Corey Parker: These Broncos can win a premiership but Wests Tigers just need blowing up

They’re flying.

That means nothing in April, with a very long way to go, but it’s exciting for a club with a history of success that’s coming off three years of no finals football. It’s already Brisbane’s best start to a season since 1998 – a premiership year – and with the Raiders and Titans next up, they should go 7-0.

This Broncos side looks nicely balanced. It’s suddenly sprinkled with rep players again. There’s experience and youth. It’s been an intriguing process to arrive at this line-up, with plenty of ins and outs.

The one man they now can’t win a premiership without: Adam Reynolds.

He’s like the older brother keeping all the young kids in line out in the playground. By always taking the right options at halfback, he takes all the pressure off everyone else and they can just focus on their own jobs. Ezra Mam’s development over the past 12 months has been great; it’s been invaluable for him to learn from Reynolds.

The odd-man out, when Reynolds was signed, was Tom Dearden. It was a win-now versus win-later roster decision.

I love Tom Dearden and I think it’s been a terrific move for him going to the Cowboys. He’s quickly stepped up to become a rep player. But at the time those decisions were made, as to what the Broncos wanted at halfback, they were crying out for someone with experience and leadership. Reynolds was available and he was exactly what they needed.

The decision made sense at the time and it remains a good decision in hindsight. As it stands, Reynolds is signed until the end of next season and the Broncos look a genuine chance of winning a premiership during that time with him running the show.

This Broncos forward pack also looks vastly different to what we might have imagined a few years ago, when the likes of David Fifita, Tevita Pangai Jr and Joe Ofahengaue were in the mix alongside Payne Haas, Patty Carrigan and Tom Flegler.

That one is simple salary cap maths; you just can’t keep that many elite talents long-term and it’s hard to argue with Brisbane’s results in terms of who they managed to retain. Payne, Patty and Tommy are all rep players. Patty was once made captain at age 20, which was crazy, but showed that he’ll be more than ready for the job in future.

In the bleak 2019-20 seasons, we got a really good look at the character of the Broncos’ young players. I said publicly back then that while the team was struggling for wins, Payne, Patty and Tommy, plus the likes of Kotoni Staggs, were really getting put through some character-building. A lot of scars were inflicted in those seasons and it was just a matter of who was going to come out stronger on the other side.

Each of them has. Winning and losing are both infectious, but by developing some resilience in those tough years, they’ve helped make winning the prevailing habit again at Brisbane.

Then there’s the return of Reece Walsh after he was briefly lost to the Warriors. He’s been brilliant.

He had moments for New Zealand where he looked dangerous but playing alongside Reynolds, Mam, Staggs, Herbie Farnworth, Selwyn Cobbo and the like, he’s had the opportunity to take things to a whole new level and has done just that. The combinations that he’s forging with Reynolds and Mam will only get better.

Walsh’s acceleration when he gets the ball and his ability to get on the outside shoulder of a defender is what really stands out. He’s always putting the opposition defence under pressure. At the moment, he’s very hard to handle.

*****

Make no mistake, Reece is electric. He’s made a sensational impact on the Broncos.

But it isn’t the flashy stuff he does well that should have been his focus this week. It was the soft try that he let in on his own goal line against Wests Tigers, scored by Jake Simpkin from dummy-half.

That was unacceptable. And that’s how you get better as a player: really pull apart the things that you must improve.

While it didn’t have a bearing on the result this time, those are the little things that you really need to crack down on as a team. If you want to go all the way, those things can’t happen in the big games.

On one hand, the Broncos have started brilliantly. This is a club that’s all about winning premierships and finally there are signs of that being realistic again.

On the other hand, they’ve played just five games. There is a long way to go and all along the journey, you need to eliminate mistakes like the Simpkin try. Those things can be the difference between winning or losing a grand final.

Ever since that incredible defensive display against Penrith in round one, the signs have been much more encouraging that the Broncos have got things right heading into this season. But as we saw last year, you get exposed if shortcuts are taken and defence doesn’t remain your No.1 priority. This is where coach Kevin Walters earns his money: striking the balance between this early success and still being fresh and firing at the end of the season, rather than fizzling out again; especially with a growing number of guys in the mix to play Origin.

Is this success sustainable? Time will tell. The early signs are good.

Round 18 against the Tigers last year was when Brisbane started their slide from fourth spot to missing the finals. I’ve got no doubt that not repeating that poor performance would have been at the forefront of the Broncos’ minds. They went out and made a statement against the Tigers, coming off what was their worst performance of the season so far, against the Dolphins.

