Clock ticking for Milford to hang on to Brisbane career
BESIEGED Anthony Milford has 10 games to save his Brisbane Broncos career.
Club bosses will decide by mid-June whether to table a new contract for Milford – or point to the Red Hill exits for the only $1 million player in Brisbane’s 33-year history.
Pressure is building on the off-contract Milford to prove he is worth retaining after the embattled playmaker again came under fire for some poor lastplay options in Brisbane’s 35-6 loss to South Sydney last Thursday night.
Broncos coach Kevin Walters said a fortnight ago he wouldn’t be afraid to drop Milford to the Intrust Super Cup and it remains to be seen whether he will swing the axe for Thursday night’s clash against Penrith at Suncorp Stadium.
Either way,
Milford is fast hurtling toward his moment of reckoning at the Broncos.
Walters is one of Milford’s biggest fans but he wants to see more consistency from the 185game veteran and the next 10 weeks will determine whether the coach finally pulls the trigger on his enigmatic playmaker.
Walters is putting the Broncos’ roster under the microscope and Brisbane’s recruitment-andretention committee want to make some firm decisions around the composition of their 2022 squad before June 30.
Milford is one of 12 players off contract at season’s end – skipper Alex Glenn, Xavier Coates, Kotoni Staggs and Tom Dearden are other free agents – and Brisbane is yet to offer him a new deal for next year.
The 26-year-old has attracted interest from two Sydney clubs but is facing a $500,000 pay cut on his next deal.
Milford was hailed as the whizkid who could break Brisbane’s premiership drought when he was handed a four-year, $4 million deal at age 23 in 2017 but the monster deal has been a millstone around his neck. It could now finally sink him. Unless Milford can produce a stunning fightback over the next 10 rounds, the Broncos will look to use Staggs at five-eighth next year alongside either Dearden, Brodie Croft or potential Souths recruit Adam Reynolds at half.