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Brisbane are putting their faith in Kevin Walters and Parramatta have done likewise with Brad Arthur but what was the rush in either situation?
NRL clubs seems perpetually scared of a coach pulling up stumps and taking their talents elsewhere even though in the vast majority of cases, they rarely switch teams unless they’re pushed out the door.
There have been a few notable examples in recent times of top-line coaches like Ivan Cleary leaving the Wests Tigers for Penrith, Wayne Bennett being lured to Newcastle by Nathan Tinkler’s multimillion-dollar house of cards and Des Hasler bouncing out of Brookvale for Canterbury a few weeks after Manly’s 2011 premiership win.
But for the most part, coaches are a conservative bunch who don’t want to leave what they have set up. They crave the security of their existing role and whether they’ve tasted premiership glory at that club or are still in the process of getting there, they are way more often than not loath to leave for supposedly greener pastures.
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Walters and Arthur are clearly in that category of coaches who believe a title is on the horizon even though the odds of that happening in a 17-team league are long even if the roster is loaded with talent.
Broncos coach Kevin Walters. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
And did either club think their coach was being headhunted elsewhere or even wanted to leave?
It’s good for the coach to have job security but it’s better for them to be on their toes, earning an extension each time.
Walters has a winning record of 44% early in his third season at the helm. Granted, he took over a team which was coming off the wooden spoon after Anthony Seibold’s time at the helm failed dismally so the 14th-placed finish in year one was understandable.
But after adding Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell last year and being in fourth spot with a 12-6 record after Round 19, the 1-5 finish to the season (the only win over a struggling Knights outfit) to plummet to ninth to miss the finals should have been a red flag at Red Hill.
Brisbane have been one of the most impressive teams in the first fortnight of the NRL season but that equates to two weeks of a 24-match campaign.
The Broncos should hold their horses when it comes to locking in Walters until the end of 2025.
This season was supposed to be the last of Seibold’s multimillion-dollar five-year deal. Brisbane did not pay out the remaining three years but forked out a reported seven-figure sum as part of the settlement with Seibold.
At a time when most clubs have sacked coaches more than 12 months out from the end of their contract only to replace them with the next lamb to the slaughter (some teams on multiple occasions), teams should be more circumspect about offering long-term extensions.
That’s not to say Walters won’t lead them back to the finals this year and potentially make them title contenders again in the near future.
They should be 3-0 and remain at the top of the ladder after Saturday night’s home clash with St George Illawarra if they maintain the form which vanquished the premiers at Penrith and the Cowboys last week.
But on the strength of what Walters has achieved in totality as coach thus far, the contract extension seems premature.
The Broncos are this weekend celebrating the 30th anniversary of their premiership win over the Dragons and Walters, who was a five-eighth in that all-conquering 1990s team, said at his captain’s run media conference on Friday that he wants the current side to use the examples of the past to create their own identity.
“It’s an important part of our history but what’s an even more important part of this team right now is they leave a legacy like those teams left,” he said.
“And that’s been the instructions all week about this team and what they can achieve.
“Those times were those players and for myself, it’s now time for this team to really stand up.”
Further north, the Cowboys finalised a new deal for Todd Payten until the end of 2026 – that decision was a no-brainer. He’d taken the team from 15th to a converted try away from a Grand Final appearance last year.
Parramatta announced earlier this week that Arthur’s contract had been extended until the end of 2025 as he embarks on his 10th year in charge at the club.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
With a 52% win rate and last year’s Grand Final appearance on his resume, he’s done a great job in rebuilding the club after Parra had plumbed the depths of two straight wooden spoons in the four years after their unexpected run to the 2009 decider.
He was already under contract until the end of next year but Parramatta have got in early to add another 12 months to the deal.
They are now 0-3 after going down to Manly on Thursday night – the Eels have been competitive in all three matches, losing by narrow margins to top-quality opponents and they face premiers Penrith and South Sydney over the next couple of weeks.
It’s happened many times in the past that when the same voice is giving the players instructions that eventually they stop taking in the message, especially if the team keeps coming up short in the finals.
The 48-year-old will become Parra’s longest-serving coach ahead of someone whose message eventually wore thin after years of near-misses and the end came swiftly in Brian Smith, who resigned mid-season in 2006 after the Eels had romped to the minor premiership before again coming up short in the playoffs.
Again, Arthur could end up leading the Eels back to the finals this year and get the club’s 37-year premiership monkey/gorilla off their back. But was it necessary to re-sign him so early in the season before he came off contract?
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