Brisbane NRL captain Alex Glenn has revealed player-driven changes at Red Hill this week, designed to spark the besieged team’s love for the game and unshackle Anthony Milford against Canterbury on Saturday.
Facing a seventh-straight loss, Glenn said coach Anthony Seibold was happy to overhaul his usual, regimented approach and experiment with a looser training structure.
The Broncos were given an NRL exemption for a team golf day on Monday and Friday’s captain’s run was an optional session where some players remained in the rooms to stretch or have ice baths rather than take the field.
And Glenn said the under-fire Milford had been encouraged to “play how he wanted to play”.
“Everyone’s seen the potential Milford can produce; instead of telling Milf how to play footy, let him do his thing,” he said.
“If he wants to play up in front of forwards, ball in hand, give him the ball.
“I’ve played a lot of footy with him, know what brings out the best of him and that’s not to dictate how he plays, it’s just let the leashes off him and let him go and that’s what we wanted to do this week.
“If things don’t go right this weekend we only got ourselves to blame, because we’ve dictated how we wanted to train, how we wanted to play this week.”
Seibold, in the second of a five-year deal, has been forced to field questions about his future at the club because of the Broncos’ horror form since the season’s resumption.
Glenn said the shift wasn’t a coup, rather a sign that Seibold was the man for the job.
“He’s been amazing … it’s very different to the style he’s been coaching the last couple of years, but he understands that a football team doesn’t work just one way,” he said.
“He understands that you’ve got to compromise between staff and players and he took it on board really well.
“When you’ve got a head coach like that, willing to change up his style for the benefit of the team, you know you’re in good hands.”
The sight of Glenn and halfback Brodie Croft crying after last week’s loss to the Warriors was seen as a team reaching breaking point.
Glenn said spirits had improved though, with some players opting to disengage with social media to avoid any extra outside noise.
“We lost why we started playing footy, let pressures get to us … we weren’t having fun at training,” he said.
“When you’re under the pump, doesn’t matter what you do at training, if you care for your mate you’ll turn up and do your job and this week was about getting that self belief and getting that team spirit back.”