Brisbane great Gorden Tallis has warned fans will hand back their memberships if Matt Lodge is appointed Broncos captain.
Debate is raging over Lodge after reports claimed the once-troubled prop has emerged as favourite to take over as skipper from Darius Boyd following the club’s embarrassing NRL finals exit.
The idea has also been slammed this week by Glenn Lazarus, Paul Gallen and Billy Slater but Lodge has received support from Broncos legends Wally Lewis and Darren Lockyer.
Club director and former skipper Lockyer even claimed the Broncos could survive the inevitable fallout if they anointed the controversial forward.
But Tallis disagreed, warning that the Broncos would be in serious trouble if Lodge got the nod.
Tallis conceded Lodge had changed his ways since his infamous 2015 New York rampage suggested Brisbane fans had still not forgiven the 24-year-old.
“From all reports he’s turned it around and he’s working hard, and everybody deserves a second chance in life,” Tallis told Fox League’s NRL 360.
“But the word around the street in Brisbane is people will hand back their memberships (if he’s named captain).
“At that club, every captain has represented their country, they’ve held themselves a certain way on and off the field.
“If he (Lodge) is the leader of our club, the club is in trouble.”
Former West Tiger Lodge has turned his life around since the New York assault after being handed a lifeline by the Broncos last year.
But former Brisbane playmaker Ben Ikin said the forward would never be able to move on from the US controversy if handed the captaincy.
“We know what will happen if he’s named captain,” he said.
“This story will keep getting brought up over and over and over.
“I think if the Broncos care for this young man as much as they claim, then perhaps they need to not give him the job, to save him from that kind of pressure, scrutiny, expectation.”
Speculation still won’t go away that coach Anthony Seibold will recommend to the Broncos board that Lodge take over the reins either as outright captain or sharing the role with rookie forward Pat Carrigan.
Despite playing just 19 games in his debut 2019 season, Carrigan is believed to be in the running for a senior role next year either as part of a new-look leadership group or as a co-captain with Lodge.
dayer
Guest
I am a broncos fan and i wont walk out on the broncs. I wont mind lodge but i most prefer to have a Qlder captain the Bronx, give it to Alex Glen or Brody Croft when he joins 2020. :happy: Tallis is just being emotional.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
Thank you for proving my point
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
If you haven’t heard about the things Lodge has done to turn his life around you haven’t been listening.
RogerTA
Roar Rookie
I agree Rellum. I don’t see anyone arguing that David Warner be allowed to captain the ODI team again. Lodge, for mine, is in a similar boat. Plus I doubt having the captaincy given to him will do him any favours.
Albo
Roar Rookie
I’m with you John. I have no issue with Lodge being given a second chance to redeem his footy career and he has made every post a winner at the Broncos. He can lead others by his example of putting his nose to the grindstone. But he is no on field team leader. Its not in his make up for a start. He plays in a position that requires fulltime concentration and effort on himself, rather than managing others. And from a Club perspective it would be a dumb move to put him front and centre as the team captain at this stage for all the reasons Ben Ikin covered last night. The job of captain is a serious issue for the Broncos as they have little on-field leadership in their ranks. The fact they are considering a young fellow like Patrick Carrigan , who is a goer, but has barely started a match this year, shows how badly they need a leader.
Greenacre kiwi
Guest
????don’t do it...get Parker out of retirement
Sideline Eye
Guest
What do you suggest Broncos haters complain about apart from Lodge? 1. Regular Friday night games thus giving them an advantage. 2. Refs helping them particularly at Suncorp i.e. West Tigers last year & Parramatta this year. 3. Langer "coaching" them for the whole game. Who pays the fines. Let me guess. Hasn't helped them much. Long may the GF drought continue.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
What do you suggest Broncos haters will complain about? 1. Their consistent 7 day turnarounds? 2. REferees "assisting them particularly at Suncorp. e.g. West Tigers last year & Parramatta this year? 3. Langer "cheating" by coaching them for 80 minutes while Broncos probably cop the fine. Anyhow it hasn't helped them win a GF for some time. Long may the drought continue.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
Tallis is a flog. The broncos won’t lose fans, that’s ridiculous. People who arent broncos fans will find something else to whinge about for a while that’s about it.
