‘I’m not being a suck’: Reporters’ WILD TV clash over ‘disgraceful’ Broncos ‘mouthpiece’ claims

Veteran journalists Brent Read and Pete Badel have fired shots at each other in a heated on-air clash centred around reporting of the Broncos’ 2026 campaign described as “disgraceful”.

On NRL360 on Tuesday night, The Courier Mail’s Badel labelled the treatment and coverage surrounding Michael Maguire from Sydney-based reporters as “unfair” and “farcical”.

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Badel is based in Queensland and is the leading reporter when it comes to the Broncos, whose chances of making the finals and defending their 2025 title will end with one more loss.

Then on Wednesday night’s edition of NRL360, host Braith Anasta asked what The Australian’s Read and The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis thought of Badel’s criticism.

“(Badel) has labelled your criticism of ‘Madge’ as disgraceful. He said Sydney journos, so yes, it is you two,” Anasta said.

To which Read replied: “We’ve both been critical of ‘Madge’, and I mean, look at the results. Look where they are on the ladder.

“Look at the whispers that constantly come out of that football club, look at Payne Haas leaving, look at Ben Te’o leaving. How can you ignore that?”

Brisbane currently sit in 13th place on the NRL ladder, breaking an eight-game losing streak with an upset victory over the Panthers in their last outing.

Meanwhile, rumblings have consistently been reported throughout the season that players are disgruntled by Maguire’s coaching methods, which are renowned for being tough and intense.

“How can ‘Bomber’ (Badel) suggest there aren’t any issues there? How can ‘Bomber’ suggest it’s disgraceful analysis of that football club? I’d argue his analysis is disgraceful if you want to go down that path... he’s a mouthpiece for them,” Read said.

But while Carayannis also gave his opinion, the pair were cut off and Anasta revealed “Peter Badel is on the line”. From there, chaos ensued.

Read the full transcript of the fiery confrontation below!

READ: Madge’s mouthpiece is here, beautiful. Good to see you, Bomber.

BADEL: I’ll say this, in relation to what Ready just said about my analysis being disgraceful. The one thing I will say Ready is I’ve actually got the balls to hold the Broncos accountable. I’ve covered them for 20 years. When they sacked Wayne Bennett in 2018, I called for their board to be sacked. I thought they made the wrong call. When Anthony Seibold took the Broncos to the wooden spoon in 2020, I called for Anthony Seibold to be sacked. He was. I’m never afraid to call the club out if I don’t think they’re charting in the right direction. Now, I would say if you’re so vociferous in your criticism of the Broncos, apply those same scathing, judicious standards to the Sydney clubs. Because you throw grenades from a thousand kilometres away in Sydney at the Broncos, you talk about mutinies, you talk about dressing room revolts. Well, all I’m saying is apply those same standards to the Sydney clubs, five of whom are in the bottom half of the competition at the moment, but you don’t call them out.

CARAYANNIS: Bomber, can I ask you one question. Is all okay in Broncos land? Do you think there’s no issue between some of the players and coach Michael Maguire?

BADEL: Well, I’ll say this, MC. Like Ready just talked about the whispers, quantify and qualify the whispers. We all talk about this speculation, there was talk two weeks ago that Xavier Willison wouldn’t sign with Brisbane because he couldn’t cop Madge. He’s now in talks on a three-year, three million dollar extension with the club. Payne Haas has left the club, yes. James Fisher Harris left the Panthers and said it was family reasons, and everyone waved him goodbye and said what a great servant he was for Penrith. Payne Haas says it’s family reasons that he’s going to Sydney, yet apparently he’s a liar, that he’s really off Madge. So why is there a double standard there in the application?

