Broncos legend's brutal response to Matt Lodge plea

Brisbane Broncos legend Gordon Tallis has emphatically shot down an SOS call from one of the NRL club's current stars.

Tallis, like other former players, commentators and league supporters, was scathing of the performance his former side put in against the Sydney Roosters, when they slumped to a record 59-0 defeat.

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The legendary Broncos forward was particularly critical of Brisbane's recruitment team, insisting they have a lot to answer for with regard to the current state of malaise the club finds itself in.

Broncos prop Matt Lodge admitted that his side needed to improve, taking his share of responsibility for the embarrassment suffered at the hands of the Roosters.

"I'll start with myself, my football hasn't been good enough the last couple of weeks and definitely got some work to do and the team hasn't been good enough either," Lodge said.

"The performance we put out was s---, there's no two ways about it city, the club and everyone that's gone before us deserves better.

"There's only one way to pick yourself up and that's every individual go home, have a good look in the mirror and realise how much damage a result like that's cost.

"We've been living through it the last couple of days and it's been relentless the scrutiny that's come from that game."

Responding to the criticism from Tallis, however, Lodge said the Broncos great had never once stepped foot inside the club while he's been there, to lend experience and expertise to the team.

"Gordie's one of the best forwards that's ever played the game so everything he says you've got to take it with a bit of respect," Lodge added.

"But he's never stepped a foot in the building, helped any of the young players, helped the club get better or reached out to say if there's anything he can do to help us become better players.

"We've had plenty of old players come back and help us get better so sometimes you've just got to sit through his criticism.

"He's entitled to that opinion but maybe if he could know we're trying hard to fix it here and there's no excuse of us being young, we've got the talent here and we're going to put the head down and work.

"If he wants to come in and give us a hand and show us some leadership and help us be better players he's more than welcome."

When asked if he would consider taking up Lodge's offer, however, Tallis emphatically shut down the suggestion.

"No... no chance," Tallis told Triple M.

"They've made their bed, they can lie in it."

Lodge says age of squad is no excuse

While some have argued that the lack of experience in the Broncos side was a key factor in the defeat to the Roosters, Lodge said he didn't buy into that theory.

The prop pointed out the Broncos were far more experienced when they suffered their previous record defeat - only four games ago when they lost 58-0 to Parramatta in last year's finals.

Veterans Andrew McCullough and Matt Gillett are gone from that team.

"We had older players in that game, (yet) the result hasn't changed," Lodge said.

"It's just, individuals need to be better. Maybe across the board some people aren't as good as what they think and we got plenty of work to do to be a better team."

Lodge concedes that the Broncos may have bought into the hype of being considered as having the best forwards in the NRL.

"(The media) say, 'They're the best pack in the comp, they're this, they're that.' I just feel sometimes that maybe we would buy into that," he said.

"We haven't ticked any boxes. We haven't achieved anything.

"We haven't won the comps they did in the 90s. The Roosters are the best forward pack in the comp because they've won the premierships.

"We've got a lot of work to do and we've got to put our head down to get better at a lot of things before we start looking into that best pack in the comp."

with AAP