Sideline Eye
Guest
Why not Lodge? Milat is in jail, Manson has passed away. Who else? Despite all the denials from the Broncos I suspect they helped with the "compensation" paid to the victims. At that stage Lodge hadn't renewed his contract so how could he borrow a large amount? Lockyer has too much power at the club for an ex player. Bennett was sent packing. Bunnies still in the mix. Broncos playing the pokies & getting whipped 58-0. Who's smiling now?
kimboinbrisbane
Roar Rookie
You didn’t look very hard, if at all, for reports on what Lodge is doing with his life off the field. See the links below. https://www.broncos.com.au/news/2019/09/26/broncos-lift-spirits-in-bushfire-hit-town/ https://www.broncos.com.au/teams/telstra-premiership/brisbane-broncos/matthew-lodge/ It is disturbing to see that likes of Russell Packer and Jack Wighton who ACTUALLY put people in hospital have been given far more leeway than Lodge. Is he being treated differently because he plays for the Broncos? He did some extremely wrong things, and apart from the civil courts damages he paid, he has rightly paid a very high price career wise - not allowed to play NRL for 2 years and forgoing the income he would have received in those 2 years. Personally, I would not like to see Lodge made captain. I don’t think the Broncos would be doing the right thing by him. It would just increase the pressure to possibly unsustainable levels.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Why would a Broncos member cheer on the Lodgemeister for a couple of years knowing what he did and wait until he was made captain before handing in their badge? They would have demanded they don't sign him in the first place if they were fair dinkum as well cancelled their NRMA insurance policies if the club didn't listen.
Rob
Guest
No fan of Lodge but it is pretty well reported that he has done plenty to turn his life around.
John
Guest
As a Broncos fan, I don't think I would hand back my membership if he was made the captain, I'm just stumped that out of all of our players Lodge is in the mix for captaincy. To me it's a failure in recruitment, retention and leadership training/building when someone with Lodge's past is a front runner for captaincy. I wonder if the media duties that Lodge will have to front up for as the captain will eat away into his mentality and on-field form and end up undoing what he has tried to rectify his past. After Lockyer's handling of Bennett I've lost a lot of respect for his decision making.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Lodge as captain , so much could go wrong, so many heads could fall and so many fans could walk. If the Broncos are so adamant that lodge is way in front of the next contender for the captaincy ,then maybe everyone should front their demons. Invite his victims over ,show them the sights of seqld, then take them to a game. Show them a progress report of Lodge's rehabilitation, and hopefully a meeting with the man himself. It might help everyone along the way.
Nat
Roar Guru
No one is chasing sympathy for his actions. Don't you think it's hypocritical to find what you need to justify your opinion to have Packer come back with the Saints yet spend no time and/or ignore the 100 articles or TV appearances about Lodge?
Rellum
Roar Guru
Lodge seems to have done a lot of effort in reforming himself. I am not sure he has restituted his victims yet. You should not be made to pay for your crime for the rest of your life in most cases BUT major discretion's like his will rule you out of some jobs in life. That is just the fact of it. He should not be the official captain of the club.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
The worst day of his life....that he is completely responsible for. If your looking for sympathy you won't get it from me. Packer at least has taken steps to turn his life around, uni and other programs. I've not heard anything about Lodge. Nothing reported anyway.
Nat
Roar Guru
By your own admission that's a very limited view. If we were all forever judged by the worst day in our life and offered no recognition for recompense the very few of us would have any ability for leadership.
BigGordy73
Roar Rookie
As a Broncos member I went with the club and the whole second chance and rehabilitation story when they signed him and he’d certainly spent plenty of time out of the game. But two years on he still gets booed and people still talk about the incident. In a way I was hoping he might follow Wayne to Souths, and the issue would move to another club. That hasn’t happened and now we have the potential captaincy issue. I can’t say that making him captain is something I am personally comfortable with and it will make me think about my club membership. I’d still support the club but perhaps not financially. It’s a tough one, he did his time, he has paid the victims via the civil suit. How long until all is forgiven and forgotten. I think making him captain is something that Wayne could have done, given his long term history with the Broncos. With Siebold seemingly on a short leash with the fans I think this is a risk he probably shouldn’t be taking with the board and public.