Brisbane coach Kevin Walters has denied a report he’s agreed to a new contract which essentially allows the Broncos to fire him at any time, on short notice and without a large payout.
Walters’ original two-year contract at Red Hill doesn’t expire for another 12 months, but the report claims that paperwork has been torn up and a new deal tabled which would be an outlier from every other NRL head coach’s contract.
Traditionally NRL clubs contract their coaches and players to a fixed term, over a number of years, to an agreed monetary value. Those contracts can be altered or extended if mutually agreed upon, or cancelled in extreme cases.
Almost all coach sackings result in a payout, often a very hefty one, as happened with Walters’ predecessor, Anthony Seibold, at Brisbane.
The new deal Walters reportedly agreed to would be strictly performance-based, and allow the club to sack him at any time if he failed to meet performance indicators.
On the flipside, the report says Walters would be rewarded financially for positive on-field performances by the NRL team.
The coach, though, took to Triple M radio to deny any such deal has been done, or even offered.
“No, that’s not true,” he said.
“Certainly I’m off contract at the end of (the 2022 season)… I signed a two-year deal and we’re now into the second year.
“That’s as far as I know, unless someone tells me something different. It’s not true.
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“But I’m a realist, and football is about winning. Particularly at the Broncos, if you’re not winning games consistently then you’re got to think, ‘what’s going on?’.”
The Broncos finished 14th on the competition ladder in Walters’ first season in charge. But that was an improvement on the wooden spoon the club sunk to under Seibold the year prior.
Brisbane are desperate to climb the table in 2022, with key signings Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell giving fans hope of a return to form at Red Hill.
“I’ve been given 12 months’ grace last year, we ironed out some of the problems. When you finish last like the Broncos did at the end of the 2020 season you’ve got to be doing a lot of things wrong, and you can’t expect to fix them all overnight, it does take time,” Walters said.
“We’re making some progress, got some great signings coming in… so it’s all looking positive from my end.
“But if you’re not winning footy games then you’ve got to look at what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.”
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