Billy Walters hits out at 'fake' Broncos fans amid backlash over Brisbane's finals reality

Brisbane hooker Billy Walters has offered a defiant take on his side's faint NRL finals hopes and taken aim at 'fake' fans over their criticism of his father and coach, Kevin Walters. Big things were expected of the Broncos in 2024 after they came so close to ending Penrith's premiership stranglehold in last year's grand final. But a series of injuries and poor performances this season have combined to leave Brisbane's season hanging by a thread.

The Broncos are still a mathematical chance of making the finals but would need to win their final three games of the season and hope their closest top-eight rivals slip up. Anything short of qualifying for the playoffs would be considered a failure for a star-studded Brisbane side littered with representative talent but Brisbane No.9 Walters says they are still clinging to hope.

The 10th-placed Broncos (24 points) must win their remaining three games to get to 30 points and potentially move in front of St George Illawarra (28 points) and the Dolphins (26 points), depending how their rivals fare. Brisbane have a far superior for and against to the Dragons so finishing on the same points would be sufficient to play finals. They also play the Dolphins in round 26 but first need to get past Parramatta at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

Making things more difficult for the Broncos is the fact they'll be without injured superstars Payne Haas (foot) and Reece Walsh (hand) for the Eels clash. Tuesday's training suggested Tristan Sailor would take Walsh's spot at fullback, with the return of Selwyn Cobbo on the wing an added bonus. And Walters agreed that while missing the finals had to be viewed as a failure for a club as big as Brisbane, his team had not yet resigned itself to that fate.

"There's always the excuse of injuries but a lot of teams have had a lot of injuries this year and they've still managed to pull wins. I think missing finals is probably a bad year for anyone," he said. "We haven't missed finals yet. We're still a chance mathematically.

"If we keep getting wins we'll just keep building confidence and ... once you get to finals it's a whole new season. We've still got a big game against Parramatta this week. Get that done and the sky's the limit for us. If we sneak into the finals, I definitely feel like we'd be a team that other teams wouldn't want to face."

Kevin Walters facing backlash over Brisbane's poor season

Walters' father and Broncos coach Kevin has copped plenty of backlash for Brisbane's underwhelming season, with some questioning whether he's the right man to take the club forward. If the Broncos fail to make the finals this season it will be the third time in four seasons under the coach that they've missed out.

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The last Brisbane coach to miss finals in three years out of four was Wayne Bennett across the 1988, 1989 and 1991 seasons. The master coach then went on to lead the Broncos to an extraordinary 21 finals series in a row after that lean patch for the proud Brisbane club.

Broncos coach Walters was widely criticised for resting his rep stars during a State of Origin period that coincided with a horror run of six straight defeats that dented their finals hopes. The Brisbane coach has also failed to stamp out a litany or errors that has left his Broncos team with the worst completion rate (76%) in the competition this season, according to NRL stats.

In a passionate defence of his coach though, Walters branded those calling for his father's axing as "fake fans" and insisted the criticism was wide of the mark. "It's pretty red hot from a few, I suppose, fake fans to say Kevvie's not the right man for the job," the Brisbane No.9 said.

"He took this team from a wooden spoon (in 2020) to within five minutes of a grand final (win in 2023) so I think it's pretty red hot to try and turn around after one season with the injuries we've had to say he's not the right man for the job. He's definitely the most passionate Broncos man going around and he knows how to win and it's definitely been on the players this year, not on Kev, that the results haven't come.

"So definitely, he's the right man for the job. It would probably be a bit disheartening if we do win all three of these games and still miss out on the eight, but again that's on us. We dropped too many games during that Origin period and we've got no one else to blame."

with AAP