Brisbane coach Kevin Walters says there is enough talent in the current roster to revive the club’s fortunes without a raid on the NRL player market.
The Broncos finished the season in 12th after the 50-12 loss to Melbourne on Thursday night. They came second and made the grand final in 2023.
Walters was asked after the loss to the Storm whether the roster would look different in 2025.
“Not a whole lot,” Walters said, while reiterating that going to market was not a priority.
“I don't believe we need to. I honestly believe that the talent is inside the building," he said.
“We've just got to get that talent all working together in the right direction. We've done it before and we'll do it again.”
The Broncos lost centre Herbie Farnworth and three top 17 forwards – Kurt Capewell, Tom Flegler and Keenan Palasia – from last year’s grand final side to other clubs.
Three forwards that were recruited this season were Jaiyden Hunt, Jack Gosiewski and Fletcher Baker but none of the trio fired and all were injured at various stages.
The Broncos have held talks with Canberra firebrand Corey Horsburgh for next year. They will likely also bid farewell to forward Kobe Hetherington, who has been given permission to negotiate with other clubs. Winger Corey Oates and prop Martin Taupau have not been offered new contracts.
“We've got enough talent here. We had five guys, five of our starters (worth) $4 million dollars, sitting on the sidelines tonight,” Walters said.
“I’m not sure if anyone realised that, but we need to be better as a group and as a club than what we were tonight.”
Walters will start a season review with staff and players on Monday. The need to go to the market may well be one of the recommendations of that investigation into what went wrong this year.
“So that's what the next week is about … getting some answers and then putting that into practice for next year,” he said.
The Broncos conceded more than 600 points for the season for just the third time in their history, highlighting their defensive frailties.
“It hasn't been there for most of the year really. There wouldn't be too many (games) that we kept under our projected figure for the season,” Walters said.
“So it's definitely an area where we're going to put a lot of work into. We know we've got the talent, and talent comes through with the attack. It’s the mindset with defence where we need to get a whole lot better and that'll be our first port of call.
"We took a lot of steps back this year. I'm just extremely disappointed. I feel for all our fans and our sponsors and everyone involved in the club.
"It's not acceptable what happened this year, but we'll do a full review and get some positive answers and then start working on them."
