A TOUGH CALL ON TEVITA
WHY THE BRONCOS HAD TO SEND PANGAI JR PACKING
TEVITA Pangai Jr was released by Brisbane because he was erratic, lacking in leadership, and a poor role model for their emerging stars.
As the Canterbury recruit prepares to exact revenge on his old club on Sunday, it can be revealed why Pangai Jr acrimoniously departed Red Hill.
Pangai Jr will go down as one of the most talented, controversial, and confounding figures in the Broncos’ 34-year history.
His rap sheet at Brisbane included a raft of on-field suspensions for high shots and brain snaps; plus off-field scandals headlined by a series of deliberate Covid breaches, including visiting a barber shop owned by bikies, which painted Pangai Jr as a maverick out of control.
But for all his inconsistency, Pangai Jr has the tools to produce performances not unlike former Dally M medallist Jason Taumalolo and beat teams single-handedly.
Broncos coach Kevin Walters is wary of it happening at Accord Stadium this weekend.
“Tevita will be fired up,” Walters said. “When any player comes up against their former club, they always find something a little bit special.
“On his day, I know he can do some damage.”
Walters was among the Broncos’ decision-makers who deemed Pangai Jr surplus to requirements.
One convenient explanation is that Brisbane were sinking deep in dangerous salary-cap waters. Midway through 2019, Pangai Jr had signed a three-year extension worth in excess of $2m. Last season, he was on $675,000, which was due to rise to $725,000 in 2022.
Collectively, Pangai Jr and former Broncos teammate Matt Lodge were set to swallow $1.5m of Brisbane’s salary cap this year.
Brisbane chiefs needed to direct more funds to their playmaking spine, triggering the release of Pangai Jr and Lodge, which freed up $800,000-a-season to lure halfback Adam Reynolds from South Sydney.
“Cap issues were certainly a factor,” Walters said.
“We had to find money to make a play for Adam Reynolds and we had a lot of money tied up in our forwards, so someone had to go.
“Tevita played some good footy here. He is a good person at heart, but sometimes things don’t work out how you like them to and I just felt he needed a change. Tevita has found some new ground at the Bulldogs and I hope he does well there.”
Behind the scenes, Pangai Jr was seen as a polarising character. But while some club insiders could find the NSW Origin hopeful opaque and difficult to read, others, such as Lodge, were fiercely loyal.
His defenders lauded his courage for speaking up during Brisbane’s two years of shambolic performances under former coach Anthony Seibold.
While other teammates zipped their lips, Pangai Jr told Broncos coaches their training methods were sloppy and lacking in detail. He believed the football program required more professionalism to challenge the likes of the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne Storm.
The problem was Pangai Jr failed to himself exhibit those golden standards.
The flashpoint came midway through 2020, when he committed four separate Covid violations, ostensibly thumbing his nose at the NRL and the Broncos. He wined and dined with former Wallabies star
Quade Cooper at Greek and Thai restaurants. After revelations of his bikie-barber shop breach, a Broncos faction wanted to sack him, only to relent at the 11th-hour when board member Darren Lockyer urged the club to give Pangai Jr a second chance.
Broncos chairman Karl Morris reached out to a business associate, former Test star Greg Veivers, the brother-in-law of Wayne Bennett, to help mentor Pangai Jr.
Veivers’ report to the Broncos board was glowing.
With his Broncos pay suspended for three months, Pangai Jr was sent to a garden nursery, working 40 hours a week for $20 an hour.
He was so popular with nursery staff he was invited to their Christmas party.
Before his daily stint shovelling dirt and carrying plants, Pangai Jr trained with former Broncos skipper Corey Parker, who helped him shed 8kg.
“Corey Parker lived three kilometres away from Tevita,” Veivers recalled.
“I asked Corey if he would do me a favour and, in turn, Tevita.
“Corey said, ‘I train every day. I start at 5am in the morning. If he is here, he trains. If he is not, he ain’t training’.
“After the first day, Corey rang me and said, ‘Tevita was here, sitting on the doorstep of my (home) gym waiting for me’.”
Pangai Jr had risen at 4.30am and run 3km to meet with Parker.
“We would go through the forest for five or 10km runs,” Parker recalls.
“Then he would go off to do his work at the nursery. He really enjoyed that side of it and I think it gave Tevita a bit of perspective to what he was doing.
“He went through some dark, dark days.
“He was literally at the crossroads in his career and I needed to get him to realise he could be anything he wanted to be in the game, provided he did it in the right way.”
Ultimately, the administrative winds of change that blew through the Broncos last year would sweep Pangai Jr out into the cold.
Six weeks after the arrival of Broncos CEO Dave Donaghy, Pangai Jr was given permission to negotiate with rivals for an immediate transfer.
Brisbane bosses had tired of Tevita’s slew of suspensions. They were concerned about his preparation for games, and the potential to model poor habits for their emerging crop, such as TC Robati, Payne Haas, Pat Carrigan and Jordan Riki, at a critical stage of their development.
“I was disappointed it didn’t work out with Tevita because he has immense talent,” Broncos chairman Morris said.
“But with talent you have to have the discipline to go with it.
“I was a bit worried about him at the time so we tried to get him as much help as we could, because that’s what the Broncos do.”
Tevita played some good footy here. He is a good person at heart, but sometimes things don’t work out. Kevin Walters on Tevita Pangai Jr