Brisbane Broncos coach Kevin Walters has agreed to extend his stay at Red Hill for a further two years, according to the Courier Mail.
The Broncos legend came under heavy criticism last year for the Broncos’ drastic drop from top-four spot mid-season to eventually missing the finals altogether on the final day of the season.
Walters has also been publicly criticised by his own players, Selwyn Cobbo and Tyson Gamble, who both admitted his coaching ability wasn’t up to par.
Considering the Broncos’ poor end to the season and playing just one finals game since 2018, a new contract for Walters has been questioned by many.
SEN’s Ben Davis weighed in on the topic, stating that the Broncos haven’t massively improved under Walters.
“Are they (the Broncos) going to be paying out another coach’s contract in 12 months’ time?” Davis said on SENQ Mornings.
“There are two schools of thought on this, firstly, ‘What are they doing? how can you hand a coach an extension after one of the more dramatic chokes in recent memory, Brisbane lost six of our last seven.’
“Since then, what’s happened? Nothing, nothing’s happened, and there’s no evidence to show they’ve improved, they played one NRL trial with only a handful of first graders and that was a draw.
“What are the board basing this extension on, how can you possibly tell from a single trial that things will be different this that finals will be on the cards.”
Davis proposed an alternative theory to the Walters’ extension, labelling the move as a show of faith from the Broncos board.
“This is the other school of thought… re-signing him now is a massive show of faith, it says, ‘We’ve got you; we back you’,” Davis said.
“You know who sees that? The players, they react to it, it gives them faith that their coach is here for the long haul, and they need to impress him, he’s their boss, he’s their leader, he’s the man for the job.
“There’s no second-guessing, no rumours, no whispering, no innuendo, no looking over your shoulder.
“It’s a smart move, for a club that had seemingly lost its way for a while, stability is the key, you need a stable platform to build on, to flourish and to re-sign Kevvie without a ball being kicked does just that, it’s a genius play in my opinion from the board.”’
The Broncos will head to the Sunshine Coast for the second game of its preseason challenge, facing state-rivals the North Queensland Cowboys on Saturday night.
