‘He hasn’t murdered anyone’: Broncos legend defends Haas, tips him for captaincy
Broncos legend Corey Parker is adamant young gun Payne Haas should be the club’s next captain despite his recent run in with police.
21-year-old Haas has had a tumultuous time off the field in his young career and his most recent incident eventuated in charges of intimidating police and using offensive language during a drunken night out.
“From working alongside them, Payne Haas comes to mind,” Parker said.
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“He leads every week, his standards at training are high.
“’Payno’ doesn’t talk often, but when he does people listen. They just do. That is off the back of the respect he gets every week on the playing field and more importantly the training paddock.”
Haas was present during former Broncos teammate David Fifita’s Bali arrest in 2019, before being cleared.
He was also banned for four games in 2019 for not co-operating with the NRL Integrity Unit in relation to an incident with his family.
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However parker believes some of the best captains in the game have also had chequered pasts and that hasn’t stopped them from succeeding in the top job.
“Yes, he has had a couple of moments that haven’t shone great on him but haven’t all captains had that? He hasn’t murdered anyone,” Parker said.
“If you want to put things in perspective, Mitchell Pearce captained the Knights last year and he had a past. Johnathan Thurston (arrested in 2010) was one of the great captains and had a past. Paul Gallen (Cronulla) was the same, Justin Hodges, myself. We’ve all had our moments.
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“I’m following Payne into battle. If he says ‘let’s do it’ then I’m following him. He has shown over the last few years ‘this is the way, this is what we’re doing’.
“He shouldn’t be ruled out because of this.”
New coach Kevin Walters wanted to get to know his players before appointing a leader, with incumbent Alex Glenn no certainty to retain the role.
Haas who has only played 41 NRL games would be the most inexperienced captain in the game.
Originally published as‘He hasn’t murdered anyone’: Broncos legend defends Haas, tips him for captaincy
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