Broncos legend Gorden Tallis has slammed the club after his name was wiped from team headquarters, defiantly saying ‘they can’t take away what I did’.
Tallis’s name has been removed from a meeting room at the Broncos’ Red Hill base and replaced with that of NRLW great Ali Brigginshaw – a call that underlines just how toxic relations have become.
Once immortalised among Brisbane’s greats, Tallis has now been stripped from the club’s inner sanctum despite a glittering career that delivered three premierships and saw him captain Queensland and Australia.
Broncos CEO Dave Donaghy confirmed the change on Saturday, positioning it as recognition of Brigginshaw’s impact.
‘Brisbane Broncos recognise the positive contributions and ongoing support of a number of club legends by way of naming various meeting rooms within the Clive Berghofer Centre,’ Donaghy told News Corp.
‘The naming of the Ali Brigginshaw meeting room recognises her outstanding contribution to the Broncos club since the inception of the NRLW program, including leading the Club to four NRLW Premierships.’
Gorden Tallis (pictured) has returned serve to the Broncos after his name was erased from the team’s headquarters
Pictured: The room at Brisbane’s HQ that used to bear the all-time great’s name
The ‘Raging Bull’ has been scraped off and replaced by NRLW great Ali Brigginshaw, who won a premiership with the team last year
Now Tallis has struck back at the move, which occurred after he had a fiery on-air clash with journalist Peter Badel after once again criticising the club and halfback Adam Reynolds.
Tallis has developed a reputation for slamming Broncos coach Michael Maguire, who replaced his good friend Kevin Walters in the top job.
Nicknamed the ‘Raging Bull’, the former enforcer has spent years taking repeated shots at the club – and he wasn’t backing down an inch during a radio interview on Sunday.
‘I’m good, nothing has changed in my life,’ Tallis said on Triple M when asked about the very public slight.
‘They can’t take away my memories, they can’t take away what I did. No one can.
‘I view myself as a fan of the game and I’m paid for my opinion.
‘It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s the fact that I just can’t have an opinion, so what I’m going to do is stop talking about them and they can work it out themselves.
‘It will not change my relationship with the blokes I played with one bit.
Tallis (pictured with former Broncos coach Wayne Bennett in his playing days) was one of the cornerstones of the team as they won three grand finals
Asked about the very public slight on Sunday, Tallis said ‘they can’t take away my memories’
‘For the current players, it doesn’t change my relationship or the way I view them.’
Tallis vowed to keep refusing to be ‘vanilla’ with his media comments and said he would not ‘worry about other opinions that come back at me’.
The Broncos’ decision to delete Tallis – who is one of the club’s most famous and beloved stars – has not gone over well with another legend of the game.
Former Knights, NSW and Kangaroos half Andrew Johns told Channel Nine that the remarks about Reynolds that appear to have led to the shocking move had ‘real merit’.
‘I think it’s really petty,’ Johns said.
‘Gorden is loyal to a fault and some of the things he’s said, we all know he’s backed his great mate [former Broncos coach] Kevin Walters, but that’s Gorden.’
Tallis played 160 games for the Broncos from 1997 to 2004, and was one of the cornerstones of the team as they won premierships in 1997, 1998 and 2000.
