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Opinion
Selwyn Cobbo’s comments during an October podcast in regards to the coaching credentials of Broncos mentor Kevin Walters cannot be underestimated.
Despite the player’s subsequent and pathetic back-tracking and comically weak reasoning as to why he made them in the first place, the venom contained in his comments and the obvious ramifications for a coach ‘on watch’ entering the 2023 season are clear.
Walters appears to have question marks from within regarding his abilities as a coach.
At least two players in Brisbane’s 2022 squad were unconvinced that he is the man to lead the team to a new period of success and the failure of the club to discipline Cobbo in the immediate term says all we need to know about the tenuous position in which the coach now finds himself.
Frankly, Walters should walk immediately from his position as head coach of the Brisbane Broncos with dignity and pride intact.
Selwyn Cobbo scores for the PM’s XIII (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Tyson Gamble’s swipe at Walters towards the end of the 2022 season, where he insinuated that halfback Adam Reynolds was somehow more responsible for any success the team was enjoying – before departing the club for a new home in Newcastle – was sour grapes at best and nasty at worst.
Now, Cobbo’s comments suggest something of a pattern of thinking within the playing group and potentially provide an explanation as to the dramatic inconsistency of the Broncos across the course of last season.
Anyone believing that the two sets of comments have come without discussion and consultation with other members of the squad is naïve.
Neither Cobbo nor Gamble appear to have the nous to develop such clear criticisms of the coach on their own, nor are likely to have the courage to take a stance diametrically opposed to those held by other players.
In short, if Gamble and Cobbo’s teammates were all-in on the coaching theories and style of Walters, why on earth would they mount such offensive and stunning attacks against him; attacks destined to paint them poorly in the broader rugby league community?
More likely is a scenario where general discontent reigned in Bronco-land, with 2022 form further suggesting that be the case, and the two players in question the only ones silly enough to publicise the either warranted or unwarranted dissatisfaction with Walters.
Tyson Gamble. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Something is rotten in the state of Red Hill and the club’s inaction when it comes to Cobbo appears to subsequently permit members of a first-grade squad to openly criticise the style and efficiency of their coach.
Cobbo should have been disciplined, firmly and immediately, and forcefully informed it does not matter what he thinks of the coach, his tactics or his approach. As a player paid well to represent the club, a united front is required at all times and his personal views or grievances are not to be aired publicly.
Who knows exactly what has been said behind closed doors over the past few days – perhaps Cobbo has received the bollocking from club officials that he well and truly deserves.
However, the subsequent statement, citing context and poor comedy as reasons for a situation in which Cobbo claims to have been completely misunderstood, does not appear to be in step with a player full of remorse and embarrassed by his comments.
Kevin Walters (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Instead, Walters is the one likely to be feeling completely embarrassed, the club apparently keener to patch things over and set him up for another season of failure, rather than dress down a member of the playing squad who appears to have little understanding of the concept of club.
My mind drifts back to Trent Barrett’s final days at Canterbury, with Phil Gould, the players and extended staff all backing the failing coach until he was rightfully shown the door.
The writing was on the wall and the players were far from happy, yet no one broke ranks and knifed the coach, despite the most appalling of on-field performances.
The Broncos begin season 2023 from a higher base than the Dogs, having missed the finals narrowly and possessing a playing roster capable of doing so this time around.
Yet Walters is not the man to see the season out, no matter his skills, attributes or chances of doing so.
For his own sense of dignity and self-preservation, with the writing on the wall based on obvious questioning by the players and a club reluctant to back him as firmly as they should, Walters should take his clipboard and walk out the door.
On the way out, he should also let the Broncos know exactly what a laughing stock they seem.