be on the hunt for 30 players from November 1.
Kira has impressed over the past two seasons with Cowboys feeder clubs Northern Pride and Mackay and is a versatile forward capable of playing second row, lock and prop.
The 103kg rookie is eligible for New Zealand and Queensland and is expected to break into the NRL at the Cowboys over the next 12 to 18 months.
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