When Anthony Seibold said he'd succeed at the NRL's biggest club by guiding them over 'peakless mountains' using 'tactical periodisation', MIKE COLMAN didn't know what he was on about. Now it's clear the players don't, either
- Anthony Seibold talked about aspirations and background at 2019 NRL launch
- Brisbane coach used terms like 'peakless mountains' and 'tactical periodisation'
- Broncos are best supported and richest club but has had five straight losses
- Players do not understand what their coach was saying as evident on the field
It was the Queensland launch of the 2019 NRL season and a packed auditorium was listening spellbound – if not a little confused - as newly-appointed Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Seibold spoke.
Interviewed on stage by Fox Sports league personality Yvonne Sampson, Seibold was enthusiastically recounting his academic background and outlining his aspirations for the team.
Sitting in the audience I found myself thinking: 'What is this bloke talking about?'
Seibold doesn't sound like a rugby league coach. Not any rugby league coach I've come across in over 30 years of covering the sport anyway. He sounds like an MBA student or a university lecturer – both of which he has been.
He uses terms like 'peakless mountains', 'transferable learning', 'growth mindsets' and 'tactical periodisation'.
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Anthony Seibold has an MBA and uses terms such as 'tactical periodisation' to discuss rugby league (pictured at 2018 Dally M awards with his wife, Holly)
Seibold is under fire after losing five consecutive games (above at a training session on Friday before the team lost to the Gold Coast Titans)
I remember as the interview ended and Seibold left the stage the veteran league writer I was sitting next to growled through the side of his mouth, 'I'd love to see some of the Broncos forwards try to make sense of that'.
It reminded me of the time Alan Jones coached the Balmain Tigers in 1990. The Tigers had a pretty grizzly pack back then, with hard men like Steve 'Blocker' Roach, Kerry Hemsley and Steve Edmed.
Jonesy pulled them all together after the first training run and launched into a typically inspirational speech quoting Winston Churchill.
When he was finished Blocker asked his front row partner Benny Elias, 'Hey Benny, who did this Winston Churchill play for?'
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I can't help thinking that is part of the problem at the Broncos right now as the NRL's biggest, best supported and richest club implodes on the back of five straight losses and a brutal public backlash.
Quite simply, the players just don't seem to understand what the coach is saying and it is reflected in their clueless displays on the field.
At half-time on Saturday night, for the first time ever, the one-time pride of Queensland was booed off the field by their own supporters as they were humiliated by their lowly 'little brother' the Gold Coast Titans.
Such a scenario would have seemed unthinkable just five years ago when the Broncos ran out for the 2015 grand final against the North Queensland Cowboys.
Broncos coach Anthony Seibold looking frustrated during Brisbane Broncos training at Clive Berghofer Field in Brisbane on June 25
The Cowboys won that game in extra time but for most Broncos' fans it was seen as just a minor bump in the road, such was their confidence in the club's culture.
While their last premiership had been back in 2006, since entering the league in 1988 the Broncos have been considered the game's pace-setters on and off the field.
They pioneered private ownership, revolutionised rugby league marketing and promotion and, through star players such as Wally Lewis, Alfie Langer, Darren Lockyer and Gorden Tallis, created one of the strongest sporting brands in the country.
Most importantly as far as parochial Queenslanders are concerned, the Broncos gave them bragging rights against rugby league followers in NSW. At their peak in the mid-1990s and early 2000s the players were gods with a gold pass to every nightclub, bar and film premiere in town
All of which has made the club's spectacular fall from grace such a cause for anguish in league-mad Brisbane. Forget COVID-19, border closures and protests marches, the Broncos losing five in a row leaves them all in the shade
Significantly only 6,200 of the Broncos 35,000 members were in attendance at the Titans match despite 10,000 seats being made available at the club's home ground Suncorp Stadium.
Coach Anthony Seibold talks tactics with his players during a Brisbane Broncos NRL training session on June 16
Under performing big money player Anthony Milford (left) and Broncos coach Anthony Seibold (right) are seen during Brisbane Broncos training on Friday, before the team was humiliated by the Gold Coast Titans
It was the latest low point in a season and a half of them since Seibold took over the reins from club legend Wayne Bennett in a bitter palace coup last year.
