Haas wants Webcke 2006 glory for current Broncos

Joel Gould | September 7, 2023

Brisbane prop Payne Haas wants to follow the lead of Shane Webcke and beat Melbourne, the club he nearly joined in 2018, for the first time in an NRL final since 2006.

That is just part one of Haas’s finals project where securing the first premiership for the Broncos in 17 years is his ultimate goal

Ahead of Friday night’s qualifying final against the Storm at Suncorp Stadium, the 23-year-old spoke with club legend Webcke at a Broncos media session. The four-time premiership winner was doing a piece with Haas for Channel Seven, for whom he works.

In his last NRL game, prop Webcke carried Storm defenders on his back late in the 2006 grand final to put Darren Lockyer in position to land a field goal for a 15-8 win.

His message to Haas about what worked in 2006 was pretty simple. Run hard and belt them in defence. That was the gist of it.

Haas recently re-signed with the Broncos until the end of 2026 but back in 2018 he was on the verge of linking with Craig Bellamy’s Storm before former coach Wayne Bennett intervened.

“I was all but nearly done to go to the Storm. My mum and dad loved the Storm but Wayne gave me a call at the last minute before I signed on the dotted line and he swayed me to stay at Brisbane with my family. Lots of credit has to go to Wayne. He twisted my arm to stay,” Haas said.

“Wayne said, ‘I want you to stay here’ and we talked mainly about family. My brother Chace was alive at the time and we talked about Chace. Wayne knows what to say. He was thinking of me too and he cares about his players.

“He has coached lots of greats at the Broncos like Petero Civoniceva, Glenn Lazarus and Shane Webcke, who I looked up to, so to learn off someone like him persuaded me to stay.

“I want a premiership bad, but you have to take it a week at a time in these finals.

“I feel like we can win a comp here, especially with the team we’ve got and the young players coming up.”

While Bennett was the catalyst for Haas signing a five-year extension in 2018, it is current coach Kevin Walters who was integral to him extending his deal this year.

“Kevvie is passionate. He loves the Broncos and you can see that by the way he talks about the Broncos,” Haas said.

“He is like Wayne to be honest. He cares about his players and makes sure we are OK off the field. I just wanted to be a part of it for the next few years.”