It has been revealed that Broncos stars are “dirty” on senior club management after the officials blamed the players for the sacking of Kevin Walters.
Back in October, the club pushed the narrative that Walters was axed for premiership winner Michael Maguire following player review.
But Brisbane legend Gorden Tallis called out the club for not owning the decision to fire the coach who led them to a grand final just 12 months earlier.
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“That was reverse engineered. The club didn’t want to make the decision and the players are dirty about that,” Tallis said on NRL 360.
“The players that I’ve spoken to are dirty that they got blamed for it. The club should have come out and owned that decision, they shouldn’t have put that on the players.
“That was unfair to put that on the players. There was no meeting, they weren’t sitting around, they weren’t face to face. And that’s the coach’s job.
“Wayne Bennett gets asked who does the reviews and Wayne says ‘I do it’.
“He goes and talks to the players and they have a chat and that’s how you fix things. That’s what men generally do, winners get in groups and talk about it.
“I don’t know what losers do.”
The comments came in the wake of another club great, Allan Langer, delivering a rare public criticism of his beloved Broncos who have lost five of their past six games.
“They are lacking team spirit at the moment,” Langer told The Courier Mail.
“The senior players have to get the group together and work out what is going wrong.
“Because it’s hard for the coaching staff or anyone outside the playing group.
“They have to realise what’s happening out there and what they can do for each other to improve.”
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NRL 360 host Braith Anasta described the comments as “a dagger” from who he described as arguably the club’s greatest player.
“Alf doesn’t like confrontation, he doesn’t like talking about the club, he’s made a point because he loves it so much, so that’s really strong from Alfie,” Tallis said.
“Alf was the one who really built that club and they are disjointed, it doesn’t look like they’re playing together, they’re playing in patches.
“Why aren’t they connected? Why aren’t they digging in? Because they got this new coach and that’s what they were going to do, but they don’t seem to be doing it.”
There is chatter Maguire is training the squad too hard and James Hooper praised the coach’s credentials but believes the situation has the potential to “implode” the club.
“I like Madge and you can’t fluke winning premierships and you can’t fluke winning Origin series or Pacific Nations championships,” Hooper said.
“But there is a lot of noise coming out of the Broncos at the moment and there is a lot of unrest among the playing group.
“The only way he’s going to fix it is by winning games because otherwise I do think it has the potential to really implode.
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“Watching the Broncos play in Brisbane on Sunday, there were stages of the game where they genuinely did look quite fatigued and that’s been a criticism that has followed Madge plenty of places.
“But that’s a premiership-winning roster.”
Anasta took a different view and Tallis emphasised successful teams all have fun.
“I think they’re more mentally fatigued than physically,” he said.
“They just looked like deer in the headlights (last Sunday). Whenever they needed a certain moment or to come up with a certain play, they just looked stone-faced.
“You haven’t seen them smile (lately).”
“You are allowed to enjoy it and all the great sides have a smile on their face,” Tallis responded.
“The Dogs, they enjoy working really hard for each other. The Raiders really enjoy going to the contest.
“Brisbane, it’s like it’s a chore for them at the moment, it’s like everything they do has a price on it.”
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