Payne Haas has refused to further explain his decision to walk out on the Broncos ahead of his last game while CEO Dave Donaghy claimed there were “many good things happening” at the embattled club.
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Donaghy fronted the media on Monday morning after a tumultuous week at Red Hill involving departing captain Adam Reynolds and his unsuccessful bid to have a farewell game in front of home fans.
Reynolds initially claimed coach Michael Maguire refused to pick him in last week’s team due to concerns over his fitness before backflipping 24 hours later and saying it was his decision alone to retire immediately.
Reynolds said there was “no rift” between himself and Maguire despite failing to mention the coach in his retirement speech.
The halfback was given an unenthusiastic send-off at Suncorp Stadium last week and fans were stunned when the big screen cut to a KIA sponsor promotion midway through his lap of honour.
Donaghy said the club wanted to make amends for the unprofessional send-off, calling it a “missed opportunity”.
“Sometimes as a sport you don’t get everything right and you don’t get the opportunities to have fairytale finishes,” he said.
“I think early in the week there was a lot of emotion flowing around. I think some of the communication of language could have been much clearer. Adam’s had an opportunity a couple of times during the course of the week to clarify that.
“Thursday was disappointing. We hired Suncorp Stadium and pay a lot of money to do so.
“For big screens to be out for 44 minutes, there was some challenges for the team to put a show back together. Unfortunately, we made some calls that we would love to have back again. I think there’s certainly lessons and learnings in that.”
Donaghy was also asked why Haas was leaving the club but refused to comment further on the decision.
“He’s wanted a change for a number of different reasons. I won’t step outside our conversations. If Payne wants to share them, I’m most happy for him to do so,” Donaghy said.
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