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Find your Sport Nation frequency"Ugly and boring": Parker's plea to Broncos amid culture crisis
Nicholas Quinlan • May 16th, 2025 7:30 pm
Corey Parker has defended the Brisbane Broncos and coach Michael Maguire despite their recent form.
After a blistering start to the year that saw them sit second on the ladder with a 4-1 record, the Broncos have come back into the pack, now sitting seventh with a 5-5 record.
And with Martin Taupau being caught liking a post on social media that criticised Maguire’s coaching, it has created concerns around the culture at Red Hill.
Despite the dip in the Broncos' form, Parker was steadfast in his opinion that the Broncos are not at panic stations yet.
“I’ll start panicking, Heals, when I see real alarming signs,” Parker said definitively on SENQ’s Breakfast.
“There were periods in that game last week, so the Broncos were up 14-nil. They should have won the game, they should have bit down on the mouthguard, and this is where I’m going, they should have won that game 14-nil.
“Their mindset at the moment is we need to win 30-nil because people think this wonderful attacking team and they are. They’re the second best team in the comp at attacking.
“But sometimes, you’ve got to win games by just doing it ugly and boring.
"And they had an opportunity to do that against the South Sydney Rabbitohs to win 14-nil, but they went away from it.
“I’m not seeing alarming signs where, you know, you go, oh boy, there’s some real concerns here.”
Parker was then quick to defend Maguire, believing that had the 2014 premiership coach been coaching any of the other 16 NRL teams, he would not be under the same pressure as he is now.
“If Madge Maguire was at any other club, coaching in his first year of his three-year tenure and they’re sitting seventh in the comp, is he under pressure?
“Why all of a sudden now are we trying to stir this big pot of there’s a lot of issues going on. And a lot of these issues are led by, we’re hearing whispers; we’re hearing noise.
“If you want to come out and say we’re hearing noise or hearing whispers, put your name to it instead of just making up what could be a whole heap of rubbish.
Brisbane will look to redeem itself after the loss to South Sydney when they play St George Illawarra on Sunday afternoon at Suncorp Stadium.
