Broncos star eyes recall after 287-day lay-off; Dog pushes for debut<\/a><\/p>\nSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 09: Ben Hunt\u2019s extension raised some eyebrow.sSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
In fact, the Broncos should be happy that he\u2019s taking it. They should consider themselves lucky that Ben Hunt wants to continually show up, set a standard for these young guys and play on that much. <\/p>\n
Having him return and signing Dane Gagai is absolutely ideal for them. <\/p>\n
Dane\u2019s a mature, competitive person that has a high training standard and has played at a high level. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s hungry for success. He\u2019s perfect. <\/p>\n
I think it\u2019d be really nice for some of these guys that haven\u2019t had success to see the way that Dane Gagai competes and the professionalism he presents every single day.<\/p>\n
‘Broncos do not need 36 year olds!’ | 01:33<\/p>\n
WHY WALSH IS READY FOR HIS MOMENT<\/p>\n
On a sad note, it was tough to see this be the way Luke Brooks\u2019 2026 season ended.<\/p>\n
He was playing the best rugby league of his career and thriving under Kieran Foran and alongside Jamal Fogarty, who was doing the bulk of the organising and freeing Brooks up to play a simple game that suited his strengths.<\/p>\n
But for similar reasons, I think this now presents a perfect opportunity for Joey Walsh to kickstart his NRL career without as much pressure. <\/p>\n
One strong attribute in his game is his game management, his kicking and his ability to get the teams around the half. I think it\u2019s actually good that the onus and full responsibility is not on him to have to do that with Fogarty alongside him.<\/p>\n
It allows him to start his career by defending well, looking after one edge attacking wise and supporting \u2014 which are all things that Foran mastered in his career. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a very similar role to the one Kieran played with Daly Cherry Evans too. Cherry-Evans kicked the team around and Kieran really had some limited responsibilities and he was able to execute at a really high level. <\/p>\n
Add in the fact Foran only started his NRL career young and it\u2019s invaluable to have that reminder of where the compass needs to be directed from a coach who has been there before. There is no better mentor for Walsh than Foran right now.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now the perfect opportunity for Joey Walsh to kickstart his NRL career.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
WHY YOUNG IS THE MAN FOR DRAGONS<\/p>\n
Moving on to a few coaching situations, let\u2019s start at the Dragons.<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t sound like they are any closer to settling on a long-term replacement for Kyle Flanagan.<\/p>\n
Results under Dean Young haven\u2019t been great on the surface either.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019ve got to look beyond simple wins and losses.<\/p>\n
For example, one thing as a coach that\u2019s really important is being able to attract talent, right? I feel like that in itself, as much as it\u2019s important for Young to get results from the board, the ability to attract players it is a massive box kick. <\/p>\n
That should be taken into consideration when trying to appoint the next coach. <\/p>\n
Scott Drinkwater, Phillip Sami, Luke Metcalf and Connor Watson. It\u2019s quite the impressive list of players who have signed while Young has been interim coach. <\/p>\n
Keaon Koloamatangi is on his way to the Dragons too after signing in January, but there\u2019s been no talk of him backing out of that deal.<\/p>\n
Young has been able to get these players to sign and that\u2019s already one tick that other potential coaches can\u2019t get because they\u2019re not doing the job right now. <\/p>\n
A second string to his bow is the fact that he\u2019s been able to experience different phases at a club. <\/p>\n
Sometimes players move clubs and don\u2019t get to experience different periods within their career. <\/p>\n
They may only experience rebuilds. They may only experience success. <\/p>\n
For those who are lucky enough to only know wins, they may not realise what came beforehand to set up all that success. <\/p>\n
After all, it\u2019s a very different style of play.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more structured.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more reliant upon existing leaders and their style of play. <\/p>\n
I feel that, as a player, he\u2019s been through those different phases and I think that will then help him as a coach. <\/p>\n
Dean Young has done enough to earn the Dragons\u2019 full-time head coaching role.Source: Instagram<\/p>\n
He learned plenty during his playing days too under Nathan Brown. <\/p>\n
That started with the ability to bring emerging young talent through.<\/p>\n
Remember Luke Bailey, Matt Cooper, Mark Gasnier, Ben Creagh, Beau Scott and Ben Hornby among others. <\/p>\n
He understands the different phases a club can go through. Where things are at now and how they need to be coached.<\/p>\n
He also appreciates the need to focus on the skill element of the game. Putting young players in multiple positions to give a well-rounded understanding of the game. <\/p>\n
He knows what these young players need now, and then into the future.<\/p>\n
All in all, I think he\u2019s doing a great job with what he\u2019s got.<\/p>\n
A lot of the changes that he\u2019s been able to implement culturally, such as the different scheduling, have been really important changes.<\/p>\n
I only had dinner with the playing group a few weeks ago before the Knights game.<\/p>\n
They seem really connected. There is a real focus on tradition. <\/p>\n
The club has its own feeling about it. A very Dragons feel. It\u2019s no surprise considering the interim coach.<\/p>\n
But maybe at some point it\u2019ll be time to shed that interim tag.<\/p>\n
Maroons want Slater to stay as coach | 02:33<\/p>\n
THE TOUGH ROSTER REALITY FOR RYLES<\/p>\n
Finally, what do you make of the Eels and Jason Ryles?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a hard one.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t help but wonder whether Ryles would have been the next head coach at the Melbourne Storm. <\/p>\n
He has presented and conducted himself as a coach where there\u2019s a lot of potential there. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s been able to show that he can bring a different edge and style to his game plan.<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s working, it is a perfect combination of both focus on your defence and effort areas, but paired with a real explosive style of attack. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been lucky enough to work at the Knights when Nathan Brown was the coach. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s close to the style he liked to play, particularly in attack. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s different layers of attacking shape, it\u2019s promoting that ball movement. It\u2019s high risk with your attack, but when you\u2019re able to piece the two together with really disciplined and aggressive defence and a high octane style of attack, it\u2019s really exciting to watch. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s even a style of footy that matches how the Roosters played under Brian Smith around 2010 during Ryles\u2019 time at the club.<\/p>\n
You can see what he\u2019s trying to do but unfortunately due to injuries and just depth of squad he just hasn\u2019t been able to build any consistency with what he\u2019s trying to do.<\/p>\n
That is only going to be harder to change too with Perth and PNG coming into the league.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t got that good foundation of players or enough quality depth, it\u2019s hard to just create that out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
At least Mitch Moses is there. Isaiah Iongi is a gun too. It is about getting the experience and depth around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot has gone wrong at the Broncos this year. And if you listen to some people, that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-772853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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