Adam Reynolds has insisted he ‘feels terrible’ about Kevin Walters’ Broncos exit and has added that his side ‘need to take a little bit of ownership.’
Walters parted company with the Broncos by mutual consent last Thursday, with the six-time premiership winner’s three-year spell at the club coming to an end following his side’s indifferent season, finishing 12th in the ladder.
On Tuesday, the Broncos unveiled that former Rabbitohs and Wests Tigers boss Michael Maguire will succeed him.
But speaking to Triple M’s The Rush Hour with Leisel, Liam and Dobbo, Reynolds lifted the lid on the mood inside the Broncos camp following Walters’ departure.
‘Bit of mixed emotions, to be honest,’ Reynolds said to the radio station when asked how he felt about Walters’ departure.
‘I’ve got a really good relationship with Kevvie [Kevin]. I feel terrible about what’s happened. It’s not the news that we all wanted, but that’s above us as players.
‘I’ve got a good relationship with Madge [Maguire] obviously from over the years. But I think as players we need to take a little bit of ownership, put our heads down and work hard throughout the pre-season too.’
On whether he had spoken to Walters, Reynolds said: ‘Briefly. Obviously, I’m very disappointed of how everything has unfolded. But first and foremost, making sure he is OK. I’ve got a good relationship with him, he gave me an opportunity to come up to Brisbane and play for this great club and I’ll be forever grateful and thankful for that.’
After reaching the NRL Grand Final last season, the Broncos have struggled to impress in 2024.
Adam Reynolds (pictured) has insisted he ‘feels terrible’ about Kevin Walters’ Broncos exit
Walters parted company with the club last week following a dismal season at the Broncos
MIchael Maguire (pictured) has taken over from Walters as Brisbane’s new head coach
Their hopes of making the NRL showpiece this season were high after their feats in 2023, but those ambitions dissipated during the middle of the season, after the Queensland side lost six matches on the bounce, between May and July.
It came as the Broncos suffered a spate of injuries to key players, with Reynolds notably being ruled out for 11 games with a torn bicep, while Jesse Arthars was also notably sidelined for eight matches with a broken jaw.
Pressed on whether he thought the Broncos would have turned things around in 2025 if Walters had stayed, Reynolds believed that there were a lot of issues that were beyond the former coach’s control.
‘I had a belief that we were going to be better next year,’ the Broncos captain told Triple M. ‘I think we had a lot of problems that did go wrong, a lot of injuries and other stuff that was out of Kevvie’s control.’
Reynolds had also previously stated that some of the players in the team had been left feeling blindsided upon learning of Walters’ sacking.
But when asked whether he and the team were able to have their say in the end-of-season internal review, he said: ‘There was pretty much everyone in for that internal review. It was all anonymous, so I don’t know what anyone said.
Reynolds (left) said he had a ‘really good relationship with Walters’ and had ‘mixed emotions’ over his exit
He also stressed that he had ‘played some of his best football’ under the departing coach
‘But I was certainly a big supporter of Kev. I liked his coaching style, I thought he was a great coach. I played some of my best football, I believe, under him so sort of mixed emotions about it all.’
Maguire will take over at the club with immediate effect and will look to use his coaching experience having worked with Wigan, the Rabbitohs, the Wests Tigers and New Zealand to catapult the Broncos back to being finals contenders.
Reynolds notably made his NRL debut under Michael Maguire for the Rabbitohs back in 2012 and has fond memories of working with the 50-year-old coach.
The pair would work together in Sydney for five years, winning the premiership in 2014, before Maguire parted company with the club in 2017.
But the Broncos captain expects his team to be in for some tough love during pre-season.
Reynolds added that he was ‘a big supporter of Walters’ (pictured) coaching style’
Reynolds also hailed incoming boss Maguire (pictured) and claimed Brisbane are in for a tough pre-season under him
‘Madge is a winner,’ Reynolds said. ‘He comes in, he demands success straight away and he holds everyone accountable for their actions both on the field and off the field,’ he told the radio station.
‘The boys will get a bit of a shock… but no doubt we need a hard preseason. We obviously didn’t have a good season last year. No matter who the coach was, we needed to bunker down and come together as a group and have a big off-season.’
When pressed on what the Broncos players can expect from pre-season this year, Reynolds insisted: ‘Regardless of the coach, we were in for a tough pre-season. Last year we had a shortened pre-season being all the way in the Grand Final – you come back late. Representative players didn’t join until January and then we had the limited preparation before we went to Las Vegas.
He added: ‘Talking to the performance staff, I knew that we were in for a big one.’
