Broncos icon Gorden Tallis has slammed Brisbane players for their poor attitude to copping a spray from coach Kevin Walters.
Kevin Walters’ men were on the end of a 53-6 thrashing to the Eels on Thursday night and their coach wasn’t happy at all with the players’ attitude and dismal defence.
NRL reporter Ben Dobbin reports that several of the players were ‘upset’ with how Walters spoke to them after the heavy defeat, revealing the 54-year-old labelled them ‘soft’.
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Dobbin said on Triple M: “I don’t understand why players would be upset.
“Kevvie is passionate, he thought that they should have been better, a couple of choice words after the match. Who goes and is upset about the way that they were spoken to?”
The defeat sees Brisbane drop out of the top eight with just one round of NRL footy to go.
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Gorden Tallis, who played 160 games for the Broncos, slammed the players for whingeing saying that they ‘couldn’t have made it in my era.’
He said: “What about Craig Bellamy in the coach’s box every minute? It’s a high-pressure situation where at the moment what do you want them to say? Sir Alex Ferguson kicked the boot at David Beckham in the head.”
Bulldogs legend James Graham agreed with Dobbin’s assessment.
He said: “You’ve got to face the music. You’ve got to face the truth and Kevvie is within his rights to give the team a spray.
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“A minimum of two weeks on the spin, they’ve been embarrassing and they’ve let the team down. They’ve let the town down and you know, they should be playing finals.
“That (calling them soft) is designed to get a response and the response shouldn’t be I’m going to go and whinge about it. The response should be I’m going to stand up next week.”
Tallis then called for Walters to ‘just write a line through’ the players that complained and drop them for the Broncos' vital matchup against the Dragons.
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Graham added: “If someone picks you out and questions your toughness and calls you soft, you know I’m doing, I’m going: ‘You know what? I’m going to prove you wrong. You want to call me soft coach? Watch this’.”
It wasn’t just Tallis who was left fuming at his former club, with fellow Brisbane great Steve Renouf also firing at the players.
He tweeted: “Precious soft privileged knobs! Toughen up boys!”
Topics: Australia, NRL, Rugby League, Brisbane Broncos
Jayden Collins