Kevin Walters has taken a fresh swipe at Broncos bosses over their decision to sack him as coach after the 2024 season, saying he would have liked to be shown more belief and labelling as “garbage” talk of him not being tough enough on the players.
Walters opened up to The Sydney Morning Herald about his ugly Broncos exit at the Australian team hotel ahead of the third and final Ashes Test, in which his team will be vying for a 3-0 series whitewash in Leeds on Sunday morning (AEDT).
The 58-year-old is a Broncos legend, having won five premierships with the club, but Brisbane went from grand finalists in 2023 to missing the top eight in 2024 and Walters was mercilessly shown the door.
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When Walters inherited the job from Anthony Seibold ahead of the 2021 season, he took charge of a team that had collected the wooden spoon in 2020 and was, to quote Walters in his interview with the SMH, “a basket case”.
In October this year, he was in a difficult position where he was happy for his son Billy and beloved club that they’d won the premiership, but at the same time was still jaded by his sacking.
“[I wasn’t] so much let down, but it just would have been nice for them to believe in me a bit more,” Walters told the SMH.
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Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters in the UK. Getty
“They obviously won the premiership this year, but to be honest, I expected them to.
“It was hard [to not think that could have been me], but sometimes in life you get thrown these situations and you have to be strong about it. But they were always going to win the premiership at some stage.
“It’s done now. We just get on with life.
“I’ve got this really strong inner belief in myself and the way that I coach, because I’m different to other coaches. It’s successful, and that’s been proven yet again [in the Ashes].”
Broncos bosses sacked Walters and appointed Michael Maguire, who’s renowned as a hard-task master.
But the notion that Walters isn’t tough on the players he coaches is one he doesn’t take seriously.
“That was garbage … You don’t get to be as successful as I have if you’re soft — as a player, as a coach,” Walters said.
He coached the Broncos in 99 games for a winning percentage of 50.
He reiterated that he wanted to get another crack at coaching at NRL level.
“My priority is to these colours [Australia’s] right now,” Walters said.
“When we get back to Australia, I’ll sit down with [ARL Commission chairman] Peter [V’landys] and [NRL CEO] Andrew [Abdo] and discuss the World Cup next year and whether or not I’d like to be coaching that. After that, who knows what happens?
“I definitely want to get back in the NRL at the right time with the right club. There will be some opportunities.”