2006 premiership winner, Corey Parker has spoken out on the infamous words of current Broncos back, Selwyn Cobbo on the Back of the 135 podcast.
Cobbo's comments on Broncos' head coach, Kevin Walter sent ripples through rugby league when he said, "He (Walters) is a good person and a good bloke but I don't think he's a good coach.”
Parker has since leapt to the defence of Walters via foxsports.com.au, stating: “Selwyn is not the first person that has come out and said it, which is going to be highly frustrating for the coach because he is there at the moment.”
The Broncos were caught in a similar media storm last season when utility Tyson Gamble criticised Walter's coaching ability, claiming that Brisbane captain, Adam Reynolds was the real mastermind behind the Broncos' climb from the bottom of the ladder.
“In saying that, in Kevvie's defence, how many coaches has Selwyn Cobbo had in top grade? One," Parker continued.
“It's disrupting and it's not what you want, but whether he's the best coach or not isn't as relevant as having the playing group on side.
“(Coaching ability) is obviously relevant, but being the head coach of the Brisbane Broncos is very different from any other team, without doubt."
Parker also outlined the major deficiencies he saw in the Broncos side and the corrections they would need to make to return to finals football.
“The reality for the Broncos is and whatever your opinion of Kev is or not - and there's been plenty of talk around that - but priority number one for the Broncos has to be defence,” Parker said.
“Now we all know that they can score points and they've shown that, but that only stands up so many times throughout the season.
“You need to score points but the Broncos certainly lack an underbelly of resilience. They were much better at different stages last year, so much so that they were sitting fourth with six weeks to go, but they didn't play finals.
“That highlights the massive deficiency in and around what they were doing."
The Broncos enter 2023 having not played finals since 2019, a late form slump seeing them concede 179 points in their final 5 games last season, ultimately sliding to 9th on the premiership table.