Andrew Johns has backed the Broncos' decision to let Tom Dearden walk away, saying the whole spine needs to be blown up to make the club successful again.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour, Johns listed four key signing targets to catapult the battling Broncos back into the top four, adding that Wayne Bennett should be brought back into the fold to oversee a complete regeneration.
While a Bennett reunion might be difficult to broker, that plank in the plan pales in comparison to the recruitment mission Johns has given the Broncos with four of the game's brightest talents on his hit list.
"I've made a quick list; I think if they blew up the spine and they bought these four players: Harry Grant at dummy half, Nathan Cleary at halfback, Jarome Luai at five-eighth and Kalyn Ponga at fullback…" Johns said.
Johns admitted with a grin that the salary cap would likely prevent such a star-studded spine from being assembled before adding the caveat that the Broncos have the corporate backing to ease some of the salary cap pressures other clubs feel.
"Look, back in the late 90s they had 15, 16 internationals the way they managed that salary cap. Look, those four players could earn so much in endorsements up in Brisbane," Johns said.
"If they had those four players next year; Harry Grant, Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Kalyn Ponga, they would without doubt be a top four team.
"They're the positions they need, they need to buy some players in the spine, which they are. Quality halves, quality dummy half and then a freak at the back."
For the sake of committing to the hypothetical, Grant is contracted to the Storm until the end of next season and has a further option of one year; Cleary is tied up with the Panthers on a monster deal that doesn't end until 2024; Luai comes off contract that same season; and Ponga is contracted until the end of next season and then has two years worth of options in his favour.
Fair to say it's a long shot to get any one of those four, let alone all of them at once.
In a separate segment of the episode Johns, who is a consultant with the Eels, pleaded with Mitchell Moses to take what he's offered at Parramatta and stay there long-term, even if it means rebuffing a contract north of $1 million-a-season at the Broncos.
If Moses does stay put, which seems to be the most likely scenario, Brisbane will be back at square one as they scramble to land a big fish who can turn around what has become a desperate narrative at Red Hill.
The Broncos tonight face a massive recent reminder of their humbling fall from grace when they clash with a Titans side boasting a red hot David Fifita, who left Brisbane at the end of last season despite being offered a handsome contract to stay.
The Broncos have stood by their decision not to up their offer of around $800,000-a-season when it was blown out of the water by a Titans deal widely reported to be up around the $1.2 million-a-season mark, yet there was a time not that long ago when players the Broncos wanted to keep simply didn't leave.
Now they're opening the cheque book to try to turn the tide but, worryingly, the top-tier players don't even seem willing to take the punt for top dollar.
It's that dilemma above all else that makes Johns' list of targets seem laughable at the moment, which is why his call to get a figurehead like Bennett back could be the circuit-breaker they need.
"I think without a doubt they need to get Wayne Bennett there as a coaching co-ordinator with Kevvie Walters under him and they need to connect with the big end of town at Brisbane," Johns said.
Bennett has a proven track record of recruiting big name players and has confirmed that he'll return to Brisbane at the end of this season.
Even at 71 his retirement seems unthinkable and the master coach is likely to continue either as a coaching co-ordinator or perhaps as the inaugural coach of Brisbane's second team, if that bid is successful as an entrant in 2023.
However, with Craig Bellamy now locked in at the Storm beyond this season, his last as head coach, the Broncos may be forced to extend an olive branch to the man they turned away in an all-or-nothing, and ultimately ill-fated, coronation of Anthony Seibold as the next great NRL coach.
If Johns got his wish, Bennett would be left with a massive job to overhaul an unbalanced roster with the most glaring issue being the halves.
Walters has already all but confirmed that Anthony Milford won't be re-signed, while Dearden is joining the Cowboys and Brodie Croft has failed to grab his chance in first grade.
The exit of Milford will give the Broncos close to $1 million-a-season to play with and Johns said off-contract Sharks star Shaun Johnson could be the next player they make a big play for.
"I think the Broncos will come in big for Shaun Johnson," he told Immortal Behaviour.
Failing that the NRL's off-contract halves are a list of misfits and underperformers headlined by Ash Taylor, Matt Moylan and Corey Norman.
That summary underlines why many good judges are baffled that the Broncos did not even table an offer for Dearden – a player who they initially rated a better chance of being a career NRL halfback than Sam Walker – before he grew frustrated and signed with the Cowboys.
If they have a plan, it's as clear as mud.
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