The knives may be out for Anthony Seibold but the Brisbane coach says he is not “looking over his shoulder” following Saturday’s disastrous 30-12 upset by Gold Coast Titans.
Critics were queuing up to sink the slipper into a hapless Broncos after they were booed off Suncorp Stadium.
After trailing 22-0 at halftime before succumbing to a record loss to the lowly Titans.
Seibold is now under enormous pressure after Brisbane’s freefall from fifth to second last since the NRL’s resumption last month.
In a stunning fall from grace for the six-time premiers, Brisbane will be relegated to last on the ladder for the first time since 1999 if Canterbury overcome Wests Tigers on Sunday.
Seibold addressed the Broncos board to detail his plans for a recovery on Friday in what the Brisbane mentor dismissed as a regulation scheduled meeting with club powerbrokers ahead of the Titans loss.
But after Brisbane were humbled by the lowly Titans there is speculation Seibold may be hauled in again, this time with much higher stakes.
However, Seibold – who is contracted to Brisbane until the end of 2022 with a one year option – predicted it would be business as usual ahead of their next round’s clash with Warriors.
“I’m not looking over my shoulder. I’m working as hard as I can. I’ll get up and go in the morning,” he said.
“I think I’m the right person to try and bring this group through.
“If the board thinks otherwise…then they’ll tell me.”
Seibold’s only consolation on a tough night was that Brisbane had bounced back from the same 2-5 season start to make the finals last year.
“The last five weeks have been super challenging,” he said.
“(But) after seven rounds last year we’d won two games and were able to make the playoffs – that’s still our aim.”
NRL great Cooper Cronk wasn’t so convinced, questioning the players’ pride in the jersey on a night when nothing went right for the Broncos.
Humbled by a Titans team that had won just one of their last 17 games, Brisbane were reduced to 11 men on the field in the dying moments after enforcer Matt Lodge went off with a knee injury, winger Corey Oates was sin binned and they ran out of interchanges with 16 minutes left.
Summing up their evening, the sponsors backdrop collapsed and fell on the heads of Broncos players at the post-match press conference.
“There were stages there where some of these highly paid representative players just didn’t have a go or didn’t have an effort willing enough to represent the Broncos jersey,” Cronk said.
“I’m not sure whether Seibold or anybody can handle what is about to come this week because the pressure is mounting.”
Centre and ex-Brisbane skipper Darius Boyd admitted the outside noise would only get louder but was most hurt by their homecrowd’s reaction.
“That’s what hurts my feelings the most, having a home crowd (booing),” he said.