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"Sums up everything wrong with Broncos" | 01:13

READ: You tried to draw a comparison between Brisbane and Parramatta. Did you have Parramatta in your top eight before the season began? I’ll tell you what the answer is no. Brisbane, you had in your top eight, you probably had them winning the comp and you’re trying to draw a line between those two teams. They’ve won the same amount of games this year. Parramatta’s actually had a worse injury record than Brisbane. Yet you’re using Brisbane’s injury record as an excuse, and you’re not allowing Jason Ryles to use it. Yet you yet you regarded Parramatta’s roster as a joke, really. If you consider the you didn’t have them in the top eight before the season began. How can you draw a line between those two teams Bomber?

BADEL: Well, I’ll say two things to that Ready. One, I can draw a line between them if you want, but even I can apply a singular standard. Michael Maguire is one of seven coaches in the history of the game, 116 years, to have won a premiership at more than one club. That’s a very elite club.

READ: That doesn’t mean what he’s doing now...

BADEL: Just wait, just wait...

READ: Just because he’s won a premiership previously, admittedly only months ago, doesn’t mean that things are all going swimmingly now. We’ve seen premiership-winning coaches sacked before. You mentioned Wayne Bennett, he’s won seven comps, he got rissoled. It happens, just because you win a comp doesn’t mean you’re impervious to being sacked.

BADEL: Hold on, well don’t cut me off Ready. You’ve asked me to explain things, I’m going to. Michael Maguire is only one of seven coaches in history to have won multiple premierships at different clubs. He’s won an Origin series, he’s won a Test series, he’s won a premiership at Brisbane in his first season. He broke their 19-year premiership drought. Wayne Bennett came back and couldn’t do it, Anthony Griffin didn’t do it, Ivan Henjak didn’t do it. Madge Maguire does it. So you say it’s not working, it is working and I’ll tell you what is working as well, Ready. What is working is his recruitment. He’s recruited Mitch Barnett, he’s got Dane Gagai. He signed another player we’re about to talk about it in the moment, so I won’t give his name away just yet. But then we go to Parramatta.

READ: Bomber, hold on, hold on, hold on. You’re saying his recruitment’s working, right? Yes, he’s recruited some players. He’s also lost the best forward arguably in the history of rugby league. Payne Haas.

BADEL: Yeah, and I counter that by saying Penrith lost James Fisher Harris, probably a better generational prop at the time than Payne Haas. They’ve lost Jarome Louai, they’ve lost Api Koroisau. Did you guys hammer Penrith? Now let’s go to Parramatta, because you asked me about Parramatta. They’ve got a 39 per cent win record under Jason Ryles. He was seen as this super coach who bypassed the Dragons. He had a choice to go to the Dragons, and he said ‘no, I’m going to pick the right club at the right time’. He identified Parramatta as the club because they were a perceived superpower. They have they talked progression, they’ve had regression. They finished 11th last year with a 10 and 14 record, -76 deferential. This year, they’ve won six games, lost 11, differential -176. On current trends, -300 will be their differential. You’re telling me that’s progression under Jason Ryles?

READ: I just gave you why it wasn’t Bomber. You brought up Brisbane’s injury crisis last night. Yet you ignore Parramatta’s injury crisis. It’s worse than Brisbane’s, and their squad is worse to start with.

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ANASTA: Alright, that’s enough. That was good fun. I enjoyed this, this could be the next No Limit fight card.

READ: We’re good mates, and now you’ve turned us against each other. What are you doing that for?

ANASTA: No wait, boys, can I just say this to finish Braith? We are good mates. I love Ready and we’ll have a beer after this. But Ready, the other point I want to make, Manly were a debacle under Anthony Seibold... they were a failure under Anthony Seibold. You never called at Anthony Seibold once, and he gets sacked after three rounds. You never once criticised him. I have criticised the coaches at the Broncos, and I’ll continue to do so and you know, I’ll say this now, if you think I’m a Madge suck, if Madge misses the finals this year and he misses the finals next year, then they will have grounds to sack him because they’re a glamour club and they deserve a coach that gets them to the top four regularly. So I’m not being a suck to Madge.

READ: You wanted to extend him though Bomber?

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