New Brisbane CEO Dave Donaghy has hit out at rival clubs stealing the Broncos’ best young talent.
Speaking on his first day on the job at Red Hill, Donaghy described rival clubs as “vultures” following the loss of Reece Walsh to the Warriors and Tom Dearden to the Cowboys.
“My intent is to come in and work with the recruitment and retention team, I do have experience in that space,” Donaghy said on Monday.
“I’ve got a firm grasp on the salary cap. I understand how roster management works.
“There are also some challenges, and it’s not an excuse, some challenges in terms of our regulation and our governance among the game. There’s no reward for development.
“There’s the ability for vultures to swoop in and throw ridiculous amounts of money and steal your best talent.
“Do I have the answers? No I don’t. Is it something on the agenda for the NRL? Yes it will be.
“But certainly, for me, I want to ensure the program is sophisticated enough that we are identifying those players at a younger age, and locking those players down.”
The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis believes Donaghy’s comments were a deflection tactic to attract media attention away from the club’s poor recruitment and retention attempts.
“I think every club’s a vulture, but they go through cycles when they need to swoop,” Carayannis said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“I think it’s a classic deflection there from Dave (Donaghy), his first day on the job and they’re concerned about losing Xavier Coates to Melbourne.
“With everything else that’s gone on I think it’s a deflection from the poor recruitment and retention that the Broncos have gone through in the past half a dozen years.”
It is believed that Coates could commit his future to Melbourne as early as this week.
The Broncos next face the Cowboys on Saturday night in Townsville.