Yes, the Broncos are flying. The competition is wide open and they’re making noise about being a serious contender. The swagger is back.

But if you want to win a comp, you must always remember how you got that swagger in the first place: hard work and doing the little things right.

Terrible Wests Tigers need blowing up

A club that doesn’t do the little things right? We saw it at Suncorp Stadium last weekend when the Wests Tigers turned up for a 46-12 loss.

Honestly, it’s time to blow up that club and start again.

They need to stop taking every bullshit little shortcut and stop looking around for excuses. That club, in my opinion, has taken every soft, easy option you can find. All you hear from them is drivel.

Culture is one of the great buzzwords of rugby league and it means many different things to different people. To me, culture boils down to one old saying: the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

Based on what we see on the field, where you’re ultimately judged, Wests Tigers have long accepted a poor standard. It has become part of the club’s DNA. They always take shortcuts where only hard work will do.

They haven’t played finals for more than a decade because the team has never been mentally tough enough to play NRL-standard football week-in, week-out. They haven’t played finals simply because they’ve never been top-eight material.

Luke Brooks, the $1 million halfback, has never played finals football. The only reason they haven’t released him, despite the annual speculation, is because they’d have to pay too much money for him on the way out. They’d be paying him a fortune to play for another club because no other team would be willing to go near his current salary. While he’s far from alone in being a symptom of the Tigers’ problems, he’s the one making the big money.

Honestly, if you’re now investing $1 million per season into a halfback who has made you no better off over the course of a decade … you need something from him and it’s just never happened. Surely it’s time for the Tigers to move on.

Then there’s the other big-money half, Adam Doueihi, shoved into fullback against his will for that one game against Brisbane, now back to five-eighth. What’s going on? It’s a mess.

Seriously, they need to blow the bloody joint up. Plant some new seeds and see what grows. It has to be better than what’s currently there.

All the young guys who have come through the current system, they don’t know any different from constant failure. They don’t know what it’s like to be challenged and to compete at a level where you actually succeed.

That’s not being disrespectful. After more than a decade of no finals football, it’s just the reality.

Personally, I couldn’t think of anything worse. I missed the finals once in 16 seasons; every season, I had a feeling that we were going to win plenty of games, if not the competition. I always felt that we were in the contest. I can’t imagine turning up to training year after year, day after day, with the expectation of losing. Of not knowing anything other than defeat.

That club always seems to be focused on anything other than what they should be worrying about; namely, finally finding some toughness and defensive resilience.

Yet even the coaching staff now … I like Benji Marshall and Tim Sheens, but if you look at their strengths in rugby league, they’re both innovative attack-minded people. Attack is prioritised over defence, just like it’s always been at the Tigers. In Tim’s previous stint as Tigers coach, of course they won that famous 2005 premiership, but they also made the finals just three times in 10 years.

The priority for any team that wants to be consistently successful has to be defence. It has to be. Sure, it sounds boring. Defence doesn’t sell tickets. But guess what: it wins games, and winning is better than losing. Winning premierships is the ultimate, and that only happens with outstanding defence that stands the test of time.

David Furner is there as the Tigers’ defensive coach and he has a huge role to play. But defence should be the No.1 priority for the entire coaching staff: Tim, Benji, Robbie and Dave. And it’s not going to be priority No.1 with the first three guys because they’re attack-based people.

A good current example is Craig Fitzgibbon. All you heard Fitzy talk about from the moment he got his job at the Sharks was defence. It’s all about working hard for your mate and winning that side of the game. That took them to a second-place finish last year.

The Broncos are No.1 in the competition at the moment. Why? Because they’re the No.1 defensive side right now. The second-best defensive team, the Warriors, are coming second. There you have two teams that couldn’t make the finals last year, yet have changed their attitude on a few things, made defence the No.1 priority, and look at them go.

Everyone can attack in the NRL. Defence is what separates the good teams from the bad. Defence decides how many games you win. If you don’t value defence, you’re going nowhere.

That’s the Wests Tigers.

*****

Somehow, the Tigers – last year’s wooden-spooners – have managed to go further backwards even with their big off-season recruits: a triple premiership winner in Apisai Koroisau and some hard-headed forwards in David Klemmer, John Bateman and Isaiah Papalii.

When you go backwards with those types of players, proven guys who should be an asset to any club … oh boy. Five weeks in, there are no signs that they’ve been able to have a positive impact. There was plenty of excitement during pre-season about Wests Tigers turning things around this year and it’s come to nothing.

