‘I don’t want to see them leave’: Teammate’s pitch for Kotoni Staggs and Selwyn Cobbo to stay as the Broncos fight off interest from rivals

Broncos winger Jesse Arthars hopes the club can find a way to keep Kotoni Staggs and Selwyn Cobbo beyond 2025 as clubs begin to circle the off-contract pair who could be offered a lot more by rivals if they are enticed to leave Brisbane.

It’s been a successful couple of weeks for new coach Michael Maguire, who has re-signed superstar fullback Reece Walsh and a couple of forwards, while the Broncos have also lured veteran playmaker Ben Hunt back to the club.

But focus now turns to the two outside backs who both debuted with the club but are off contract at the end of the 2025 season.

“I don’t want to see them leave. They’re obviously great mates of mine and they bring a lot of culture to this club as well. ‘Cobbs’ (Cobbo) and ‘Tones’ (Staggs) are two players at the club who we’ll be looking to hold onto,” Arthars said.

“They’ve always been good for this group. Tones is a massive player in this club, and behind the four walls that you guys wouldn’t see, he’s a very big leader.

“He was captain a few times last year and the year before, he’s part of our leadership group and one of the driving forces in changing this culture and trying to make it a better place.”

Maguire has said that he wants to keep the pair who have both played State of Origin footy, while both men have indicated they want to stay.

Salary cap pressure could make it hard to keep both who have shown at different stages how dangerous they can be out wide as genuine game breakers.

While money is an issue off the field, Broncos players are paying the price on the training paddock to make everyone in the squad more accountable for mistakes.

“The boys have just been a bit more accountable for their errors, so if someone drops the ball we’re all down doing 10 push-ups,” Arthars said.

“Everyone’s working really hard. It’s obviously a different training regimen this year, so the boys have been adapting to that over the last couple of weeks.

“When you get a new coach it’s obviously refreshing and he has different ideas, different concepts on how he wants us to play.

“I guess it’s just refreshing to see what ‘Madge’ (Maguire) brings. We’re obviously still learning. It’s still early days, but Madge has been really good so far.”