A gutted Brisbane coach Kevin Walters has blasted his players’ poor attitude and dismal defence in a ‘terrible’ 53-6 defeat to the Eels that has the Broncos’ finals hopes hanging by a thread.
Asked about the performance, Walters’ reply was blunt: “Terrible mate. We didn’t start very well, and finished poorly as well.”
The club’s glaring defensive problems were on full display once again at Suncorp Stadium, and Walters made no attempt to play them down.
“We just need to fix our defence more than anything and our attitude hasn’t been where it needs to be at this time of the year to compete against good sides.”
Asked about the specific defensive woes the team needed to address, Walters was out of ideas. “Not at this stage. I mean, if we knew that, we would have fixed it four weeks ago.
“I’m not going to make any excuses. It just hasn’t been good enough.”
Later, he added: “I don’t have too many answers at the moment to be honest, but we just need to fix our attitude.”
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free During Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Second-rower Kurt Capewell was similarly disappointed at the club’s defensive woes in recent weeks, saying: “We’ve definitely seen it slip in the last few weeks … I just think our defence has been letting us down, our discipline has been letting us down a little bit.
“We’re not completing at a high enough rate, so we’re having to do too much defence and we’re not real good at defence at the moment. It all sort of snowballs, one into the other. We’ve got a fair bit to fix and a week to do that.”
The Broncos not only face the prospect of missing the finals, but would also become the first team in NRL history to be in the top four with six rounds remaining only to miss out on the top eight.
Capewell delivered just one line when asked about the prospect of missing out on the finals: “It would be terrible.”
Match Report: Broncos on ‘life support’ after 113pt fortnight as Eels run riot
Casualty Ward: Brisbane cops brutal TRIPLE blow as two stars fail HIAs, Flegler sent to hospital
Despite the Broncos’ season unravelling, Walters said he was not feeling more pressure than usual, saying: “no, not really.”
But he made clear the players were not the only ones to bear the blame for the club’s slide.
“I take full responsibility, obviously,” he said. “It’s my job to prepare this team and get them ready to play each week. So yeah I take responsibility. I’m not shifting the blame anywhere mate.”