Their game against the Broncos was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.

Their club is in an enormous amount of trouble. I see a club that places no genuine value on the small efforts that win football games. Without valuing those small efforts, you can never, ever succeed in rugby league.

At its heart, rugby league is a simple game. If there are more Tigers jerseys in the frame than opposition jumpers, good things are going to happen. If a kick goes downfield and there’s a stack of Tigers jerseys swarming the opposition returner, good things are going to happen.

If it’s my job to put pressure on the opposition kicker, that’s what I’ve got to do, every time with no excuses. If I’ve got to tie-in from marker with my A-defender, that’s what I’ve got to do, every time with no excuses. If I’ve got to push up in support of the ball, whether I’m getting it or not, then that’s what I’ve got to do, every time with no excuses.

None of this stuff is happening at Wests Tigers. It’s all individualistic with them and in an elite team sport, that’s just garbage.

These are effort areas and if those areas weren’t enforced by the coaching staff over the pre-season, then I’m sorry, but those big-name recruits came in with no hope of making a genuine difference. You can’t fix a team that is so fundamentally flawed.

You watch the Tigers and occasionally see a bit of something, a kid with some talent. But then you consider that against the big picture and just think, You poor bastard. At the Tigers, young players have never been taught how to be successful. They think they’re going to training and doing everything right, think they’re working hard. But if they went and asked guys who have played in grand finals like Koroisau, Papalii or Bateman, Are we on the right track here? The honest answer: F--k no.

It’ll get to a point with some of those guys, who have had success and are moving towards the back end of their careers, where they will think, You know what – as long as I keep getting paid. I’ll keep working hard but as long as I keep getting paid, that’s all that matters at a place like this.

That’s the only way you get good players to a poor club: pay them a big whack. But you then need to give them something to work with. They would have gone through pre-season thinking they could have an influence and make a difference at the Tigers. But there comes a point where you start to think, I can’t do anything here. This joint is just cooked.

*****

The other glaring thing wrong with Wests Tigers?

We’re forever hearing from all the wrong people, namely the CEO and chairman, and forever hearing the wrong things.

White noise. Shit talk. Garbage. Whatever needs to be said at the time to appease whoever needs to be appeased. And in the background, things you just never want to hear from a football team.

At different stages of the season, you hear about certain teams whingeing that training is too hard. You put a line through those teams immediately. Not one of those whingeing sides has ever won a competition. Not one. It’s not rocket science.

A couple of years ago, noises were coming out of the Broncos that pre-season training was too hard. I threw my hands in the air. Seriously, you might as well walk away at that point. If the players are sooking that training is too hard, walk away.

At Wests Tigers, Michael Maguire was there and training was always too hard. He was punted; a premiership-winning coach at Wigan and South Sydney could only manage to have the Tigers finish ninth, 11th and 13th, and they were running 13th again when he was sacked last year. Ivan Cleary was there prior to that and wanted out, and has since won two premierships at Penrith.

Go and ask the Panthers, Storm and Roosters if training is too hard. Those words don’t exist at those clubs. Craig Bellamy’s solution to everything is hard work and the care factor that comes with it. Melbourne’s aura starts with the fearsome reputation of its pre-season training program. Storm pre-seasons are ridiculous; everyone knows it and every player that lives by it becomes better.

Some players see hard training as torture. Others understand that it’s the coaching staff providing you with what you need to survive an NRL season and have a chance of success.

That’s the difference between poor-to-average clubs and great clubs.

Wests Tigers, in my opinion, are not a club or a team that ever works hard enough.

Honestly, I have nothing whatsoever to do with Wests Tigers and I get frustrated just thinking about it. The way that club conducts itself makes me wild. What is going on in that joint? I can only imagine how their fans feel.

Their CEO, Justin Pascoe, was on the field at Suncorp Stadium last weekend in the tight T-shirt and joggers, tossing a ball around. Mate, seriously, get off the field. Buzz off and look after the front office.

I’ve been around the NRL for 25 years and still, I reckon I could name just a handful of the current club CEOs. Ideally, they’re not people you need to hear much from.

Yet one person I do know is Justin Pascoe, purely because we’re always hearing from him; and it’s rarely anything of value. If I’m a Tigers fan, all I’m thinking is, Get out of my sight and fix my club.

They badly need fixing, Wests Tigers, or the years of no finals football will just keep stacking up. It’s a massive hole they’ve dug for themselves.