‘He should be a lackey for Kevin Walters’: Gorden Tallis slams Brisbane football boss Ben Ikin

Gorden Tallis has waded into the Broncos crisis, claiming Brisbane football director Ben Ikin should be ‘lackey’ to coach Kevin Walters and that he holds a ‘made up title’.

The fallout from Brisbane’s calamitous end to the season continued this week, with The Courier Mail reporting that Ikin was kept at arms length by Walters and frozen out of critical football decisions.

Reports of a broken and disjointed football department came as Walters sacked assistant coach Terry Matterson and accepted the resignation of his brother Steve from his role as football manager.

Former Broncos great Gorden Tallis has defended Brisbane coach Kevin Walters

And Tallis, who played alongside both Ikin and Walters for the Broncos, defended the latter’s right to make unpalatable decisions.

‘The CEOs don’t get sacked – the coach does [if a club doesn’t deliver results],’ Tallis said on Triple M’s Sunday Sin Bin.

‘All these guys […] what are they called, football managers or directors of football? It’s a made-up title. It’s absolutely made up.

‘Basically, the football manager should be a lackey for the head coach unless you are Phil Gould [ the current football supremo at the Bulldogs.] 

Walters is under pressure after the Broncos’ season imploded and Brisbane missed out on the finals for the third consecutive year

The relationship between Broncos director of football Ben Ikin and Walters was frosty

The former Queensland great insisted it was right for Walters to hold more power than Ikin at the club, warning a different dynamic would be detrimental.

‘These guys [other NRL football chiefs] all think they are Phil Gould,’ he said.

‘Let me tell you, Phil Gould’s role [at Canterbury] was made for Phil Gould, there aren’t too many people like him who can go to an organisation and be the boss.’

For his part, Walters acknowledged both him and Ikin needed to ‘be better’ and pledged to improve his communication.

The Broncos coach insists he remains the right man to end the club’s 17-year premiership wait

‘Can things be better with him? Yes, everything in the club can be better. I need to be better myself and Ben needs to be better,’ he told the Courier Mail.

‘I don’t have a major issue with him. I’m very clear on what needs to happen and I’m very clear on wanting to take the club forward.’

Brisbane missed out on finals footy for a third consecutive year, a scenario which would have seemed absurd in Round 19 when they were sitting comfortably in the top four after beating Parramatta.

But the Broncos’ season imploded, as they lost five of their next six games and conceded a combined 113 points in back-to-back defeats at home against Melbourne and Parramatta. 

The Broncos lost five of their last six games as they fell out of the top eight 

The 2022 Broncos became the first Brisbane to win 13 games and miss the finals since Wayne Bennett’s 1991 team, but Walters insisted he remains the right man to end the club’s 17-year wait for a premiership.

‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that,’ he said. ‘You have to believe in your ability and I showed this year I am taking the club forward.

‘We made some progress again this year, much better than last year, and if we continue on that path, the dream will become a reality before we know it.

‘It’s nice to have the backing of the club, but I also have a strong belief in myself and the staff that we can move the club forward.’