Broncos stand by Walters for 2023
BRISBANE chairman Karl Morris has declared Kevin Walters will not be sacked as the club backs the besieged Broncos coach to spearhead a finals fightback next season.
News Corp can reveal Walters has survived a post-season review after delivering a presentation to chief executive Dave Donaghy addressing Brisbane’s freefall and how he planned to end the longest finals drought in club history.
But while he will return for a third term next season, the Broncos legend is under no illusions he faces a perform-orperish campaign after finishes of 14th and ninth in his first two years in charge.
Walters is off-contract next year and there were fears the 54-year-old could be a casualty of Brisbane’s calamitous lateseason implosion that saw the club crash out of finals for the third successive year.
But Morris insists the Broncos will not hit the panic button by axing a coach who presided over a 13-11 win-loss record this season.
The last Broncos team to miss the finals after winning 13 games was Wayne Bennett’s 1991 squad, convincing Brisbane powerbrokers Walters can break a 16-year title drought.
“We are going to back Kevin,” Morris said. “If you look at things historically, 13 wins would have made the finals most seasons over the past 10 years. We are very disappointed at how the season finished, we can’t sugar-coat that, and it’s hard to rationalise (Brisbane’s poor final month) when you look at the way the team played in the middle of the season.
“There has been some real soul-searching when you lose a few games by 50 points into what went wrong.
“The CEO (Donaghy) has done a top-to-bottom analysis and review, and we have some time now to make some decisions over the next few weeks.
“But we have no issues with Kevvie. We always thought it was going to take numerous years to get us back to where we need to be and we look forward to Kevvie having another crack at it next year.”
Walters will beef-up his football staff next season, with Warrington legend and former Great Britain playmaker Lee Briers to join assistants John Cartwright, Terry Matterson and Matt Ballin.
Walters is under pressure to enact change but has until preseason in November to finalise his football department.