LeagueNews.co | Jason Patrick
Darren Lockyer spills the beans on Kevin Walters' Brisbane Broncos departure
Darren Lockyer, the Broncos icon and board member, has finally let the cat out of the bag on why Kevin Walters got the boot as Brisbane Broncos coach.
Walters, who steered the team to the NRL grand final in 2023 but missed the playoffs in his other three seasons at the helm, was shown the door after an independent review of the football department deemed a coaching change necessary.
In a move that the Broncos claimed was a mutual decision, Walters cited the strain the job had put on his family.
But Lockyer, part of the executive team that greenlit the decision, gave more insight into why the club saw fit to give Walters the heave-ho.
According to Lockyer, the Broncos bigwigs were shocked by the team's rapid fall from grace, nosediving to 12th on the ladder in 2024 after their grand final appearance the previous year.
The club simply couldn't stomach missing the finals so dramatically, especially with top-tier talent like Reece Walsh, Payne Haas, Ezra Mam, Patrick Carrigan, Selwyn Cobbo, and Kotoni Staggs on the roster.
It seems the Broncos brass were left with no choice but to make a coaching change to try and steer the ship in the right direction once more.