No clause for concern: Seibold not fussed over contract conjecture

Broncos coach Anthony Seibold insists there are no performances clauses in his five-year contract that can trigger his sacking if his team does not achieve certain results.

The subject of Seibold’s contract and performance clauses was a hot one at the coach’s media conference on Thursday due to the events of Monday night when CEO Paul White said on Channel Nine’s 100% Footy "to say that there’s no performance measures in Anthony’s contract is certainly not true".

When asked on several occasions about White’s comments, Seibold reiterated he had a five-year deal with no performance measures, and was also more specific.

"I have not got any performance measures that mean if you don't achieve this result, you lose your job," he said.

Seibold said he was not aware of White’s comments on Monday night or the context in which he made them.

Channel Nine reporter Danny Weidler had asked: "Paul, is it bad business not to put a get-out clause in to protect yourselves in such a long term deal?"

After contacting the Broncos, NRL.com understands although asked a direct question at the time, White chose to answer in generalities and meant Seibold’s contract had "performances measures" or KPIs like every contract.

Seibold has been coaching at various levels for 15 years and has seen enough of the NRL, including the Warriors recently dismissing coach Stephen Kearney well before his contract expired, to know that performance measures are sometimes brutal and results based.

"At the end of the day, Paul White or whoever makes the decision, the chairman or our board, if they don't think I'm the right person for the job, I'm man enough to sit down and have a conversation with them," he said.

"There are no performance measures in my contract. You get measured by what we do.

"The big one the public sees is the scoreboard, but there are other things like developing players and creating a vision and putting in a framework that we intend to stick the course with. I wasn't aware of those comments.

"In every contract ... if you aren't performing and if Paul doesn't think I'm doing my job or the board … then that's their right to make a decision in and around that space."

White spoke on Sunday about how he was backing the vision for the club that Seibold pitched in his interview at the end of 2018.

While conceding that losing six games in a row was not part of the plan, he insisted Seibold had to be allowed time to mould a young squad into shape.

Seibold is up for the challenge.

"It's a big project,” he said, before the team trained to prepare for Saturday night’s home clash with Canterbury.

"I hate harping on this, but guys like Tesi [Niu] and Xavier [Coates] are 18-year-old kids.

"We have developed a lot of kids over the last 18 months. We haven't got it right over the last six weeks, no doubt about that.

"I thought we got it right early in the season. We were really good for the first 39 minutes against the Warriors. We were good for a similar period against Manly. We just can't seem to put two good halves together.

"We continue to work hard and make changes where we need to make changes. It's about being more consistent for longer periods of play. That's been the story since we have come back from the COVID break."

Kotoni Staggs returns from a hamstring injury with Herbie Farnworth moving to the wing and Jamayne Isaako dropping out of the line-up.