In a move that tore the once powerful club down the middle, six-time premiership coach Bennett was sacked and the relatively inexperienced Seibold signed to an unprecedented five-year contract.
Many of the club's faithful felt that if Bennett was to be replaced, it should have been by former Broncos premiership captain and Queensland Origin coach Kevin Walters who had played 242 games for the club.
Instead, they felt, Walters and also Bennett's assistant coach Jason Demetriou had merely been interviewed for appearance sake after Seibold had already been chosen for the job.
Seibold's critics believe the Broncos' board were bedazzled by his marketing buzz-words and 2018 Coach of the Year award which was based on taking a strong and experienced South Sydney side to the semi-finals in his only year as an NRL head coach.
Had they looked closer at his coaching record at Queensland Cup level, his detractors say, the board would have seen that his Mackay Cutters had never reached any heights in the second-tier competition, finishing ninth out of 13 teams both seasons he was in charge.
Coach Anthony Seibold of the Broncos looks dejected as he speaks at a coaches press conference after his team lost the round seven NRL match between the Brisbane Broncos and the Gold Coast Titans at Suncorp Stadium on June 27
Either way, his tenure got off to a bad start with the Broncos losing six of their first eight games, and it has gone downhill from there.
After sneaking into the 2019 finals in eighth position, they were thrashed 58-nil by the Parramatta Eels – a record loss that lasted only until round four of the current season when it was eclipsed by a 59-nil annihilation by the Roosters.
Since then they have gone on to suffer loss after loss in one inept, ill-disciplined display after another on the way to second-last spot on the table.
Seven rounds into the COVID-19 disrupted season the one-time competition heavyweights lead the league in only three categories – highest number of points scored against, worst points differential, and most penalties conceded.
Adding insult to injury as far as the fans are concerned is the impression that the players just don't care. It would appear they are playing, not for the coach or the jersey, but the pay-cheque.
Following their 27-6 round six loss to the Newcastle Knights, senior Broncos Darius Boyd and Corey Oates were seen laughing and joking on the field with their opponents. As one Broncos supporter noted, 'Oates looked like he was working the room at a wedding reception.'
A week later, after the humiliating 30-12 loss to the Titans, it was again Boyd, plus Issac Luke and Jamayne Isaako, sporting broad smiles on their faces as they man-hugged the opposition. Sadly, Oates couldn't join the party – he'd been sent to the sin-bin for abusing the referee minutes earlier.
Seibold's tenure got off to a bad start with the Broncos losing six of their first eight games, and it has gone downhill from there (pictured with some Broncos players at training on June 9)
Following the game Seibold was asked by a reporter if he felt that 'the message' was getting through to the players. He answered it was.
That being the case, he might like to consider changing it, just as he has changed the team over the past 18 months.
After inheriting the team put together by Bennett, he wielded the axe, offloading experienced Test and Origin players James Roberts, Jodi Nikorima and Andrew McCullough to rival sides. All have met with varying amounts of success with their new teams.
At the same time, Seibold's key signing, Melbourne Storm discard Brodie Croft – while trying hard – has failed to gel with his underperforming halves partner Anthony Milford.
Likewise the team's young and precociously talented forwards have not advanced as expected. Many would say they have actually gone backwards over the past season and a half.
By giving Seibold a five-year contract, Broncos power brokers chairman Karl Morris, CEO Paul White and influential board member Darren Lockyer acknowledged that they were playing the long game.
In recent days as the pressure has mounted on Seibold they have steadfastly maintained that he would be given every chance to turn things around.
Which is all very well, except for one thing: the Broncos are a public company with a 69 per cent majority owned by News Corp.
In the end it won't be Morris, White, Lockyer or even the fans who decide how long Anthony Seibold keeps climbing his peakless mountain in pursuit of tactical periodisation.
It will be someone named Murdoch.
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