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Updated March 24, 2026 — 1:23pm,first published 12:55pm
Brisbane Broncos great Ben Te’o is expected to resign from his post as the club’s defensive coach, amid a falling-out with head coach Michael Maguire.
The team is expected to train at 4pm on Tuesday and Te’o is not expected to be there.
The Broncos will then confirm their position on the situation.
Te’o, who played 96 NRL games for the side, had been lauded for injecting a hard edge into the defending champions since arriving at Red Hill.
Te’o and Maguire won a title together when Te’o played under Maguire at South Sydney.
However, they were involved in a heated verbal altercation in the lead-up to the Broncos’ weekend triumph over the Melbourne Storm.
Brisbane’s general manager of football operations, Troy Thomson, held a meeting between the two on Monday in an attempt to restore peace.
At a pre-scheduled media conference, Brisbane forward Ben Talty told reporters he had only just heard the speculation on Tuesday morning.
“I saw it on Instagram this morning, I haven’t read too much into it. I don’t know what’s coming or how true the situation is, but I can’t really comment on it,” Talty said.
“Benny’s a fantastic coach, he’s our defence coach, and we try to pride ourselves on our defence as well as a team.”
Te’o is a popular member of the Broncos’ coaching staff, with edge forward Brendan Piakura lauding him as a key influence on his own breakout 2025 campaign.
The former Queensland Maroons enforcer was also behind the rise of bench enforcer Aublix Tawha, who will face his former Dolphins teammates for the first time in Friday’s Battle of Brisbane.
The altercation between Te’o and Maguire comes while the Broncos are at the centre of an ugly media war with former club legend turned vocal critic Gordon Tallis.
Tensions came to a boil when Tallis voiced his concerns about injured skipper Adam Reynolds flying to Sydney for a media commitment shortly after sustaining a rib injury against Parramatta, with the halfback ultimately missing the 18-14 win against the Storm.
It led to Tallis’ name being removed from an office space at Broncos HQ, replaced by NRLW legend Ali Brigginshaw.
Talty said on Tuesday morning that external noise had no impact on the playing group.
“I don’t try to read too much into the things that are happening online,” Talty said.
“We just focus on what we have, we all know how much we all mean to each other, so everything we hear outside these walls here is not really relevant to us.”
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