Reece Walsh has lifted the lid on the tough conversations held in Brisbane's inner sanctum and praised Payne Haas for his forthright critique of the players. Haas, who was the best player on the field in the 30-26 loss to St George Illawarra on Sunday, gave a radio interview to ABC Sport after the match that has been a talking point all week in Brisbane.
"I don't know what to say, we were really poor and it was one of the worst performances I've been a part of," Haas said. "I felt like it was all of us. We had no intent, no energy. I was pretty disappointed. We save it until the last 10 minutes to play our footy. We are all talk at the moment. We keep on saying we are going to do all these important things on the field, but to be honest we are BS-ing each other."
It was the fourth loss in a row for the Broncos and one of their worst in recent years. Haas modestly included himself in the assessment but he ran for 281 meters and made 33 tackles after returning from a six-week injury layoff.
"I think it just shows the leadership we have at the club," fullback Walsh said when asked about the Haas remarks. "There was a point last year where we were going through the same sort of rollercoaster and having the same conversations. It shows the quality of leader Payne is. He doesn't leave any stone unturned and he tells you exactly how it is."
The Broncos, currently in 11th place, had the same kind of internal discussions last year when they were in a similar position and went on to win the title. They host Gold Coast on Saturday night and must find a collective spark within to turn around their season.
"Those are the conversations you want to be having as a playing group," Walsh said. "Obviously it's not ideal to be having them while losing, but if we weren't having them we'd be taking the piss. We've got to respect it, honor it and keep showing up every day and working hard at training."
Walsh still believes the Broncos can repeat last year's late-season charge. "Of course the hunger is there. All you want to do is win premierships and once you've had that feeling, there's nothing that describes it," he said. "I see boys who are hungry and working their backsides off every day at training. We probably just haven't been relaying it onto the field. I know boys are in there right now doing extras, working on their wrestling and doing all those sorts of things. We've just got to keep our heads down, our backsides up and keep going after it."
